Step-by-step Guide To Choose The Best Help Desk Software

Help desk software solutions are now at the forefront as industries embrace customer centricity. As customer experience management continues to evolve, so does the software facilitating it.

From a simple ticketing system, the help desk has now become an all-in-one solution for addressing customer issues. The benefits of help desk software make it attractive to organizations aiming to attract more customers or build a loyal customer base.

If you want to leverage a help desk software but are unsure how to proceed, fret not. In this article, we will discuss three key steps that will lead you to the right platform. 

1. Know your business requirements for the customer support team

Knowing what kind of help desk solution your organization requires to handle customer queries and provide great customer service is the first and most important step in choosing a help desk ticketing system. In this section, we list down the most common business software requirements to help you ponder yours. 

Ease of setup

Let’s say you followed this guide and finally decided on a help desk software system. Now, it’s time to implement the solution. There are chances of this process becoming more time-consuming and costly than it needs to be due to lack of preparation. So, before you even come to that point, you’d would want to ask yourself the following:

• Does the help desk tool come with proper documentation?
• Do you need to have an IT team to get the software up and running?
• How long will the actual installation take?
• Is the software easy to update or uninstall as well?

Ease of use

After installing your help desk tool, it’s time to introduce it to your team. Ensuring that the product you have chosen is user-friendly can help boost company productivity from the onset. Here is a list of user-friendly qualities you should check your essential help desk features for:

• Clean and organized interface
• Straightforward navigation 
• Easy to troubleshoot
• Mobility support
• Top-notch customer support

Cost-effectiveness

Budget is a huge factor for many organizations when choosing a help desk tool, or any application for that matter. This is especially true if you’re a small or medium-sized business. Even if you’re one of those companies that will increase IT spending this year, it’s still important to choose a solution with minimal cost and maximum returns. 

You might want to check the best help desk system vendors that offer free versions of their products first. Note that it’s important that your choice gives you the option to scale to paid versions, too. In this way, you can meet the growing demands of your business without needing to shift to another vendor.

Multi-channel support

Customers can reach out to ask for support from various channels, including email, live chat, social media, online tickets, SMS, and phone. You will need to be able to respond promptly to all these requests via your help desk software platform. By acquiring a product with multi-channel support, you are: 

• Giving your customers options to reach out to you; 
• Ensuring that no request or query goes unanswered 
• Empowering your support agents with a centralized communication system.

Source: Netomi

Integrations

At the very least, you should check your help desk software’s compatibility with the solutions you are already using. Ensuring connectivity between these systems will help you work seamlessly across them. Some important software programs that should connect with your help desk software solution are CRM software, communication software, and project management software.

You can also check your help desk software for an application programming interface or API. This interface will prove valuable if you are using a custom solution.

Customizability

In order for your help desk solution to match your exact requirements, it needs to be customizable. Keep in mind, though, that there are certain questions you need to ask a vendor offering a customizable solution. Here are some:

• Can end-users customize the solution?
• To what extent can you customize the software?
• Is technical assistance necessary for customization?
• Will upgrades overwrite customizations?

Security

Your help desk solution would contain sensitive information either you or your clients own. In order to protect yourself from information security threats, you’ll need to make sure your software provider is following compliance regulations. You can also look for the following security features in your search for the right help desk software: 

• Access control
• User privilege parameters
• Single sign-on
• Authentication options
• Audits

2. Learn about the different types of help desk software

The next step to knowing your business requirements is learning about the four main types of help desk software. In this section, we’ll discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each to help you select the best help desk software type for your organization.

Web-based Help Desk Software

A web-based help desk software, also known as a cloud-hosted help desk or software-as-a-service (SaaS) desk tool, operates much like a website. It is hosted on the vendor’s server and rented out to organizations on a subscription basis. Your team can access it using a browser or a locally-installed desktop or mobile application. 

The number one benefit of a web-based help desk is you can access your data anytime, anywhere, using any device. It is also much more affordable compared to other types of customer service software because you don’t need to pay for installation or maintenance. 

Typically, web-based help desk support solutions also come with other benefits such as technical support and data backup. All these contribute to it being popular among small and medium-sized businesses.

With the rise of SaaS, more large enterprises are also expected to acquire this type of service desk software. They can benefit from features such as unlimited users and tickets, comprehensive reporting and analytics, and powerful integration capabilities, among others.

Although it comes with a number of benefits, it has its own disadvantages as well. The first thing that comes to mind is the associated data security risks. Data breaches can still happen despite the help desk vendors intensive security precautions. 

Likewise, technical glitches can occur, and when they do, you have no other option but to wait for the vendor to resolve the issue. You are also automatically reliant on internet connectivity when you choose a web-based help desk software.

On-premise Help Desk Software

On-premise help desk software, otherwise known as self-hosted help desk, is a licensed proprietary software hosted and owned by a business. The transaction usually involves a one-time payment. 

After the transaction, the buyer will be responsible for installing the software and maintaining it. In exchange, they will have full control of the software and a more secure environment to store and process their data.

On-premise help desk software is an excellent choice for businesses that usually deal with sensitive information such as banks, hospitals, and insurance companies. It is also a good option for businesses looking for a solution that is fully customized for their needs and integrates seamlessly with their existing systems.

The main drawback of acquiring an on-premise help desk is the need for in-house IT professionals to take care of installation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and more. This is on top of the huge investment on software licenses and servers. In addition, companies need to make sure they are compliant with regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA. 

Small and medium-sized businesses are less likely to have the manpower, expertise, and budgets to implement this solution.

Enterprise Help Desk Software

Enterprise help desk software solutions are packed with advanced features. These include multilingual support, help desk gamification, automation, advanced filters, multi-brand support, and more. 

Apart from being focused on delivering premium customer experiences, this type of help desk software is also designed to cater to the exact needs of support agents and other employees. For instance, it is equipped with an internal ticketing system so you can resolve company issues that arise in your day-to-day operations.

This type of help desk software is best for large companies looking for a fully customizable and industry-grade solution. It can help them resolve tickets faster, gain insights from real-time data, and improve internal communication. With this software, companies are assured that both their customers and employees are getting only the best.

Due to the scale of its functions, the enterprise help desk can be costly. Its wide array of features can also be a problem as it often leads to complexities, meaning you will need employees that understand how they work. And from time to time you can show your appreciation to your employees so that they will be more keen and motivated.

Open-Source Help Desk Software

Open-source help desk software solutions are popular as most of them come free of charge. Vendors take advantage of community collaboration for product improvements. They allow developers to access the source code and tweak the software to match their exact needs. With licensed proprietary software, you don’t get the same flexibility. 

Open-source help desk software gives developers the freedom to add features, modify processes, fix bugs, enhance integration capabilities, and more. Due to the level of technicality required to make it work, this type of software best fits companies with programming capabilities and in-house IT experts.

It can take a while to configure the software, so if you’re a company working on limited time and resources, it can be a problem. There might also be data security issues and troubleshooting issues that you will have to deal with on your own because most vendors of open-source help desks don’t offer technical support.

3. Evaluate the core capabilities of the available solutions

After narrowing down your options to a specific type, you can now start evaluating the core capabilities of help desk software products on your list. You can do this by testing the free versions of the software or subscribing to their trial versions. The latter will give you a more comprehensive outlook on the advanced features that are included in paid versions.

Remember that more features does not necessarily mean a better product. As Jon Bradshaw,  Chief Technology Officer for Calendar, notes “[M]any of the help desk tools sounded great on paper, but when we started using a few, it became obvious that some did not have important features or made the process too difficult for the end user.”

Ticketing system

A ticketing system allows you to handle different incidents more efficiently. With one look, your support team members should be able to gauge the urgency and importance of a ticket. After that, they should be able to assign a ticket for resolution through call, email, or chat. 

If a ticket remains unresolved and needs to be escalated, your support team should be able to do this swiftly through your help desk software. You can look for tagging and filtering capabilities to make sure you can perform bulk actions with ease.

Apart from performing actions like assigning and escalating, your help desk software should also enable you to track the progress of tickets. It should allow you to categorize your tickets by status. In other words, it should keep you informed if a ticket is still open, in a queue, or closed. It should also notify your clients via email every time the ticket status is changed.

Moreover, a good ticketing system allows you to gather information about your audience. For instance, it allows you to create customized ticket pages to ask customers for their satisfaction ratings in relation to your customer service.

Newer help desk software also allows users to tag social media accounts that interact with their company through @mentions or private messages. In this way, you can segment your audience into ambassadors or critics.

Collaboration tools

Help desk software solutions must be able to support three levels of collaboration: agent-to-agent, agent-to-departments, and agent-to-customers. 

First, it should be packed with capabilities that allow agents to consult other agents when dealing with customer issues. Such a feature is especially useful to agents who are new to the team. Empowered by one, they will be able to adapt quickly to the role.

Second, it should help connect agents with entire departments. Should the tickets they are handling require them to access company information that a specific department has, they should be able to do so quickly through the help desk software.

Third and last, it should be able to help agents communicate with customers. It should allow user input to facilitate customer satisfaction surveys. In this way, the software is facilitating not only real-time collaboration but also future improvements to customer communication.  It is beneficial to work on the time tracking for your business to evolve and not fall apart from the schedule.

Knowledge base

A help desk software system should help you compile customer questions and build a page containing FAQs and how-to articles. Your agents can simply direct your customers to this page if their ticket contains a commonly asked question. In this way, you are freeing up time for your agents to focus on more urgent issues.

Also, you are providing your customers with a self-service feature that they can use and go back to 24/7. Instead of contacting your agents or performing the research themselves, they can simply go to the link you provided and access it anywhere at any time using any device.

Source: SuperOffice

Reporting and analytics

Help desk’s reporting and analytics feature will provide you with insights regarding your customer service performance. It will help you track key metrics such as average resolution times and the number of open, pending, and resolved tickets. It will also help you monitor your agent’s productivity and your customer’s satisfaction levels, among others.

Apart from tickets, you can also extract data from other help desk channels such as phone calls, emails, chat, and social media. You can leverage this data to create a strategy based on consumer preferences, market trends, and other relevant factors. 

4. Check your vendor’s customer support offerings

Other than the software itself, you should also evaluate your help desk based on the customer support service that comes with it. You can ask your vendors questions relevant to the factors listed below.

Onboarding support

Ask your vendor if they offer self-service support or full-service support. Self-service support means you are responsible and fully accountable for installation, data integration, and setup of the software. You can contact your vendor if you have questions, but it can only walk you through the process and you still have to perform the onboarding yourself.

Full-service support, on the other hand, means that you are paying the vendor to perform all the steps mentioned above. Plus, you will be thoroughly guided on how to use the system yourself.

If you have in-house IT experts, self-service support would not be a problem. Otherwise, your best bet would be to go for vendors with full-service support. In this way, the solution will also be fully configured based on your preferences.

24/7 customer support

As your agents begin to explore the software themselves, you would want for them to have ongoing support in the form of FAQs, how-to-guides, and the like. In the same way, you are providing your customers with ongoing support, your vendor also needs to provide you one.

Apart from the materials they can access, you would want to make sure your vendor is easy to reach out to, especially for urgent concerns. Ask the vendor if it offers support through various channels. Also,go through customer reviews to get a gauge of their existing customer’s service support satisfaction and typical response rate, among others.

Dedicated account managers

To make your customer experience even greater, you can pick a vendor with dedicated account managers. Having one shows they truly value their customers and are there to meet their needs. This is a special consideration if you are planning to keep using your software solution for the long run. Therefore recognizing your staff, the people who work for you, is a must to present to them the values, strategies, and mindset the company shares.

Improve Your Customer Service with a Help Desk Software

By following the three key steps discussed above, you will be able to start leveraging help desk software to improve your service operations. To recap, you should know your business requirements first. Second, you can narrow down your options by picking the right type of help desk software for your organization. Lastly, you can evaluate the remaining software on your list by subscribing to free trial versions and testing the products’ core features.