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Help Desk Software Recommendations?

MEAH

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Own and operate a consulting business and need to go to some sort of help desk system as I can no longer have people directly email me.

Anyone have recommendations for an out of the box help desk system where my clients can open support tickets, or a member area, or some where I can upload documents for that user only?

I want to also hire an assistant to field the questions as well but have everything have to be approved by me before its sent to a client.

Ideas?

Thanks!
 
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Andy Black

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Not quite a helpdesk, but I'm finding Basecamp pretty good for a small number of clients.

It's cheap ($50/mth for 40 live projects), and intuitive (good for when you're clients have a varied background). You pay for the number of live projects, and each project can have an unlimited number of participants. You can archive and unarchive projects to keep within your pricing plan limits, and increase/decrease your plan at will anyway.

For each project you create, you can invite multiple people via their email address.

Within each project you can have discussion threads (just like a thread in a forum like this), and you can create To-Do lists with dates etc. Each to-do in a to-do list is actually another discussion thread that you can to-and-fro with questions and answers. The only difference between a To-Do discussion and a normal discussion is that the To-Do is assigned to someone, and has a due-date. You can then also mark them as done.

You can upload docs to the discussions too, such as screenshots, Word/Excel/Powerpoint, etc.

Another great feature is that you can create a template project. Imagine over time you realised that every new client has to go over the same material, and perform the same actions to get up to speed. If you create a project template with all the material and tasks in it, then you just create a new project from that template, and all the content is already setup.

For a different client, maybe you select a different template from your library. Maybe the weight loss programme for someone who has diabetes is very different from someone who doesn't. Etc.

Basecamp is free for the first two months so you can get a feel for it.

PM me if you want and I'll create a Basecamp project and invite you to it so you can see it in action.


EDIT:

I often want the client to update a log with high-level one-line actions taken (like a change log). Basecamp might hold the discussion thread, but it isn't the best place to get an at-a-glance status of the whole project.

To get round this, I create a Google shared spreadsheet (free to use), and link to it in a MASTER thread in Basecamp where I link to external resources, and list passwords etc.
 
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Last edited:

theag

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I'm using Zendesk. Its absolutely fantastic.

Been using it for about 3 months now. Before that I did my support via email.

I get 30-50 support requests per day. With email it was a mess and I hated my life. Zendesk saves me a TON of time because I now have templates (in zendesk they are called macros) for nearly every type of support request that comes up. If I dont, I constantly add new ones. The macros even personalize the greeting by inserting the requesters name. So I just have to hit a keyboard shortcut, type the first letters of the template and hit enter. Done.

It also integrates with a lot of shopping cart solutions and other great tools. So I have the order/customer data right next to the ticket.

Before Zendesk I spent a lot of time in Gmail. Very ineffective. Now I go into Zendesk once in the morning and once late afternoon and go through 30-50 tickets in a few minutes.

Absolutely best customer support tool I have ever used and can think of. Gets even better when you dont do support yourself and have someone else handle it because it has great reporting tools.

Complete recommendation from me.
 

MEAH

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Before Zendesk I spent a lot of time in Gmail. Very ineffective. Now I go into Zendesk once in the morning and once late afternoon and go through 30-50 tickets in a few minutes.

My Gmail account is my ultimate nightmare... I am attached to it at the hip right now..haha
 
G

GuestUser202

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Having worked in a help desk for 7+ yrs and (unfortunately) counting, I would ask where do you see your business in 3-5 years? Do you see a need to hire help desk techs? if so, do you see a need to run reports and easily search past tickets for resolutions? If reports and ease of searching are important, I'd look at software such as Remedy or CA Service Desk. Before my company was bought and split into 2 separate companies, we used Service Desk and it was quite good at these features. Before that, we used a ticket system called RT (Request Tracker). RT was FANTASTIC, but reporting was not really present. I am currently using software called Web Help Desk and it was NOT good at all! Also, I've heard of custom in-house ticketing systems, which again do not provide reporting functions. Of course most the help desks I've worked in have all been VERY well established companies, so reporting is a huge deal for them.

A quick Google search and I see free ticketing systems (RT being one of them it seems). OSTicket, Spiceworks (which I've heard is pretty good too), capterra, just to name a few. Hope this helps.
 

harryvent

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Recently, I tried help desk software, Apptivo. It is quite good. If you're looking for effective and affordable choice. Try to reach out.
 
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YoungPadawan

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I've heard Freshdesk works well.
 

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