Freshdesk

FreshDesk is a cloud based customer support management software that is cloud based and very simple to use. There is a free option with up to three agents which is exceptional for small support teams and start ups. The paid plans start at $15 per month, per user and move upwards to $70 per month, per user for their premium plan. There are five plans in total and each upgrade adds 3-4 new options in your account. Personally, I don't see much need for many of these tools beyond their basic paid plan if I were to need more than three agents. But the time tracking and game mechanics at $16 per month, per user would probably be my choice. When I first logged into my account I found it very straightforward and super easy to learn. Within just a couple of minutes I felt comfortable using this support system. I don't think customer support software could be setup much simpler than this actually. Well done. There are a lot of integration options for FreshDesk which is great. Including popular Google Apps for business, CRM's, survey software, email software, calendar software, file storage software and lots more. As I mentioned the time tracking and game mechanics options included for $16 per month, per user are awesome features that allow me to reward usage and increase productivity with fun game mechanics and track my ROI and support team efficiency with time tracking. These features differentiate this software in the customer support management market. The social media engagement component is useful enabling users to integrate Facebook and Twitter and then respond directly from inside FreshDesk in these social channels. It would be very easy to bring large teams on quickly using FreshDesk. The learning curve is incredibly low and this is a key feature to consider in your search for the best support solution. There is a community portal option where you can engage brand advocates with multi-timezone and multi-language support. You can also set up workflow automation to further maximize efficiency and productivity. The reporting functionality is a solid feature to have also. Allowing you to gain insight with an overall view and history of tickets and responses. I also like that customers have the ability to view their ticket status and history as well as rating the support.

There could be greater personalization options when responding. Larger support forms could become complicated as there is not conditional logic functionality or the ability to create multiple forms. The reporting features are somewhat limited but this can be overcome with an analytics add-on integration available. I've read multiple accounts of customer support not being the greatest and that it's not North American based which makes it challenging for English speaking people to understand foreign accents. Not a big deal to me as long it is helpful support and we can communicate in an relatively efficient manner. There is confusion by some stating that it is difficult to submit a support ticket based on the communication language in the form itself. Perhaps better customization options would be a nice feature to include here to allow users in various industries select the submit button text and other language to be more culturally and demographically appropriate.

FreshDesk is a very good software for customer support management. The pricing is very reasonable and they have features I've not seen yet in other related softwares. You can engage in an organized, systematic, semi-automated process to provide product information with a knowledge base, answer pre-sales questions, resolve technical issue and give endorsements all in one centralized easy to use dashboard. With a free trial available including all the essential and professional functionality you need to have a full blown customer support desk setup within a few minutes I give FreshDesk my highest recommendation.