Enterprises should respond to their customers’ queries instantly to help them effectively use company products or services. For years, businesses were using emails as an instant form of business communication to provide online customer support. As the company’s base starts to grow, the volume of customer support requests increases, making it difficult for the support team to undertake. While managing a crowded and cluttered inbox, there is a high possibility for customer support concerns to slip through.
This can eventually erode customer trust and impact the company’s brands image. To overcome these challenges, many enterprises are adopting a helpdesk platform to streamline their entire process of communication and resolve customer grievances faster and more efficiently. But, choosing the best software among the numerous available options is challenging for any enterprise.
Here we’ve discussed a few factors that you need to consider while choosing a helpdesk management system.
Ease of use
The ultimate goal of any software is to simplify processes and help the users handle complicated tasks with ease. Before committing on a ticketing software solution, compare various available options to find the best one for your team to use. Overlying complicated systems can hinder a company’s ability to work smoothly and efficiently. Fortunately, most software offers a trial period or demo, allowing you to experience the software functionality before you actually purchase it. Test a couple of software demos to choose the software that helps your team to enhance the customer experience.
Features & Functionalities
Ticket management systems offer a centralized repository for customer requests, ticket creation web forms, automated responses to notify requestors, data reporting & analytics, and much more. Find helpdesk software that provides accurate real-time analytics allowing you to evaluate the most frequently asked support queries like busiest hours, average response time, previously resolved tickets, and pending queries.
Research the issues within your existing system and analyze what features you will need to minimize those. Although most software does provide assigning, re-assigning, escalating, closing, and canceling capabilities, only a few systems will modernize and streamline the way you control tickets. Search for a software that offers the advanced features and functionalities you need to improve your business workflow and enables you to serve your customers more efficiently.
Customization and integration
Business IT infrastructures include many tools which need to operate seamlessly together to improve your business workflow. So, make sure that the support software you’re choosing allows integration with other third-party tools for smooth data transfers. Look for a software solution that offers customization options like allowing you to customize specific reports, email templates, ticket types, and more.
Don’t Forget Security
Business support databases include crucial customer information including their passwords, address, bank account information, and other sensitive data. Every business needs to take essential measures to keep their data safe against unauthorized access and malware. Choose software that offers role-based permissions to limit access with two-factor authentication to prevent unauthorized access to secure data against fraud.
Scalability & Security
Both on-premise and web-based solutions have their advantages and disadvantages. However, with a web-based or cloud software provides you with a flexibility to increase or decrease the bandwidth based on your requirements. As your businesses grow into the future, consider a solution that is capable to grow with your company.
Other Factors (Vendor’s Reputation & Cost of the Solution)
Before buying a software platform, scrutinize the vendor’s reputation; look over their case studies, user reviews about the products in various print and online platforms. Interacting with their existing customers, of the vendor you are considering, enables you to understand the uptime of the product and vendor’s responsiveness. While analyzing the cost of a solution, consider the up-front costs of the software and any additional cost that is required to run the solution effectively.
The Bottom Line
Purchasing a helpdesk management platform involves huge time investment and many other business resources. You certainly wouldn’t want to change your software again so soon. So, before choosing a software solution, find the issues within your existing processes and analyze what features you will need in a new software to eliminate those. Search and shop for software with the required features and functionalities and set your team up to delight your customers with such effective support services.