Businesses of all sizes need to resolve their customer and employee support issues quickly and consistently, and this is where help desk[1] software plays a critical role. Choosing the right help desk software for your company can be challenging no matter what size the business, but owners of small to midsize businesses (SMBs) have different considerations than their larger counterparts.
For example, SMBs with smaller budgets can often benefit from Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions due to their affordable pricing plans. Cloud-based systems such as these often don't require a lot of management overhead, which is perfect for SMBs with small or non-existent IT staffs. If the initial setup process and the day-to-day management of a SaaS help desk solution can be handled by someone without a lot of technical experience, this is good news for SMBs looking for affordability with big company help desk functionality. The following are 5 tips to remember when shopping for the right help desk software for your SMB.
1. Know Your Budget
Just because you run a SMB doesn't mean you can't afford good customer support. There are many SaaS help desk solutions that are reasonably priced and within your budget. Many SMBs ignore help desk when allocating their technology budget, preferring to think that a phone and a dedicated email address will suffice. But using help desk software has several benefits that can positively affect your bottom line down the road, making an investment in this area more than worthwhile. Customer retention, feedback tracking, and even just a knowledge base can all help your business increase sales and profitability in the long run.
Be aware that the way in which cloud-based help desk software is priced can be confusing, as help desk vendors can bill for their software on a monthly or annual basis. Their different pricing plans also often depend upon the number of users or agents per year. For example, Freshdesk[2] offers a SaaS solution that begins at $16.00 per agent per month, when billed annually. Its sister product, Freshservice[3], is free for up to three agen ts and up to 100 assets or users. So, study pricing plans carefully to make sure you're paying only for what you need.
2. Decide Between On-Premises or SaaS
There are two basic types of help desk software deployments: (1) on-premises software that you install locally on a server you'd need to purchase separately and (2) SaaS solutions that are hosted in the cloud and managed for you. There are pros and cons either way. On-premises installations don't just require a separate hardware investment (the server), they also require an IT professional to manage them long-term. On the other hand, cloud-based software requires a working Internet connection to function and, if you store your data on off-premises servers, there are data safety and governance worries.
If you feel absolutely more secure about keeping your data in-house, then on-premises help desk software might be a better choice for you. However, data in the cloud tends to be managed more securely and by dedicated security professionals due to the service provider being able to take advantage of economical scale, so your data is probably safer there than on your own server. In general, we'd consider SaaS solutions to be the best option for SMBs because they can be cheaper, easier to use, and don't require you to install or maintain them on your own server.
Also, if your employees or customer service agents use mobile devices such as smartphones to access customer information, SaaS help desk solutions offering cross-platform support for mobile devices (Android or iOS) would be a good choice. Cayzu[4] and Desk.com[5] are among the SaaS help desk solutions that offer smartphone apps for agents.
3. Look for Solid Ticket Management
Customers are the most important part of any business and developing good customer relations begins with providing efficient support. Having a reliable ticketing system is key to solving issues in a timely manner and should be a fundamental feature of your help desk software. Ticket management features should let you set priorities, categories, assignments, and track status changes. To make sure these features work effectively for your organization, be sure to sign up for the free trial services most SaaS vendors offer or download the free evaluation versions of on-premises software and try them out for a few weeks before making a final decision. The way different software interfaces are designed and the emphasis placed on one feature set over another can vary greatly between software makers and significantly impact how your agents can make use of the software.
For example, tickets can be initiated in help desk software in several ways. One way is directly within the system by users or staff. A second way is by having emails that are sent to a designated address converted automatically into tickets, which is something Jira Service Desk[6] offers. A third way tickets can be initiated is via social media accounts such as Facebook or Twitter. For example, HappyFox[7] and Cayzu both allow Twi tter mentions or direct messages to be automatically converted into tickets that you can manage immediately. Zendesk[8] is help desk software that offers ticket creation via both email and social media.
4. Look for a Knowledge Base
Think of knowledge bases as repositories for oft-used information. If a particular problem is presented to your agents more than once, placing its description and solution in a knowledge base means other agents have a fast path to a right answer or, if you expose your knowledge base to the public, your customers and users can find the answer for themselves and solve their problem without making a help desk call.
Knowledge bases come in many forms. Small ones could simply be Word docs or spreadsheets. Large ones are databases backing websites full of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). Most help desk software will offer some kind of knowledge base. Depending upon the software, your customers or employees can access the knowledge base 24/7 from your website, pull it up on their preferred mobile device, or search it via a social networking connection, like Facebook or Twitter. Whatever form this access takes, it should let them find answers to their questions without having to create a ticket. Some help desk software, like HappyFox, even support segregated internal and external knowledge base systems, which makes it easy for you to maintain an internal source of information that is available only to your staff.
With some software, customers can mark or rate answers they find particularly helpful. That's great because it helps you identify knowledge base topic areas to which you should add more information as well as showing you how your customers like to receive that data. Theoretically, the more comprehensive your knowledge base, the less customer service calls you will receive about troublesome topics. ServiceDesk Plus (SDP) 9.1[9] and Revelation[10] are help desk software that offer helpful knowledge bases.
5. Consider ITIL
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a widely accepted approach to IT Service Management (ITSM). It amounts to a best practice framework that has been adopted by many enterprise-scale organizations worldwide. ITIL provides guidelines on five core business technology processes: Change Management, Configuration Management, Incident Management, Problem Management, and Release Management. Many large organizations, due to their size and complexity, often adhere to ITIL's guidelines about these processes. Like their larger counterparts, SMBs that follow ITIL can often enjoy streamlined business processes, although sometimes their smaller size winds up making ITIL impractical. Again, the best way to figure this out for yourself is to download some form of evaluation software and give it a go.
But know that help desk software that adheres to ITIL's guidelines often contains more features and more complex process chains than software designed specifically for SMBs, not to mention a higher price tag. For example, individual software developers may need something that handles incoming support requests but may not ever need strong Change Management (which is something ITIL governs). So, consider carefully if your business even needs to adhere to ITIL's guidelines. If it does, be sure to check out ITIL-oriented Freshservice and Vivantio Pro[11] when evaluating your help desk software options.
References
- ^ help desk (in.pcmag.com)
- ^ Freshdesk (in.pcmag.com)
- ^ Freshservice (in.pcmag.com)
- ^ Cayzu (in.pcmag.com)
- ^ Desk.com (in.pcmag.com)
- ^ Jira Service Desk (in.pcmag.com)
- ^ HappyFox (in.pcmag.com)
- ^ Zendesk (in.pcmag.com)
- ^ ServiceDesk Plus (SDP) 9.1 (in.pcmag.com)
- ^ Revelation (in.pcmag.com)
- ^ Vivantio Pro (in.pcmag.com)
