With a motive to help the customers and stand tall in the competition, it is pre-emptive for a small and medium business (SMBs) to chip in with a Help desk software solution, to cater to customer complaints and grievances. A business which listens to its customers and addresses their grievances in time, will always stay ahead in competition and will gain customer loyalty without a doubt. It is imperative for an SMB to have a helpdesk solution which makes customer issues handling effectively and in an organized manner.
How to select Help Desk tool for SMBs?
Helpdesk platform also does a ton of good in organizing complaints and bringing together, the customer and the service rep on the same page. The customer knows what’s going on with his issue and the service rep knows how to solve the same. A common helpdesk solution must have basic features like ticketing system, multitasking, prioritisation of tasks and issues, due dates for solving complex issues, team issue solving etc. Tickets can be raised for issues and the number can be tracked accordingly. Due dates can be established on each ticket and performance can be measured against all the tickets raised till date and resolved by the service reps. It becomes a one stop shop for the customers to check and login their issues and requests.
The most important aspect of helpdesk software is that it helps to reduce time. Logging issues in an excel file is a tedious and lengthy task. The manual processes may end up lagging far behind, as continuously updating the excel file becomes laborious and ultimately the service reps lose interest in the whole thing. Customers are also in the dark, where are they with their requests. Helpdesk, thus, do away with such manual process and streamlines all issues into a common place. SMBs do have the option to build a support team inside the organisation, by hiring service reps on their payroll, whereas, there are loads of systems readily available in the market. SMBs can simply pick and choose out of these available options, but they have to do a cost benefit analysis on many of them and choose the best one suitable to their working styles.
Apart from looking just at the features, SMBs do have a cost constraint, as they are generally not cash rich. Moreover, a helpdesk solution has to be scalable and flexible. The turnaround time in solving queries comes down drastically. As SMBs are ever-growing, the number of issues increases day-after-day. It also becomes important to manage the huge volume of emails coming in. Sometimes, emails get lost in such volume, which may result in customer dissatisfaction and outrage. Customers may reach out with their complaints through phone calls or emails, but the ticketing system can collaborate the social media and bring them to the desk of the service reps. Teams can also be assigned to particularly complex issues, for faster resolution.
We have done a thorough research on 64 such Helpdesk solutions and we bring forth, the 10 best ones in the market.
Top 10 Help Desk Softwares for SMBs:
- Freshdesk is the top multi-channel support solution and brings together customer and support reps into a single, user friendly platform. It has automated escalation system which highlights unaddressed tickets. It also offers a knowledge base and self-help portal alongwith social community building. Prices starting from free demos till INR 4999 per month.
- Spiceworks is 100% free network management and helpdesk software which can support upto 1000 devices at one go. It is a robust system with support system through Internet, emails and can be assigned to the correct person. It also has add-ons like troubleshooting, network monitoring and AD management.
- Happyfox is another customer support app which has a ticketing system, knowledge base, community forum etc. It is not overloaded with too many features and caters to just about all the requirements of the SMBs. It has plans from free trials to $69/agent/month.
- Freshservice, somewhat similar to Freshdesk, it’s the most feature rich of all, packed with ticketing system, self-service, knowledge base and several components like asset, problem, change and release management. It also has a robust inventory management as well. Prices ranging between free and $79/agent/month.
- Zoho Support is another multi-channelled and automated system with a myriad of reporting tools. It can easily handle large volume of tickets and service reps can approach the solutions with ease. It is cheaper compared to others, with highest plan being charged @ $25/agent/month.
- Uservoice is aimed not only on handling customer issues, but also provides insights on products and customer feedbacks. The feedback link is embedded on the website itself, so the users can put their voice straightaway from the product itself. It comes with maximum price tag of $95/month for the entire bundle.
- Zendesk is known for its fast deployment at a reduced cost and derive maximum output. There are multiple channels being supported and is flexible in nature. It can be accessed from anywhere using its mobile functionality. It has plans ranging between $25-$195/month.
- Servicedesk, fuses the idea of service requests and asset management and also focuses on customer’s needs as well. It is multi-lingual as well as multi-channelled. The prices start at a whopping $395/month. Its formidable IT help desk automation tool takes incident and asset managament to an all-new level.
- Desk.com facilitates teamwork, prioritisation, personalisation and collaboration with breeze. It is considered to be a powerful tool with total integration for all social medium. It is averagely priced between $3-$50/month.It also encompasses multi-channel support which ranges from phone, email to self-help pages.
- Samanage is an award-winning asset management and helpdesk solution, with an elegant interface. No maintenance is required and lesser configuration is all you need. Samanage, works on SaaS platform and comes with a cutting-edge help-desk solution to cater to your requirements.
Choosing Helpdesk is definitely a headache, with businesses getting lost amongst variety of options. With the help of this comparison, we can see that Freshdesk stands out in the competition and comes with a galore of features to suit users from different segments. It is how a helpdesk software should be, complete with features and totally interactive. Zendesk follows with maximum output at a relatively higher price. The third position is best fit by Freshservice. It is feature packed and comes cheaper, but needs to upgrade to reach the top position.
