Irrespective of whether you are on the way of building a customer support team or looking to launch a start-up on your own, you ought to provide your customers with quality support and also build on brand loyalty for sooner or later you would definitely be requiring a robust customer care software in order to run your support in a hassle-free fashion.
But the million-dollar question is which is the help desk software that you would choose for your business amidst a plethora of options.
1.Begin with these 4 questions-
Each business is unique and it is very important to be remindful and take note of this fact. Businesses can vary from one another on domain, kind of operational process it runs on, the way a company goes about its business and so on & so forth.
A few questions that need to be answered initially prior to choosing a help desk software are-
A) Customer Expectations-
Every person is not comfortable enough or prefers to always dial the supporting line. While some prefer looking at community forums for their sought-after answers, others like to resort to social media platforms say Twitter, Facebook, etc. to find the same.
It doesn’t end here as different industries have different ways of functioning. For instance, while the retail industry generally gets the maximum number of queries every month, the banking sector gets the least.
In order to comprehend well enough what your clients want and where they generally look to go in search of their answers and information, you need to introspect closely and predict customers’ behaviour patterns which propel the next question on team goals.
B) Team’s Goals-
Once you’ve gauged and chalked out your clients’ expectations, your support team’s goals need to be aligned and seen how it can be achieved with the help of a help desk software.
C) Customer Software Scalability-
The third aspect that needs to be looked at is of course scalability. For example, you are a small unit now but you are harbouring plans and thoughts of expanding and building on your support in the upcoming years.
The customer support software that you choose needs to be scalable and ready for the long run i.e. future proof.
D) Understand what your customer support team exactly needs–
Your support agent should be having full and secure access to all relevant information about the customer all in one place together.
2.Decide a Budget for Your Helpdesk Software–
Answering the aforementioned four questions will give a clear picture of the kind of customer support you are looking to offer to your customers.
Once you are done with this, its big time to fix a budget for your customer support software. In this regard, the three key aspects to be considered are –
The size of the team-
You might feel that the pricing of a help desk software is slotted based on the size of the team. You would probably feel that this will make it an easy pick for you as to which plan to go for.
Some have limitations or even hidden charges on the plan that you want to try before buying. Always be on the lookout for such downside and try and find a helpdesk software that offers you maximum features catering to your requirements at a feasible cost.
Integrations and Software Compatibility
Installing a customer support software would not suffice alone. It should have the provision and capability to support external integrations. And this can quite easily take the budget scale higher.
So be very careful in figuring out what integrations are necessary and be absolutely certain that doesn’t become too costly for the reckoning.
Barring integrations, you need to check whether the helpdesk tool is compatible with the softwares that are being used by the other departments.
3.Know what features to look for –
Some of the features that a good help desk software must have are as under,
Team Inbox
Although, majority of small companies start their journey with a shared support inbox, however, things can get out of control as the team continues to grow.
A good customer support software should be also making email writing easier for your support team and keep conversations absolutely secure for your company.
It enables all the customer queries to land in one place thereby simplifying the process. Each and every support agent would have the access and can log in independently and separately to respond to queries.
Team inboxes also allow emails to land in the same inbox from different addresses. Some of the additional features that come with the team inbox such are canned responses and other similar features that can help you lessen the response time.
Chat Support
There is no denying the fact that emails are an amazing way to answer customer questions, but it can take some time to close a ticket. Live chat support can help in speeding things up helping you provide support in real time from within the helpdesk software.
Although you can’t be available online 24*7, the help desk tool can enable chat queries to be converted to tickets automatically and thereby ensure that none of the customers’ queries go unattended or without notice.
Phone Support
Phone support is quicker than chat support. Although phone calls would need certain additional effort from your team’s part, they help resolve customer queries on the go. The big benefit of phone support is that it allows your support team look deeper into the issue for the customer is capable of providing details instantaneously.
Forums
Forums work as a fantastic and highly effective platform where customers can help each other.
Knowledge Base
A knowledge base is nothing but a tool which your customers can leverage for finding information about your product. It acts as a line of primary defence against customer queries.
Moreover, very importantly a knowledge base also helps in optimizing content for search engines.
Social Support
It is almost an impulse these days to resort to social media whenever they are stuck at something. This puts your brand under the scanner. What you say in response and your response rate goes on to determine whether you can be a preferred product or brand.
Mobile App Support
The world is inching ever so quickly towards mobile devices. A mobile app for a help desk software enables your support answer and responds to customer queries and tickets on the go. And this definitely delights and pleases your customers promptly.
Choosing and selecting the right support tool (helpdesk software) is extremely critical in the context of your business. With plenty of options out there, it will be taking a good amount of time.
Thus, there is no denying the fact that though the role of a helpdesk software is inevitable and is highly helpful but the real trick lies in choosing one and the business or company that is capable of doing that flawlessly with perfection is ultimately the one which constantly delivers the best of services to their customers on a consistent basis.
