Freshdesk

Managing a helpdesk can be chaotic. Freshdesk™ can help. This service gives you everything you need to deliver exceptional customer service. Imagine what it would be like to get out of firefighting mode. To get out in front of customer issues. To be able to handle problems on the phone, Facebook, or Twitter without leaving your helpdesk.

These are the things that Freshdesk can help you to do. It is a cloud-based service that can finally put you in full control. Read on to see how Freshdesk can help you deliver exceptional customer support.

A Team Inbox

Freshdesk's Team Inbox is the secret to avoiding support ticket chaos. Every incoming email is converted to a ticket and ends up in the shared inbox. This makes it easy to ensure that everything gets covered. Everyone can see who is assigned to each ticket and when it is due. For additional protection, Freshdesk includes a number of checks to ensure that there are no reply collisions. You won't have to worry about two agents working on the same thing.

The Freshdesk Inbox.

Each agent can have their own custom view of the Team Inbox. This view shows their assigned ticket and nothing else, making focus easier. If teams need to work together on a ticket, they can write private notes in the ticket. Any agent assigned to the ticket can see private notes but the customer never can.

Managing to Service Level Agreements

You likely have different Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with different customers. Freshdesk allows you to set priorities and requirements for each ticket to comply with your SLAs. The software automatically tracks all this and sets the completion times of tickets to match. And because you can set your business hours in the system, everyone knows when your team is available for support.

A Mobile Help Desk

Freshdesk gives you free iPhone and Android apps that let your team handle support issues on the go. There's also a Web-based, mobile-friendly version of Freshdesk so you can work from any mobile device with a web browser.

The Freshdesk Support App on an Android Device.

Productivity Boosters

Getting work done better and faster is always a plus. Freshdesk offers six special tools to help you with that. They are:

• Bulk Actions. Categorize, assign, or delete entire groups of tickets en masse.
• Canned Responses. Create pre-formatted replies to speed answers to common questions and ensure consistent responses.
• Keyboard Shortcuts. Same time with shortcuts that speed up dozens of Freshdesk activities.
• Scenario Automation. Use this ability to perform multiple actions on a ticket at once.
• Suggested Solutions. Freshdesk offers up possible solutions to the reported problem with the ticket, potentially saving agents tons of time.
• Ticket Merging. When a customer reports a problem through multiple channels you can merge all the reports into one, avoiding all sorts of headaches.

Support Across Multiple Channels

There was a time when we required all support issues to come in through the Helpdesk portal. Today we need to be able to interact with customers through a variety of channels. Freshdesk makes this easier with built-in support for multiple channels, including:

• Email
• Telephone
• Live Chat
• Facebook
• Twitter

Let's look more closely at this important aspect of modern customer support.

Email Tickets

We've talked about email tickets already in this review. See A Team Inbox and Managing to Service Level Agreements for more information.

Phone Channel Ticketing

For an additional fee, Freshdesk will set you up with a cloud-based call center. This frees you from the expense and headaches of setting up a regular call center. There are other big benefits to using a dedicated Freshdesk cloud call center. A partial list of the features you get includes:

• Automatic call recording
• Conversion of calls to tickets
• IVR support
• Call monitoring
• International making or receiving of calls
• Call forwarding to agents wherever they are
• Custom phone numbers

This approach integrates phone calls into the rest of your support system. You can't lose.

Integrated Live Chat

You've seen this feature on other websites and support portals. Offer support via live chat to answer customer questions quickly. The chats get archived and can be converted into tickets if they require additional work. Options include automatic routing of chat requests and pre-chat forms to streamline your workflow.

Facebook and Twitter Channels

Catching customer problems on social media can protect your company's reputation and speed problem resolution. Freshdesk lets you do exactly this on Facebook and Twitter.

In Facebook, you can make your knowledge base and forums accessible through your company page. The helpdesk can also see wall posts and direct messages, so you can respond to customer issues without having to leave Freshdesk. Even cooler, you can convert direct messages into tickets. The system then tracks those conversations and attaches any additional communication to the ticket for you.

In Twitter, Freshdesk can monitor mentions and direct messages looking for ones that are relevant to your business. It can then automatically convert problems into helpdesk tickets for you. You can assign tweets to specific people for the best responses and reply directly from the helpdesk. This way you can handle help requests and at the same time monitor conversations about your company.

The system shows your previous interactions with people so your conversations will be more personal. And you can reach out to people (through the helpdesk) to initiate conversations before they make a formal help request.

The Support Feedback Widget

Add the feedback widget anywhere it makes sense. Customers can use it to initiate support requests as easily as possible. The widget can also offer customers smart suggestions for solutions to their problem before they actually submit a request. As your database of solution articles grows, this could save significant amounts of time and energy for your team.

Mobihelp In-App Support

The solutions we've talked about so far are great. But if someone needs help while they are using your mobile app, you can offer them in-app support. The Mobilhelp in-app support system is included in your Freshdesk subscription. It lets users request help, read your FAQs, even chat with a support agent. All without leaving your iOS or Android app.

Productivity Boosters

Keeping your support agents engaged and productive is important to your long-term success. Freshdesk can help with this in a few different ways.

• Gamification. Freshdesk arcade lets your agent score points with every ticket and win virtual badges and trophies.
• Self-Service Portal. Create a customized support portal that features your Knowledge Base and Community Forums. What better way to boost your team's productivity than you let the customers help themselves.
• Automations. Configure Freshdesk to handle boring mechanical tasks like dispatching tickets, manually closing them, and monitoring events to initiate new actions.

Globalized Support Options

Freshdesk is designed to support multiple products and international operations. The features that make this possible include:

• Multi-Product Support. Freshdesk allows you to support an unlimited number of products from one helpdesk. The rules for things like email notifications, SLAs, business hours, and so on can be set for each product.
• Multi-Language Support. As of June, 2016, Freshdesk supported 26 different languages. Each agent can set their own language.
• Time Zone Support. Each agent can set their working hours based on their current time zone.
• Customizable Business Hours. Set the hours for each team and location individually to support the way you do business.
• Multiple SLA Policies. You can completely customize SLAs for each product, each location, each department, each team to ensure you meet your commitments. The system can send out escalation emails as needed to make sure the agreements are met.

Reporting Power

Freshdesk offers you all sorts of powerful features to handle customer support, but that doesn't mean there still won't be problems. That's where the new helpdesk reports come in particularly handy. They give you deep insights into what's going on throughout your organization.

The Helpdesk In-depth report is a great tool for this. You can use the graphs and analyses in this report to efficiently track down problem areas. Want to look at a particular area in more depth? From the report you can drill all the way down to individual tickets. The filters in the report let you attack the problem from different angles.

Other useful reports include:

• Day of the Week Trend
• Top Customer Analysis
• Agent Performance
• Group Performance
• Performance Distribution

These reports will help you keep your support team running at peak efficiency.

Security Features

Securing company information is always important. Freshdesk uses servers with 99.9% availability and your own custom SSL certificate to store all your data. Redundant backups and DDoS mitigation systems increase your security. Their security system supports trusted IP whitelisting and VPNs to prevent unauthorized access.

Integrations (Apps)

Making Freshdesk work with the other software you use is possible through supported integrations. A very partial list of current integrations includes:

• FreshBooks
• Dropbox
• LogMeIn
• Google Analytics

There were 95 supported products in all when I wrote this review.

Conclusion

Freshdesk lets you bring order to your chaotic customer support situation. It brings together all your customer communication channels into one Inbox to simplify your life. With the Freshdesk service you can finally be in control.

The wide range of features and pricing plans they offer makes this a tool that can work for anything from a one-man support service to an enterprise. And their international capabilities mean you aren't limited to a particular geographic area. That's backed up by the fact that Freshdesk has over 80,000 customers worldwide.

Are you ready to see if Freshdesk will work for your unique circumstances? They make it easy to find out. The company offers a free demo of the service. They also offer a free 30-day trial with an unlimited number of agents. And if you are a small organization with limited needs, they offer a free version of the service that supports up to three agents.

To take advantage of any of these Freshdesk offers, visit this Plan Features page.

Read more about Freshdesk on DiscoverCloud.