How Help Desk Tools Can Streamline Customer Service and Boost Satisfaction

Oct 9, 2024

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How Help Desk Tools Can Streamline Customer Service and Boost Satisfaction

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Customer service teams often need a steady stream of incoming tickets to reduce the volume, no matter how hard they work. While some tickets can take a while to resolve, constant customer inquiries can be stressful for support agents. Customers don't want to wait for answers, even if they understand that complex issues can take time to resolve. Instead, they want to feel heard and receive timely updates as the problem is investigated.

Help desk tools streamline customer inquiries, allowing teams to tackle issues faster and improve customer satisfaction. This article will discuss the best help desk tools to help you achieve your customer service goals. If you're looking for a way to improve your customer service operations through HubSpot Help Desk Software, you're in the right place.

What are Help Desk Tools?

Help desk software is designed to streamline handling customer inquiries and support needs, allowing companies to provide efficient and effective customer service. With its organization and automation features, help desk software ensures that every request is handled and every issue is addressed. Help desk software helps:

Manage

Track

Resolve customer service requests

A key feature of help desk tools is their focus on automating tasks such as:

Assigning tickets

Answering basic queries from customers

Categorizing incidents or problems

Tagging the necessary employees when issues arise.

This automation significantly reduces manual workload and saves time. Help desk software is designed to streamline customer service and create a functional, centralized point of contact for:

Incident ticketing

Customer issues

Tracking the quality of customer service

The Core of Help Desk Software: Customer Tickets

To improve your customer support operations, start by improving your ticketing system. This is where help desk software shines. When customers reach out for support, they often have a problem that needs to be solved quickly.

Instead of letting a customer’s request languish in an email or ignoring it altogether, help desk software creates a customer support ticket that can be:

Organized

Assigned

Prioritized

Tracked

Resolved efficiently

The Role of Automation in Help Desk Software

Wide Adoption

Help desk software is used by around 423,681 organizations globally, illustrating its widespread adoption across various industries to streamline support services and improve customer satisfaction.

Cost and Efficiency

Help desk software significantly reduces the cost of handling support tickets. Manual handling of a single ticket can cost around $22, while automation can reduce this cost by 22%.

Market Growth

The global help desk software market is expected to grow from $9.9 billion in 2021 to $26.8 billion by 2032, driven by a CAGR of 9.4%. This growth is fueled by increasing demand for efficient customer support solutions and advancements in AI and automation.

Key Help Desk Software Features

The Knowledge Base: Your Help Desk's First Line of Defense

A knowledge base is a self-serve library of information that helps customers find answers to troubleshoot problems without contacting a customer service rep. We have a perfect one here at HubSpot, and several of my colleagues contributed to it. We also had an “internal knowledge base” private to HubSpot support reps, which was invaluable in answering employee questions.

Whether internal or external, most knowledge bases include:

Directions and tips for using your products and services

Answers to FAQs

Content you’ve created that can provide in-depth solutions

Video demonstrations

Company information

Information on different business departments

Ticket Management: Staying Organized With Your Help Desk Operations

Ticket management streamlines customer support requests. This feature lets you:

Receive and assign tickets

Track their progress

Escalate issues when necessary.

You can also organize tickets, shortening your response time, based on time-sensitive matters on:

Priority

Status

Severity

At HubSpot, our ticket management system prioritized tickets in the queue the longest. These tickets were assigned to reps first unless there was a critical situation where we needed to act on other cases immediately.

Ticket Automation: Streamlining Your Help Desk Workflow

Ticket automation allows you to streamline your workflow and focus on higher-value tasks, providing customers with a better frontline experience. With this, you can set up triggers and rules that automatically:

Assign tickets

Send notifications

Perform other actions based on specific conditions

Ticket Escalation: Efficiently Resolving Tough Customer Issues

Ticket escalation moves a customer support ticket from an initial representative who can't resolve the issue to a higher-level rep or manager. Help desk software can help with this process by ensuring high-priority problems get the attention they deserve.

For instance, you can set up automations that prioritize high-severity tickets and route technical issues to more senior representatives. At HubSpot, we would route questions related to payment services to our billing department since they were more equipped to handle these issues.

Ticket Distribution: The Foundation Of Help Desk Software

Ticket distribution is the foundation of any help desk. This feature automatically routes tickets to the appropriate rep based on their:

Skill set

Availability

Workload

Managers can also use ticketing software to monitor:

Ticket distribution

Reallocate tickets when necessary

Maintain a balanced workload across their teams

Multiple Contact Options: Giving Customers Choice in How They Reach You

Help desk software gives customers options when contacting your business. These options range from:

Traditional phone

Email support

Live chat

Conversational bots

Reps don't have to specialize in one channel, either. When I worked in support, I received tickets from all of these platforms in one inbox:

Social media

Live chat

The outgoing messages appeared coming from the same channel the customer contacted. Having multiple communication channels available to your customers will help you effectively meet their needs and increase their overall satisfaction.

7. Customer Support Analytics: Tracking Help Desk Performance

Customer support analytics provide valuable insights into your customer service efforts and let you know whether or not you're having a good day as a rep. These features track performance metrics, such as:

Knowledge base usage

Ticket volumes

Response times

Customer feedback

This information can be used to improve support processes and identify areas where additional service resources are needed. If these features aren‘t enough, let’s discuss some valuable returns from adopting this software.

Revolutionize Your Customer Support with AI

Try our AI customer support software to 10x your customer support operations. Get started for free; no credit card is required! Sign in with Google and get started on your journey with us today!

Ticket Deflection

Reduce Support Tickets

Automate Support

Scaling Customer Support

Ticket Analysis

Ticket Queue Management

Why Is a Help Desk Tool Essential for Modern Businesses?

Email is a lousy tracking tool.

If every help request becomes a string of emails, agents may need help prioritizing and responding to each request. Move the conversation away from inboxes to organize your help desk queues better. As a business grows, it will inevitably receive more customer inquiries. It may be manageable for your team to respond to these questions at first via email. However, as the number of requests increases, so will the complexity of managing them.

If every help request becomes a string of emails, agents may need help prioritizing and responding to each request. Moving the conversation away from inboxes to help desk software lets you better organize your help desk queues. Instead, all communication between the customer and your support team is organized within a:

Single ticket

Making tracking progress

Resolving the issue is easier

Customers want to help themselves.

For many companies, help desk software offers a simple way to organize an FAQ or knowledge base that lets customers self-serve common questions. Customers today want to find answers to their questions quickly. Research shows that 40% of customers prefer using a self-service portal instead of contacting a customer service representative.

Help desk software is crucial in keeping customers happy by facilitating this process. For many companies, help desk software offers a simple way to organize an FAQ or knowledge base that lets customers self-serve common questions. When customers can find answers independently, it reduces the number of incoming tickets and helps them resolve their issues faster.

Prioritize important tickets.

Forget calendar reminders, sticky notes, and email. Help desk software lets you define ticket orders, priority levels, and resolution time requirements. As your business scales, you’ll likely receive more customer inquiries and help requests. While this is a sign of growth, it can quickly overwhelm your existing support system. If you’re still using email to track these requests, it can be easy to lose essential tickets in the shuffle, primarily if they aren’t organized by priority.

Help desk software can help you avoid this problem by allowing you to define not only ticket orders but priority levels and resolution time requirements. That way, you can ensure that crucial tickets are addressed promptly and your customers don’t suffer any unnecessary consequences due to delays in communication.

Monitor the health of support.

Help desk software can track ticket volume, resolution time, customer satisfaction, and individual engineer performance. Monitoring performance as your team grows is crucial to ensuring that your customers receive quality support.

Help desk software plays a crucial role because it can track metrics like:

Ticket volume

Resolution time

Customer satisfaction

Individual engineer performance.

With this data, you can quickly identify any issues with your support operations and address them before they impact your customers, providing a sense of security.

How Does Help Desk Software Work?

Customers seeking support aren’t looking to talk to a robot. They want to connect with a human who can help them quickly. Help desk software makes this process smooth for both customers and support teams. A help desk management system allows you to efficiently:

Organize

Track

Resolve customer support issues

Below is a step-by-step breakdown of how a typical help desk system handles customer inquiries, ensuring smooth communication and prompt solutions:

1. Ticket Submission

A help desk management system is started when a customer submits a ticket. Customers can submit tickets through any active communication channel, such as:

Support portal page

Live chat

2. Ticket Notification

When a ticket is generated, support agents receive notification via:

In their dashboard

In the same way, you can send customers automated notifications stating that a new ticket has been opened for their query.

3. Ticket Assignment

Now, submitted tickets are assigned to agents based on their skills, experience, and availability to handle the specific type of issue. This can be done manually or by automation, and the urgency of the submitted ticket can vary.

4. Ticket Status

Once a ticket is assigned, other agents can see its status and whether it has been transferred. Following this, they won’t spend time on an assigned ticket; they will move on to another issue.

5. Resolution

After reviewing the ticket, the agent works on the problem’s resolution. Considering the issues, a support agent can take several steps. He could reply to the ticket by:

Texting

Attaching files

Providing video tutorials

6. Resolving or Closing Ticket

After sharing the solutions, the agent can update the ticket status to “resolved” or “closed.” Some support agents will not close a ticket until the customer has agreed to the solution.

7. Storing Resolved Tickets

Agents can store the issue and its prospective solution as a reference. By doing so, agents can mark repetitive points.

Help Desk Terminologies

You must learn many new terms if you are new to a help desk environment. Here’s a guide to help you get to know some of these terms.

Agents

Help desk agents are the frontline of customer service and are dedicated to resolving customer service queries and issues. Agents continuously interact with customers. Due to the continuous interaction, they could gain a unique understanding of customer problems compared to other members of your company.

Most importantly, the gents must be efficient. As they play pivotal roles, agents can make a real difference in the customer experience. They can help customers get the most out of products and services and build customer loyalty.

Ticket

When a user contacts the help desk seeking assistance or resolution, a ticket is created for that user in the help desk dashboard. A ticket is a record or a digital a user submits in a help desk management system representing an:

Issue

Query

Request

Agents must ensure that each customer’s concern is tracked and addressed efficiently. Submitted tickets are assigned to agents to handle the specific issue with the necessary:

Skills

Experience

Knowledge

Ticket Status

The ticket status lets you track a ticket's progress through its life cycle. Each ticket starts with the status “open " and then progresses through a series of statuses until it is resolved. A ticket is not marked as closed until the customer accepts the shared solution.

Ticket status provides valuable insights into each ticket's progress. Furthermore, it enables the support team to effectively manage and prioritize their workload. Customers can also filter tickets based on the situation.

Escalation

Sometimes, the initial support team or an agent cannot resolve a problem. To tackle the situation, tickets are escalated promptly for resolution. Escalation transfers a ticket or issue to a:

Senior agent

Customer service manager

Another department

Given the critical and time-consuming nature of the entire process, we must keep our customers informed at every step. This proactive approach ensures the resolution of complicated tickets and fosters a positive customer support experience.

SLA

According to Fluent Support, “A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is an agreement on a set of deliverables that both the service provider and the customer have agreed on.” A help desk management system can help you track performance against critical SLAs. These deliverables are as follows:

Quality

Availability

Responsibilities

An SLA is a contract between a help desk and its customers that defines the level of service to be provided. These metrics are frequently included in SLAs like:

Response time

Resolution time

Customer satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction Rating

Customer satisfaction is vital to any team’s success, especially in customer service-oriented fields like help desk management systems. Here, a Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) survey is sent to ask them to rate the quality of your service or support to customers via:

Message

Chat

Most CSAT surveys consist of simple questions that enable customers to rate their satisfaction based on their most recent interactions. Agent-specific surveys are also available, where customers can rate their support experience with a particular agent.

Knowledge Base

A knowledge base stores information that can help resolve customer issues. It allows customers to find self-help resources such as:

Articles

FAQs

How-to guide

Troubleshooting steps

Video tutorials

Typically, both internal and external knowledge bases are available. The external knowledge base is appropriate for customers as its repository is open to users. On the other hand, the company’s employees and consultants use the internal knowledge base.

Types of Help Desk Software

Web-Based Help Desk Software: The Simple Out-of-the-Box Solution

Web-based help desk software is popular for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a simple, straightforward solution. Also called SaaS help desk software, web-based help desks run on a vendor’s servers and are accessed online. This type of help desk software is:

Easy to use

Requires no installation

It comes with all the features a business needs right out of the box.

Companies can customize web-based help desks to fit their needs, but they won’t have to worry about overly complex setups or unnecessary features to get started.

Enterprise Help Desk Software: A Highly Customizable Solution for Large Organizations

Enterprise help desk software is designed for large organizations with complex customer service needs. In addition to offering robust customer support capabilities, enterprise help desk solutions also provide deeply customizable tools for supporting internal customer service for large teams. Enterprise help desks operate at a massive scale and provide many benefits, including collaboration tools for:

IT support

Asset and account management

Knowledge bases for self-service support.

Enterprise help desks are feature-rich and allow companies to integrate the solution into the workflow of even the most complex global organizations.

Internal Help Desk Software: A Solution for Employee Support

Internal help desk software assists companies in providing support for their employees. Help desks can power IT and HR departments by managing incoming requests from employees and getting them fast resolutions for their issues. Internal help desks are a critical component of keeping employees happy and productive.

On-Premise Help Desk Software: A Customizable Solution for Large Enterprises

On-premise help desk solutions involve purchasing licensed software and installing it on a company's servers. With on-premise solutions, companies own their help desk and are responsible for its upkeep, including data security. Companies who choose on-premise solutions generally pay a start-up fee for scheduled updates.

On-premise help desks are highly adaptable and customizable to interoperate with a company’s internal systems. They also allow a company to keep their data on their servers. Large enterprises generally use on-premise help desks. Companies typically employ teams of employees to operate on-premise help desk software and to:

Manage

Customize

Operate

Open Source Help Desk Software: A Fully Customizable Solution for Businesses with IT Resources

Unlike licensed help desks, open-source solutions give companies access to the software’s source code. This allows companies to customize the help desk software to suit their needs, beyond plug-ins and basic integration.

Since it requires deep customization and support, open-source help desk software is a good solution for companies with highly skilled IT teams with programming experience.

Cloud-Based Help Desk Software: A Flexible Solution for Growing Businesses

Cloud-based help desks are similar to web-based solutions in that they operate and store data on remote servers. However, by living in the cloud rather than a vendor’s private servers, they can scale up and down based on customer demand. With the ability to scale based on demand, many cloud-based solutions offer variable pricing based on usage, giving companies flexibility in how they use the service.

Cloud-based help desks also allow teams to deliver excellent customer service without in-house programming or IT expertise.

Hubspot Help Desk

Service Hub Hubspot

Hubspot Ticketing System

Ticketing Tools

Hubspot Operations Hub

Hubspot Notion Integration

Hubspot Tickets

Call Center Ticketing System

Best Ticketing Apps

How Does Artificial Intelligence Enhance Help Desk Efficiency?

Artificial intelligence is a hot topic among support leaders. Our 2023 report shows that 69% plan to invest more in AI, and 72% believe it gives companies a competitive edge. Some businesses already benefit, with 66% of leaders saying AI helps them meet their key performance indicators (KPIs) and service-level agreements (SLAs).

In addition to these benefits, we found that 66% of support leaders are excited about leveraging AI and automation to increase team efficiency. By freeing reps from repetitive and manual tasks, companies can give them more time to deal with situations that require skills that only humans have – like the empathy necessary to handle complaints from frustrated customers or the creativity needed to solve complex problems.

What’s an Artificial Intelligence Help Desk?

An artificial intelligence help desk is a support system built for an AI-first world. It utilizes advanced AI capabilities to improve the efficiency of support representatives, automating tasks like:

Summarizing conversations

Fine-tuning message tones

Elaborating bullet points into detailed responses.

The system also seamlessly integrates with other AI-powered solutions, such as chatbots, extending the range of optimization and automation possibilities AI can deliver.

How AI Help Desk Software Benefits Customers

AI help desk software enhances the customer experience by providing faster support and more accurate answers to their questions. Here’s how:

24/7 Support

It's impossible to predict when a customer will have a question about your product or service, and sometimes, it will happen when your support team isn’t on the clock. But that doesn't mean you must leave them with zero support. With an artificial intelligence help desk, you can offer your customers personalized and contextual support at any hour of the day.

Our 2023 AI in Customer Service Report shows that 44% of support teams already use AI and automation to provide 24/7 support. How? AI-powered tools like chatbots handle common questions, offering quick, accurate responses. If more help is needed, the bot collects details before passing the issue to a support rep, ensuring they have all the context to resolve it quickly.

Better Customer Experiences

Our research shows that 29% of support leaders believe AI and automation improve customer experiences, a number that's likely to rise as AI becomes more common. AI solutions can help customers get resolutions faster, leading to higher satisfaction. For example, Statista study found that the consumer services and transportation industries have average wait times of around 140 seconds, while even the fastest industries, like media and entertainment, still take about 40 seconds to respond.

Companies can quickly handle simple queries using AI chatbots, providing instant responses and allowing human agents to focus on more complex issues. When the chatbot encounters difficult questions, it can transfer the customer to a human rep, who can then use AI to help craft quick, detailed responses based on short notes.

Fewer Manual Tasks

Our research shows that 29% of support leaders believe AI and automation improve customer experiences, a number that's likely to rise as AI becomes more common. AI solutions can help customers get resolutions faster, leading to higher satisfaction. For example, a Statista study found that the consumer services and transportation industries have average wait times of around 140 seconds, while even the fastest industries, like media and entertainment, still take about 40 seconds to respond.

Using AI chatbots, companies can quickly handle simple queries, provide instant responses, and allow human agents to focus on more complex issues. When the chatbot encounters difficult questions, it can transfer the customer to a human rep, who can then use AI to help craft quick, detailed responses based on short notes.

Main Metrics That Can Be Improved With AI Help Desk Software

Time to Resolution

Time to resolution is a metric that reveals the average period between creating a customer interaction ticket and its resolution. According to our 2023 report, 45% of support leaders expect to improve their time-to-resolution ratio.

By implementing an artificial intelligence help desk system, companies can use generative AI to resolve most queries quickly, accelerating the speed and efficiency of support processes.

Customer Effort Score

As the name suggests, Customer Effort Score (CES) is a metric that indicates how difficult it is for a customer to complete an action with your business. Examples of such actions include closing a transaction on your website, getting a response from your support staff, or returning an item. To objectively measure customer responses, companies create surveys with questions that may include the following:

How easy was it to get the information you were looking for?

How easy was it to move from self-service capabilities to a human agent?

The predefined set of answers is arranged on a number scale, typically ranging from 1 to 5:

1—Very easy

2—Somewhat easy

3—Neither easy nor hard

4—Somewhat challenging

5—Extremely hard

Self-Service Options in AI Support

Our 2023 study demonstrates that 39% of support leaders believe they can reduce their customers’ efforts by implementing AI-powered tools. For one thing, AI help desk software can reduce customers’ frustration by promptly offering contextual solutions. It can also empower them to find answers to questions at their own pace via an FAQs section and other actionable content. Additionally, modern artificial intelligence help desks can analyze historical data, identify patterns, and use predictive algorithms to anticipate customers’ needs before they even arise.

CSAT

A Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) measures customers' satisfaction with the products, services, and company experiences. Responses are typically collected via brief surveys shortly after a critical interaction, such as completing an order or ending a conversation with a support representative. Some examples of survey questions might include:

How satisfied are you with “Product A”?

How satisfied are you with the support you received today?

How satisfied are you with the delivery of my order?

A customer’s possible answers are numbered from 1 to 5:

1 - Very unsatisfied
2 - Somewhat unsatisfied
3 - Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
4 - Somewhat satisfied
5 - Extremely satisfied

The State of AI in Customer Support data shows that 22% of support leaders believe that leveraging AI solutions can help them improve their customer satisfaction scores. As AI-powered solutions become more common and their practical benefits become more evident, this number will likely increase over the next few years.

Want to stay ahead of the curve and delight your customers? Read this article: Provide Help Before It's Needed With Proactive Support.

Try our AI customer support software to 10x your customer support operations. Get started for free; no credit card is required! Sign in with Google and get started on your journey with us today!

26 Best Help Desk Tools for Customer Service

1. ChatBees: Revolutionizing Customer Support through AI Optimization

ChatBees optimizes RAG for internal operations like customer support, employee support, and more with our AI customer support software, with the most accurate response and easily integrating into their workflows in a low-code, no-code manner. ChatBees' agentic framework automatically chooses the best strategy to improve the quality of responses for these use cases. This improves predictability and accuracy, enabling these operations teams to handle more queries. No DevOps is required to deploy and maintain the service.

Try our AI customer support software to 10x your customer support operations. Get started for free; no credit card is required! Sign in with Google and get started on your journey with us today!

2. Freshdesk: A Feature-Rich Help Desk Software With AI Capabilities

Freshdesk is an AI-powered help desk software from Freshworks designed for ticketing, ease of use, and rapid resolution of customer complaints. With seamless ticketing experiences and self-service options across various channels, customer support operations are improved.

Freshdesk's AI-driven automation routes tickets intelligently, ensuring smooth collaboration among team members for swift and precise resolutions. With Freshworks' built-in AI engine, Freddy AI, Freshdesk enables agents to deliver outstanding service consistently, delighting customers every time.

3. Zendesk: The Versatile Customer Service Platform

Zendesk is a versatile and powerful customer service platform that caters to a wide range of businesses. It offers a strong foundation for managing customer support interactions across various channels with:

Automation

Self-service

Agent productivity features

However, more straightforward and affordable options might be for less complex needs or tighter budgets, and extensive customization might require higher-tier plans.

4. Hiver: The User-Friendly Gmail Help Desk

Hiver is a user-friendly and affordable option for businesses that are comfortable using Gmail for communication. It streamlines support workflows within the familiar Gmail interface and offers basic functionalities for team performance to manage:

Tickets

Collaborate

Gain insights

However, businesses requiring more advanced features, extensive customization, or compatibility with other email platforms might find Hiver limiting.

5. Kayako: A Secure Omnichannel Help Desk

Kayako is a powerful omnichannel help desk solution that is well-suited for businesses of various sizes seeking a comprehensive feature set, secure platform, and multilingual capabilities. However, smaller teams or those on tighter budgets might find it more complex to set up and manage than some competitors.

6. HappyFox: A Well-Rounded Help Desk Solution

HappyFox is a well-suited option for businesses seeking a user-friendly, affordable, well-rounded help desk solution focusing on:

Agent productivity

Customer self-service

Global reach

For businesses requiring in-depth reporting and analytics, HappyFox might lack the most advanced features in that area.

7. Zoho Desk: A Scalable Help Desk Solution

Zoho Desk is a well-rounded help desk solution focusing on scalability, AI-powered automation, and customization. Its interface might have a slightly steeper learning curve for initial setup and configuration than some user-friendly interfaces.

8. LiveAgent: A Versatile Help Desk Software

LiveAgent is an easy-to-use, simple, and versatile help desk software known for its multi-channel support capabilities. It allows businesses to manage customer inquiries from email, chat, social media, and more. It offers robust automation features, ticket routing, and real-time chat for efficient customer service.

Its strength lies in its built-in call center functionality, which enables businesses to handle phone support alongside other communication channels, streamlining customer interactions. Organizational users include NASCAR, Forbes, and the University of Southern California.

9. Salesforce Service Cloud: A Customizable Help Desk Solution

Salesforce Service Cloud offers several common help desk features, such as:

Omnichannel ticket routing

Customer satisfaction tracking

Customer data

Productivity tools

Knowledge management services

The platform also includes Service Process Automation, which enables businesses to design processes using a point-and-click interface to orchestrate workflows. The SPA features also help recommend actions, guide agents through processes, and allow them to pick up with customers where they left off in the support process.

10. Freshservice: An IT Help Desk Solution That Goes Beyond Ticketing

Freshservice is a versatile and user-friendly solution for businesses seeking a feature-rich help desk platform with integrated ITSM functionalities at a competitive price. It goes beyond primary ticketing by offering IT teams features ideal for:

Incident

Problem

Change

Asset management

11. Jira Service Desk: A Collaborative ITSM Platform

Atlassian offers Jira Service Desk, a collaborative ITSM platform that helps businesses deliver faster IT services while integrating ITIL best practices. Jira Service Desk provides several features, including codeless setup and configuration and the ability to adapt your service management processes to how your team works.

Jira Service Desk is also compatible with over 1,000 apps and offers integrations to help better customize and tailor your IT help desk to align with your organizational goals. With Jira, you can access standard help desk features, including:

Human resource management

IT support

Automated ticketing

Collaboration tools for integrated teams

Extensibility

12. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus: An IT Help Desk with Robust Features

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is an IT help desk software that offers:

Incident

Problem

Change

Asset

IT project management features

ServiceDesk Plus also provides robust reporting and analytics, the ability to track and manage configuration items, and a personalized service catalog with custom service-level agreements (SLAs) and multi-stage approvals. Depending on your company’s needs, businesses can choose between cloud or on-premises deployment.

13. ServiceNow: Cloud Platform with AI Automation

ServiceNow offers a single cloud platform with native artificial intelligence that helps businesses automate and manage the IT help desk. The Now Platform is automated to help predict issues and make IT decisions like:

Digital workflow apps

Integrates an intuitive mobile experience

Supports cross-enterprise collaboration

Uses AI and analytics

The Now Platform also enables businesses to build low-code custom apps, which means people outside of IT can help create unique solutions for employees and customers.

14. Solarwinds: ITSM Help Desk Software

Solarwinds offers Service Desk, an ITSM help desk solution for businesses that want to integrate help desk software into an ITIL environment. Solarwinds Service Desk includes features such as:

Incident management consolidation

Standardized service catalog

Integrated IT asset management

Service portal for submitting tickets and requests

It integrates with over 200 cloud applications, including:

Google Apps

Amazon Web Services

Dropbox

Microsoft Azure

Slack

Jira

TeamViewer

15. Spiceworks Help Desk: Free Help Desk Software

Spiceworks offers free help desk software that enables you to build a customized help desk experience for your company, as long as you don’t mind advertisements. Spiceworks offers what you’ll find in any typical help desk software, such as:

Ticketing and task assignment automation

Self-service capabilities for users

The ability to tag end users in tickets

The platform also offers help desk team management services that will auto-assign tickets and track team performance, as well as collaboration features for multi-departmental tickets and multi-site and location support.

16. Zoho Desk: A Context-Aware Help Desk Solution

Zoho Desk claims to be the first “context-aware” help desk ticketing software that utilizes customer data from past interactions and other Zoho products to “organize tickets and intelligently present information to agents so they can better understand a customer’s problem and resolve it efficiently,” according to a press release from the company.

Zoho Desk offers the standard help desk features, and the software is also compatible with several add-ons and integrations, including:

BugTracker

Creator

SalesIQ, Sprints

Analytics

Assist Cliq

Books

Invoice

Forms

Subscriptions

Inventory

Survey

Bigin

Marketplace

17. Gorgias: Help Desk Software for Ecommerce Businesses

Gorgias is a customer support platform designed for e-commerce businesses. It offers specialized features to streamline customer interactions. It stands out for its robust integration with e-commerce platforms and the ability to create customized automated responses. Gorgias’s key strength is its focus on boosting agent productivity through intelligent automation, allowing e-commerce businesses to provide efficient and personalized customer support.

It integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, and even social platforms like Facebook, enabling ecommerce. Organizations using the solution include:

Montezuma’s

Loop Earplugs

Vape Superstore

18. Groove: A Simple Help Desk for SMBs

Groove is customer support software designed for small—to medium-sized businesses. It focuses on simplifying ticket management and team collaboration. It provides a shared inbox for email communications, allowing teams to collaborate seamlessly on customer inquiries.

Its strength lies in its customizable knowledge base and automation workflows, which enable businesses to streamline customer support processes and provide users with informative self-service options. It is positioned as a great alternative to other top apps and offers very competitive pricing.

19. Odoo Helpdesk: A Help Desk Within an ERP

Odoo Helpdesk is a comprehensive help desk software integrated within the Odoo ERP ecosystem. It stands out for its seamless integration with other business management modules, such as CRM and inventory, providing a holistic view of customer interactions.

Its strength lies in its customizable ticketing system and automated routing, which enable businesses to efficiently manage customer inquiries, track support requests, and maintain a centralized knowledge base for better customer service. It can be customized further as an open-source help desk software to fit one’s needs.

20. Deskpro: A Customizable Help Desk Solution

Deskpro is a versatile help desk software solution for businesses of all sizes. Notable for its customizable and scalable nature, it offers:

Robust ticket management

Automation

Self-service options

Its strength lies in its flexibility and integration capabilities, allowing organizations to tailor their customer support processes and seamlessly connect with other software tools for enhanced efficiency and productivity. It has cloud and on-premise deployment options. Organizational users include the University of Pennsylvania and Valve.

21. SysAid: A Well-Rounded IT Help Desk

SysAid is an IT service management (ITSM) and help desk software known for its comprehensive feature set and automation capabilities. Notable for its user-friendly interface, it offers:

IT asset management

Ticketing

Self-service options

Its strength lies in its ability to automate, making it a valuable choice for IT departments seeking efficient service management like:

IT tasks

Streamline service requests

Provide insights through reporting and analytics

22. Desku.io: A Comprehensive Customer Service Platform

Desku.io is a comprehensive customer service platform crafted to streamline support operations for businesses of all sizes. Renowned for its robust automation tools and intuitive interface, Desku.io simplifies customer query management and service delivery. Its standout feature lies in its AI-driven capabilities, which let businesses automate responses and workflows, reduce support workload, and enhance efficiency.

With a focus on customer satisfaction, Desku.io integrates seamlessly with various communication channels, ensuring prompt and personalized responses. Its adaptable framework caters to diverse business needs, providing a scalable solution for optimizing customer service processes.

23. Keeping: Shared Inbox Tool for Email Support

Keeping is a shared inbox tool designed to manage team email support directly within Gmail. Renowned for its:

Seamless integration and ease of use

It streamlines ticket management

Enhances collaboration

Boosts efficiency through automation.

With a user-friendly interface and powerful features, Keeping offers a comprehensive solution for teams looking to simplify and enhance their email support processes. Keeping's key features include:

Shared inbox management

Advanced analytics

Automated workflow integrations with tools like:

HubSpot
Shopify

24. Knowmax: An AI-Powered Knowledge Management Tool

Knowmax is an AI-powered knowledge management system developed by CX experts specifically designed to be integrated with and enhance your existing help desk. With its interactive decision trees, visual how-to guides, articles, and FAQ, Knowmax ensures that knowledge is easily accessible and actionable for your help desk staff right from day one.

Knowmax serves as a single source of truth that helps create, curate, and organize all organizational knowledge efficiently in one place. It seamlessly integrates with your existing CX tools and channels, such as CRM, chat, telephone, etc., which empowers support representatives to access guided and contextually relevant knowledge within their workflow.

25. Vivantio: A Cloud-Based ITSM Solution

Vivantio is a cloud-based IT service management platform designed to help businesses manage their service requests, incidents, assets, and people. Enterprises may lower:

Operating expenses

Expedite operations

Speed up ticket response times.

It has:

Automation engine

Scalable and adaptable platform

Software

26. Sprinklr: Customer Service Software for Unified Marketing

Sprinklr Service enables teams to manage growing caseloads and streamline operations efficiently. Using its proprietary AI architecture, Sprinklr’s Help Desk solution quickly processes petabytes of data to predict customer needs and offer agents real-time insights and actionable suggestions.

It provides your team with a single source of truth, ensuring every customer interaction is informed and personalized. This makes support more effective and humanized, even at scale.

Ticketing Management System

Ticket Management Tools

Most Popular Ticketing Systems

Hubspot Autoresponder

Smart Ticketing System

Ticketing Automation

Hubspot Ticket Automation

Helpdesk Integrations

Automated Ticket Routing

How to Choose the Right Help Desk Tool

To pick the right helpdesk software, first, define stellar service for your business. Then, consider your customer base's specific preferences and expectations.

Preferred Channels

What’s your customers' preferred contact mode? Whether it’s email, phone, or social media, knowing this lets you customize your helpdesk to strengthen those channels.

Response Time Expectations

How fast do your customers expect a reply? Are they seeking immediate assistance, or is a 24-hour response window acceptable? Your help desk should meet these expectations through efficient ticket handling and prioritization.

Self-Service Options

Do your customers like to help themselves? If so, choose a helpdesk with a robust knowledge base and intuitive self-service portals that allow customers to find answers quickly and easily.

Did you know? You can empower your customers to deftly find their way around solutions with AI-powered self-service options, too!

Customer Journey Integration

How will the helpdesk fit into your user journey? Can it integrate smoothly with other tools and platforms used in your customer interactions? The right helpdesk software should enable your team to provide sharp, tailored support throughout their uneven journeys.

Avoid Point Solutions Like the Plague

Juggling multiple tools to handle customer queries can feel like trying to cook a five-course meal with every pot and pan in the house. It's chaotic and messy. And when the daily work is that stressful, the headache of using point solutions is the last thing your service team needs.

Choose a unified help desk tool that cuts through the clutter. It sifts through massive amounts of data, providing a single source of truth that gathers insights from every interaction, no matter the platform. This means quicker solutions and more personalized chats, letting your agents engage more humanely and effectively at every customer touchpoint.

Total Cost of Ownership

Eye a helpdesk solution that doesn't just save time but also cuts costs. Consider these things in mind when evaluating your total cost of ownership for the help desk software:

Out-of-the-Box Functionality

Look for software with extensive built-in features requiring minimal customization. This reduces the need for expensive setup projects and specialized training.

Ease of Maintenance

Choose a platform that is easy to maintain without constant updates or a dedicated IT staff. Software that automates updates and simplifies administrative tasks can substantially lower ongoing maintenance costs.

Long-Term Support Costs

Consider the cost of support contracts and service level agreements. Reliable vendor support can quickly prevent costly downtimes and resolve issues but ensure the cost aligns with the value provided.

Cost of Upgrades

Look into the upgrade pricing structure. Some vendors charge for major updates that contain critical features or security enhancements. Knowing these costs upfront can help planners plan the budget more accurately.

How Quickly Can You Expect ROI?

How quickly can the software make a positive impact? Opt for a helpdesk that promises a fast setup with little need for tweaks. A straightforward, welcoming interface will help your team get up to speed quickly, speeding up the return on your investment and smoothing out early adoption bumps.

Security Foundations

Almost 81% of American internet users feel their private data is vulnerable online and prone to breaches. In the customer service industry, your business can access data that customers only want to remain limited to you.

So, it simply goes without saying — don’t compromise on security, especially when dealing with sensitive information. Let’s consider what you must consider when choosing your help desk software.

Data Masking and Anonymization

Especially if you work in fields like healthcare or finance, make sure your helpdesk software can mask or scrub out personally identifiable information (PII). This ensures you can keep sensitive details under wraps even during day-to-day operations.

Audit Trails

The best help desk software maintains comprehensive audit logs that track and record all user activities within the system. This creates a traceable record that is handy during forensic investigations following a security incident. These logs help identify:

What was accessed or altered

By whom

And when

Data Storage and Retention Protocol

Check where your data is stored. Do strong data protection laws protect it? Look for options to configure data retention policies to comply with legal norms and ensure no information is kept longer than necessary.

Updates and Tests

Pick a provider that doesn’t just update regularly but also actively hunts for weak spots with vulnerability assessments and penetration testing.

Incident Management

What’s the game plan if things go wrong? A solid incident response strategy means your provider is ready to act quickly and effectively to minimize damage and get things back on track.

Customizable Security Settings

Every business has its risk threshold, so adjusting security settings, think password policies, session timeouts, and who gets access to what, is key. It lets you dial in the security level just right for your needs.

Use ChatBees’ AI Customer Support Software to 10x Customer Support Operations.

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ChatBees' agentic framework automatically chooses the best strategy to improve the quality of responses for these use cases. This improves predictability and accuracy, enabling these operations teams to handle a higher volume of queries. No DevOps is required to deploy and maintain the service.

Try our AI customer support software today to 10x your customer support operations. Get started for free. No credit card is required. Sign in with Google and get started on your journey with us today!