A core factor behind the company’s growth is customer service. In practice, when measuring whether or not to buy from a business, 90 percent of Americans use customer service as a deciding factor.
Just for the purpose of closing one help ticket and opening the next, successful customer care is more than passing queries along.
If performed right, with referrals to match, quality customer care can result in improved sales and customer satisfaction. In the end, you can notice that keeping existing clients with proper service is easier than gaining new ones.
It needs striking a compromise between timeliness and consistency of answer to have the degree of service that will help you accomplish the above. 90 percent of consumers say an organization can promptly fix their concerns.
‘Immediately’ corresponds to 10 minutes or fewer for the rest.
You ought to react promptly in a manner that effectively narrows in on the crux of the problem to provide remarkable customer service.
You run the risk of losing both their attention and, more importantly, their respect if you react too slowly or in a way that does not directly fix the customer’s concern.
The support desk applications for Cue Software as a Service (SaaS).
What is the program for the support desk?
Help desk tech helps and the time it takes to solve complaints with a customer service worker. This is achieved by streamlining incoming tickets into one unified place from different platforms. In specific, support desk tech is great for small and big corporations alike.
It provides teams with the following advantages:
- Scalability: With a simple, lower-cost package, you can begin efforts (some are even free to start) and move your way up to more advanced initiatives as the needs of the business expand.
- Easy implementation: Internal set-up is minimal because service desk software is usually housed in the cloud. You will easily spread the technology through relevant departments upon beginning a trial or subscription. In comparison, it’s simple to opt out and move to something else if you’re dissatisfied with the tech option.
- Cost-effectiveness: To run SaaS support desk applications, you don’t require an entire staff, as maintenance work on the backend is normally done by the vendor.
Essential features when choosing Customer Service Help Desk Applications
Every help desk method can differ, with the above advantages in mind.
However, when selecting the best help desk applications for the customer service squad, there are a handful of important features you can pay particular attention to.
- Ticketing Ease: Tickets are how consumer interactions are handled. Make sure it’s simple to build and close tickets, make improvements, and use the necessary internal channels to route tickets. In addition, storing and resurfacing of previous tickets could be seamless for officers.
- Consolidation of tickets from multiple channels: Where do you learn the most from your clients? Be sure that the program you chose provides integrations for linking required support networks, whether it’s live chat, email , social networking, or mobile.
- Self-service option: A knowledge base feature may be useful for providing advice on popular consumer complaints if you choose to speed up the support process. A information base provides a lot of advantages above that. For sales agents searching for enabling materials and marketing departments looking to learn which subjects are most common among consumers, it may act as a content source.
- Common app integrations: There is a distinction between getting and really utilizing help desk assistance apps. Be sure that the vendor you choose provides relevant integrations with other platforms for customer service. By streamlining data around the board, this would help avoid the need for manual changes and entries.
Although the above characteristics are typically key, each industry comes with its own collection of complexities. When vetting the characteristics you think are most relevant, be mindful of the unique needs of your organization.
What’s the Right Support Desk App for SaaS?
Here are a handful of providers of SaaS support desk applications worth vetting.
1. HubSpot
Computer HubSpot Support Desk
The Service Core of HubSpot is a help software provided by HubSpot that is built to build a customer interface that is frictionless. The Conversations Inbox, which puts together all consumer contact platforms (email, live chat, forms, Facebook messenger, and more) into one universal inbox, is one of the key features.
Each interaction can instantly enrich communication and business details stored in the HubSpot CRM, so your support team has contextual knowledge about the customer’s background with your organization.
With live chat, ticketing, team e-mail, calling, and more, you will start using the Support Portal for free and build up the customer service team. Then you should go for one of the paying levels and ramp up the operation as the business expands as you transition from reactive to constructive consumer interaction.
Great with: Aligning teams with distribution, promotion, and operation. Additionally, incorporation is a breeze if you’re still utilizing other HubSpot apps.
HubSpot ‘s main Support Hub features:
- The Conversations inbox contains all of the contact platforms, email inboxes, live chat, forms, Facebook messenger, and more, in a single universal inbox.
- Offers a total support desk to quickly turn chats and emails into tickets that can be arranged, prioritized, and monitored with routing, automation, and monitoring.
- Incorporates a knowledge base in self-service for clients looking to discover answers without referring to an official.
- Provides consumer engagement software to help execute surveys for the team and receive direct customer feedback.
Pros:
- It seamlessly integrates with common free CRM software, such as Zapier, Facebook, Salesforce, and HubSpot (among others).
- A user-friendly gui is provided.
- It provides solutions to help agents be more efficient, to help clients find their own responses, and to assess consumer loyalty.
- Nice ticketing desk support, complaint monitoring, incident control, and portal self-service.
The Cons:
- According to certain reviews, it utilizes a ticketing mechanism that might not be correct for all businesses.
- Some functions are only accessible at charged prices.
Pricing: The Service Center of HubSpot has a freemium bundle, and three paying levels with two agents (billed yearly) beginning at $40 / month.
2. Freshdesk
Support Desk for FreshDesk
Freshdesk, utilized by major names such as HP and Panasonic, is worth referring to the list as one of today’s leading support desk platforms on the industry.
The exclusive gamification feature of Freshdesk, the Freshdesk Arcade, sets the Freshdesk app apart from its rivals. For best support performers, it shows leaderboards and badges.
Perfect for: Supporting external clients (vs. being used as an IT support desk for a company).
Freshdesk ‘s main features:
- Provides support agents with a common mailbox to view and handle tickets from multiple platforms, including social networking, audio , text, and live chat.
- Keeps track of conversations by importance and grouping.
- It connects with famous applications such as MailChimp, Office 365, and Shopify.
- Facilitates versatility for sales representatives who will need to make consumer requests on their mobile devices through their app.
Pros:
- Incentivizes agents with its gamification function to offer high-quality customer support.
- For small companies willing to trial the commodity, it provides a free tier.
The Cons:
- Limits the main functionality to just the highest-priced premium tier (e.g. a chatbot and social signals).
Pricing: For unrestricted agents with restricted functionality, Freshdesk is accessible. When paid monthly, their regular assistance begins at $15 per agent per month.
3. JitBit
Computer JitBit Support Desk
Trusted by thousands of enterprises, JitBit is a versatile automation platform for help desks with an outstanding email-first customer service strategy.
Although email is their key priority, they also have all sorts of SaaS help, such as a knowledge base, live chat, integrations, and chatbots. Their tool is cloud-hosted and set up easily. It is also inexpensive and connects with many of the common Dropbox, Slack, and Dropbox integrations you need.
Best for: Enterprise-level market startups.
JitBit ‘s Main Features:
- It provides a squad mailbox with advanced scanning and monitoring tools to handle the ticket list.
- Has a “Ideas Portal” where innovative features can be proposed and voted on by consumers.
- It provides a handheld support desk for iOS and Android mobile applications.
- Automation triggers are given to submit automated responses, grant tickets, and set due dates.
Pros:
- A cloud-hosted infrastructure that can be ready in less than a minute is really fast and simple to set up.
- Their built-in webhooks and API have powerful functionality for integration. They also connect to Zapier, which allows 500 + additional integrations simpler.
- With anti-spam, deduction, and anti-flood defense, good email functionality and protections.
The Cons:
- On their Freelancer or Startup Plans, functionality such as downloadable copies, your own domain, and hiding their message “Driven by JitBit” are not accessible.
Costing:
The Freelancer plan of JitBit (for 1 user) is $29/month; its Business plan (for 4 users) is $69/month and incorporates its smartphone app; the Business plan (for 7 users) is $129/month and provides your own domain and downloadable backups; the Enterprise plan (for 9 users/$29 per additional agent) is $249/month and introduces a CDN, covers the text ‘Driven by JitBit’ and offers expedited assistance and enforcement with HIPAA.
4. HelpDesk
Home Page for HelpDesk
The key sales points of HelpDesk are the simplicity of use and scalability, providing three tiered plans for increasing enterprises.
What sets HelpDesk apart is the platform ‘s comprehensive offers. HelpDesk will help the team to be more successful and make use of some of the other technologies you are currently utilizing in the software stack, thanks to automation and development tools.
Best for: Enterprise-level market startups.
HelpDesk ‘s main features:
- This provides a collaborative inbox that enables ticket lists and community tickets to be generated based on predefined filters.
- Establish business positions (for structure) and communities to coordinate their workflows with customer service agents.
- Utilizes workflow and omnichannel help (with a proportion of canned answers and automatic tasks).
- It combines with common applications, including LiveChat, HubSpot, and Zapier.
Pros:
- It provides an easy-to-use and user-friendly gui.
- Gives exceptional client service on-site.
- Good tech for customer support that can handle customer experiences and establish connections with consumers.
The Cons:
- Includes very minimal Starter plan functionality.
- There are only three plans, each with distinct characteristics for small , medium, and enterprise-level teams.
- It incorporates automation capabilities that are not as sophisticated as those supported by other tech applications for the support desk.
Pricing: The HelpDesk Starter Package (best for basic email management) starts at $4 per agent per month; the Team Plan starts at $19 per agent per month with extended help desk-specific functionality.
5. Acquire.io
Cover picture of Acquire.io
Trusted by hundreds of organizations around the globe, Acquire is a platform for consumer engagement that provides tools for support desks.
Their point of sale is their “Unified Consumer View” that helps you to envision and interact in one dashboard for your clients, no matter where they are on the customer path. To escape the disjointed existence of conventional support desks, all contact lives in one location.
Perfect with: businesses searching for a full approach for consumer interaction, like a service desk, live messaging, chatbots, video chat , email, and analytics.
Main characteristics of Acquire:
- In order to get a complete view of each client, a single agent interface where you can move between live chat, chatbots, analytics, and consumer timelines.
- Help via live chat, chatbots, and video chat in real-time.
- One central mailbox for all requests for email assistance.
- For no-download co-browsing, connect for clients on-screen.
Pros:
- Integrates with a vast collection of common apps for marketing.
- When they are stuck, co-browsing lets agents communicate with consumer browsers.
- With no coding needed, automatic chatbots can be set up.
- With video chat, you may respond to face-to – face questions.
- Display the past of consumer timelines and give them emails on one dashboard.
- They feature a complete tech knowledge base that enables you to write support articles and helpful material.
The Cons:
- They are still a young instrument, so for more advanced features there is some space to develop, but they cover a ton of bases.
Pricing: Their pricing begins at between $60 and $250 a month (billed annually) and, since their pricing model is extremely personalized, you need to contact their staff.
6. HappyFox
Home Page for HappyFox
As the recipient of the “Best help desk software” award from PC Magazine for the past four years, HappyFox is one of the greatest software solutions for help desks out there. It’s thorough and quite easy to use.
What distinguishes HappyFox is the fact that you can use it to respond to clients through virtually every customer support medium, one centralized location is to handle the operation.
It combines several employees of different customer-facing agencies, including Salesforce, Slack, Jira, and Magento, with common software.
Perfect with: businesses with a number of divisions that need to have support desk facilities, including HR, client support, ads, and support desk teams for IT.
HappyFox ‘s Main Features:
- Offers a centralized ticketing mechanism that embraces text, social networking (such as translating private Facebook messages into tickets) and speech (such as translating call transcripts into tickets).
- A information base for self-service help is included.
- Convert your live Happyfox Chat chat discussions into tickets.
Pros:
- It provides a user-friendly gui.
- Integrates workflow capabilities that decrease repetitive demands.
- Automate ticket processing and streamline it in real-time.
- Addresses popular inquiries with resources for self-service.
The Cons:
- With its rule-based automation, some role capabilities are restricted.
- According to PC Magazine, it enables workers to be delegated to just a specific position.
- Offers higher prices without free tier services available than its rivals.
Pricing: There are two ways of pricing offered by HappyFox. There’s a rate beginning at $24 per agent per month for small to medium-sized teams and another for bigger teams (with limitless agents) beginning at $1049 per month.
Help from ZenDesk
ZenDesk Support used to serve exclusively as a separate product with the help desk features. ZenDesk Suite, however, is now usable, with ZenDesk Support, Guide, Speak, and Chat combined into one framework.
Therefore, the idea that you can use it in combination with these complimentary methods is what sets Zendesk Help apart. While the user interface doesn’t get a lot of points, it makes it worth having, independent of the technologies behind the platform.
Good for: Small and medium-sized companies trying and centralize the activities of promotion and assistance.
Main characteristics of ZenDesk Support:
- Integrates tickets through the web and tablet seamlessly from separate platforms.
- Provides different service ticket types for agents employed to better represent the individual interests of a client.
- This involves business automation rules that activate automated workflows based on adjustments to the original ticket.
- Using artificial intelligence ( AI) and machine learning recommendations for fresh content concepts and improvements to old posts, it integrates automated self-service help.
Pros:
- Effective pricing is offered.
- Integrates as one of the most popular support desk solutions with over 500 applications and services.
- Customizable software is good for contact centers and tends to enhance the experience of customers while addressing problems.
The Cons:
- Compared to other support desk applications (e.g. Freshdesk), it has a smaller user experience.
Pricing: ZenDesk Help is offered as a separate option, beginning at $5 per agent per month; pricing begins at $89 per agent per month as part of the ZenDesk Suite.
8. SolarWinds Service Desk (formerly Samanage)
Support Desk by SolarWinds
As one of the best IT help desk platforms available, SolarWinds Service Desk (formerly known as Samanage) is consistently recognized.
The fact that it serves IT teams really well is what sets SolarWinds Service Desk apart. It will also act as a central repository for team information and other substantial properties, in addition to what it can do to help IT teams best serve clients (both internal and external to an organization).
Best for: IT teams, but also across other departments can be used.
SolarWinds Support Desk Main Features:
- Enables teams with an IT-specific function named Configuration Management Database Software (CMDB) to keep track on the application architecture within their enterprise.
- This provides an internal platform for employee service and maintenance of the knowledgebase.
- Incores functionality for IT wealth protection.
Pros:
- It has a more comprehensive range of monitoring features than its rivals.
- It contains the control functions of the Information Technology Architecture Library (ITIL).
- Nice IT operation and functionality for IT support.
The Cons:
- It functions best as an internal support desk for a business, rather than an external, customer-facing option.
- It includes too many features that, based on the size and specific needs of your company, can be both confusing and unnecessary.
Pricing: The Service Desk of SolarWinds offers plans starting at $15 per month per agent.
Note: Zoho, FreshService, ManageEngine, ServiceDesk Plus, SysAid, and Jira Service Desk are among the resources not yet checked for this list.
Executive Summary
Each enterprise is distinct, with departments and procedures that are unique to the consumer journey. For one business, what works can fall flat for another.
Do the homework and spend time upfront in vetting interesting platforms. You want apps that will evolve both in the short and long term alongside your business model, and the best way to do that is to work with a platform team that you want to use.
Put in different categories of users and seek input from those responsible for the development and management of the tool. From there, with both the team and clients, you will work on closing down on the optimal approach.