Customer support systems for beginners

Effective online customer support and service has become a strategic business imperative. Whether a company is in manufacturing or in services, what is increasingly making a competitive difference is the customer support and service that is built into and around the product, rather than just the quality of the product.

There is no small organization or large corporate network remaining in business for longer without an adequate customer support service. Many firms have realized, as their marketplaces have become more global and service oriented, that customer support is critical to their competitiveness.

Customer support software and help desk software are useful aids to manage communications with both actual customers and potential clients. A typical help desk software package often includes a convenient way to record issues received by phone and by email, as well as those submitted via support ticket system.

Help desk software also contributes to enhance interaction between staff and customers that usually comprises knowledge and problem management, workflow, and data analysis. Detailed reports and analytic are basic to tackle effectively all those issues handled by the help desk software on a daily basis, but the software itself contributes also to develop teamwork efficiently.

Doing a research on a comparative basis among the different web-based customer support solutions available in the market will find that many of them are compatible with the traditional office software that is already in use, including Microsoft Outlook, Word, or Excel. This characteristic allows a seamless integration of new help desk software into traditional software applications, making easier updating contacts, sharing task, events, and bits of information already recorded elsewhere.

Just by adding customer support software or online help desk software to business, is adding value to the products and services, promoting tacitly trustworthy and customers' confidence. Web-based help desk software improves productivity of the business and efficiency of workers, increasing also customer satisfaction and improving communication and troubleshooting. The Internet has literally deleted geographical frontiers.

The implementation of online help desk software is an excellent strategy for any business, reducing the need of toll-free hotlines, and saving money in long distance calls between offices, or those calls placed from customers located abroad.

Online customer support software is also a convenient way to obtain feedback from customers. Afterwards, the information obtained can be added to the help desk software database for further analysis and improvement of your business affairs.

Support tickets classification

In most service desk systems, support ticket classification exists primarily to classify tickets and issues in order to provide initial support. Initial support means proper analysis, evaluation and assignment.The issues behind the actual classification itself may experience problems in a typical help desk workflow. Typical classification schemes are often too complicated, or there are too many classifications that when you make your report, none of them are significant. Eventually, the number one categorization becomes "other," and the classification actually drops.

Help desk needs a scheme that works, and the first question that needs to be answered is: what you are really trying to accomplish with the classification and how do you plan to use this data?

Many help desk organizations use a simple Category / Type classification. The problem here and in any other classification is that technical staff do not perform classification and initial support, but relatively non-technical service desk agents and contact persons.

The initial classification does not need to establish root case or predict technical resolutions but rather to enable initial support. Support ticket classification and categorization necessarily becomes more refined as the ticket progresses and more is learned via the investigation or diagnosis activities.

When a ticket is initially recorded, the best that the analyst can typically do is to identify the service. In a further ticket processing, there should be an additional classification tag where the root cause can be documented and subsequently recorded and reported.

Using this approach, HelpDeskSAAS (Help Desk Software-as-a-Service) has established a support ticket Tags feature, which allow to record classification for initial support, as well as additional classification that determine the root cause. Both classification tags can be added to support ticket in any ticket state, and can be used for help desk reporting purposes.

HelpDeskSAAS Released Version 3.0 With New Design

What's New in the HelpDeskSAAS?

New features for chart & report creation, enhanced knowledgebase article editing, four different layout design schemes, and much more.

On May 01, 2011, HelpDeskSAAS introduced Release 3 of its product line. Help Desk SAAS Software Version 3.0 provides important updates for chart and report creation, numerous data mapping enhancements, new features for knowledge base editing, almost totally new layout design, support for the latest versions of major browsers, much more!

You can access the new release using your current login credentials and learn more about HelpDeskSAAS. Visit the HelpDeskSAAS signup page to register for free 15 day Premium plan trial.

HelpDeskSAAS Improved Navigation Efficiency

HelpDeskSAAS, a leader in help desk software-as-a-service, is beginning 2010 by launching significant new upgrades to its acclaimed SaaS product. During January, the company has released version 2.2 for customers using multiple support queues to the all-new queue browsing feature.

This upgrade features an easy-to-use interface, improved Tickets mode browsing functionality. Further, the company launches its new tickets' list tags, providing essential information in a format where clarity is the key feature.

If you are not registered your account yet, we invite you to register for free 15 day Premium plan or visit HELPDESKSAAS for more info.

Help desk e-mail to ticket conversion from multiple inboxes

HelpDeskSAAS version 2.1 was released on December 20, 2010. This release includes a variety of new features, enhancements and bug fixes for a significantly improved user experience.

As already available since version 1.8, the help desk e-mail to ticket conversion feature automatically converts service request emails sent by customers to your HelpDeskSAAS email address. All support submissions can be captured and centralized in order to maintain effective customer service.

The version 2.1 introduces the enhancement to this feature. Unlike previous versions that where able to convert messages from one email address, this version provides more email addresses to which messages can be sent.

Your organization may utilize the HelpDeskSAAS across many of your existing email accounts. Simply create an action rule for each inbound email address, which will optionally move converted tickets to ticket queues such as Sales, Support, Facilities Maintenance, Human Resources (HR), Accounting, etc.

What else HelpDeskSAAS Release 2.1 brings to you?

• Simplified action rules: End user actions, Support agent actions and scheduled escalations.
• Facelift: New layout for ticket processing on both support and customer side.
• Improved overall efficiency and performances.