Top features every help desk should have

Nowadays, all businesses strive to create positive impression on the customers- and this has become even more imperative owing to ever rising competition and better informed customers. The customers are well aware about their choices- thanks to the web and digital technologies infiltrating human life. They can no longer be retained or lured by discounts and promotions. The businesses aim at offering great customer service to sustain and grow amidst intense competition. For optimum customer satisfaction, deploying suitable helpdesk solution is useful. However, with plenty of helpdesk software on offer and each vendor making tall claim about efficacy of its offering- the buyers can easily get confused!

Choosing the right help desk application

To select the right help desk solution for your organization, it is important to evaluate its features. The fact is present generation IT helpdesk tools come laden with oodles of features but you need to know which ones will be useful for your business needs!

Listed below are the top features ideal help desk software should have:

• Support for various channels- Telephone and email used to be the most widely used modes for offering support to the customers for most companies. However, that is not true anymore! Worldwide, more businesses are resorting to newer channels for offering better support to their customers. Adoption of live chat has shot up and social media based support is also very popular. The help desk solution you pick should support all these channels natively.

• Ease of usage- Like any other software application you buy for business needs, the help desk application has to be quite user friendly. A fluid interface and easy learning curve are necessary. Otherwise, the support agents will have a harrowing time learning its nuances and workflow will get affected. You also need to think of training the new agents.

• Excellent and comprehensive ticket management- This is a must have feature in any good helpdesk tool. The customers are going to lodge grievances and queries- which are made into tickets. The software you choose should have good provisions to issue tickets and manage them. It should have features to issue tickets directly and through other sources like email and chat sessions. The tool also needs to have ticket management features like agent collision avoidance and options to segregate tickets based on severity of situations and time etc.

• Knowledgebase creation- Nowadays, the customers are no longer entirely dependent on support staffs. A section of them like to resolve most issues without intervention by others. For these independent minded customers, presence of a knowledge base and self service portal is required. Modern help desk software have provisions for knowledge base creation. In fact, you will find some such applications that let you create separate portals for use by the customers and company staffs. Creation of the knowledge base portal also helps bring down work load on the agents to an extent.

• Monitoring options and dashboards- You may recruit professional and expert support agents in the company. However, it is still necessary to keep tab on the support operations periodically. The agents may make mistakes and scope for human errors may exist. The help desk tools come with several dashboards for monitoring of support operations. Using these dashboards, the management can keep track of support operations. They can figure out amount of pending tickets, ongoing calls and chat session and emails etc. This helps in resolving delayed tickets and resolving conflicts before they can escalate into serious issues.

• Report generation- The help desk software you buy should have robust provisions to generate reports. It should have the features to analyze raw data in large volumes and create reports based on selected filters or parameters. This helps the management in understanding metrics like agent performance, sales growth, customer preferences as well as areas that require improvement. The reports exporting options in formats like excel and PDF should also be there. Overall, the tools should have adequate customizations to create reports.

• Good automation features- To ensure workflow is streamlined and the support agents are not overburdened with calls and emails, you should choose a help desk application with enough automation features embedded! This will bring multiple benefits both to the company and its customers. Automation in ticket creation and management should be present in the software. This way the emails and chat sessions can be converted to tickets without agent intervention. The software should also have features to automatically assign tickets to specific agents based on settings. The automation comes in handy in engaging programmed chat bots to handle live chat during off hours. Similarly, automated email responses can be sent to commonplace queries made by the customers without agent intervention. These automations help save time and speeds up workflow considerably.

• Robust app and cloud service integration- Your organization already has several software and some cloud services in place. The help desk application should be able to support these services and applications. These may include security software, accounting solutions, database of customers, media related apps and productivity software etc. Some companies also have specialized in-house software. Sync between the helpdesk and such existing software streamlines entire workflow.

• Mobile friendly software-with a majority of people using mobile devices for online access needs, you should ensure the helpdesk tool bought is compatible with mobile devices. Or else, a section of your customers will find it hard to use the tool- whether it is for accessing self service portal or for lodging tickets. It should be accessible by diverse mobile web browsers.

• Security features- Given the fact your chosen helpdesk tool will be integrated with CRM database and other apps used in the company, presence of good security features in it is necessary. Besides, the applications will be used by the employees and plenty of customers. Usually, such applications have password protection with multi level authentications. You should also look for SSL encryption and similar online security measures if the service is cloud based. There should be options to set different access rights. This will ensure all user or employees do not get access to confidential and important company data.

• Alerts and notifications- Using the help desk tool, its reports and dashboards, the agents and management get updates on customer likings, issues requiring attention and possible enhancement options etc. However, it is even better if the software comes with inbuilt features to issue alerts or notifications. This can help the agents figure out conflicts and problems faster. The management can also get notified about pending issues, problems affecting workflow etc. Some such applications also have features to run periodic checkups for potential problems. The notifications can be email based and UI based audio visual alerts would be useful too.

Addition factors to analyze

When looking for suitable helpdesk tools, a few factors have to be taken into account. You need to check if the vendor has several packages and there are provisions to switch packages after choosing any of them. The customer support requirements of your entity may change with time and choosing a suitable application will be helpful. It would be better if you try out some such software like helpscout to compare their features and figure out viability for the venture.

Vaishali Gopi is an enthusiastic Digital Marketer who has keen interest towards customer support management and related stuff and voices about it frequently.