In an era where exceptional customer support is a hallmark of success, the choice of helpdesk software becomes critical. The right customer service software can be a game-changer to enhance business efficiency and elevate your brand's reputation.
Selecting the right helpdesk software is not just a decision; it is a strategic investment that can reshape how your business serves its customers. Utilizing customer support software, also known as helpdesk software, can help your business in these ways:
- A quicker and more accurate resolution to customer issues will increase customer satisfaction and improve the overall experience.
- Better experience for support teams owing to automation, eliminating redundancy, and improving efficiency.
- Monitoring buyer behavior across various touchpoints, resulting in an improved customer journey.
- Better brand-customer relationship as a result of frictionless service and support experience.
Customer support and communication software are the foundation of a prosperous business, so you must select software that meets your business requirements. But how to go about it? Let us find that out in this blog.
Also read: Why Top Support Teams Are Turning To AI Assistants For Success
Things to consider when selecting a helpdesk software suite
Purchasing customer service software for support teams can be tricky for businesses. The software market is flooded with numerous options. Choosing a software out of the many options that are available out there can be time-consuming and can even hurt your enterprise in the long run if you pick a software with basic functionalities. But you do not have to worry—we are here to make selecting the perfect customer support software a hassle-free experience.
Whatever the size of your business, you need helpdesk software that serves as a central point of contact to address your business’s internal and external queries or issues. Reliable support and memorable customer experiences cannot become a reality if you depend on traditional communication channels like email and telephone.
Before proceeding with the customer service software selection process, it is important to identify the various hurdles enterprises face when creating a frictionless customer experience.
- Inadequate technology
- Inability to comprehend and build customer journeys
- Poor quality of service and support
- Agent competency
- Reducing service and support turnaround times (TAT)
- Balancing efficiency metrics
To provide stellar customer service and support, your customer support software should be able to resolve the above-mentioned issues. That is why increasing investment in new tools and technology is imperative for customer support centers to thrive in today’s highly competitive business environment.
Also read: Less Stress, More Success: Minimize Workloads In Support Centers
Checklist to choose the right helpdesk software suite
Choosing the right helpdesk software is a pivotal step for any business aiming to excel in customer support. Here's a comprehensive checklist of features to prioritize before making your investment.
1. Identify your business needs
Before selecting helpdesk software, it is important to identify your business needs. You should consider factors such as the size of your business, the number of support agents you have, and the types of support channels you want to offer.
2. Evaluate the helpdesk software features
Once you have identified your business needs, evaluate the features offered by different helpdesk software. Evaluating helpdesk software features is a critical step in finding the right solution for your business, as each feature serves as a building block in constructing a robust customer support system.
ThinkOwl offers cloud-based and AI-powered customer service software with the following features that make your support functions super easy.
- Case Management
- Multichannel Support
- Conversation Bot
- Live Chat
- Service Level Agreements
- Business Process Modeling
- Software Integration
- Artificial Intelligence
- AI-powered Productivity Tools
- Workflow Automation
- Smart Content Tools
- Knowledge—Digital Library
- Self-Service Portal
- Customer Survey
- Analytics and Reports
- Data Security and Compliance
3. Look for an intuitive user interface
A seamless user interface and easy navigation in customer service software can help support centers improve efficiency, reduce training time, provide a better customer experience, reduce errors, and improve collaboration.
Intuitive software with excellent UI (user interface) and easy navigation greatly enhances the user’s experience. Not only can users quickly learn how to use the software, but they also find the features they need to perform tasks efficiently, thus improving productivity and enhancing satisfaction.
4. Integration with existing tools
Businesses often work with more than one enterprise application. Your customer support and communication software should be future-proof. That is to say, it should be able to integrate with your legacy on-premises systems easily. As a result, your team can process entire cases and trigger processes without having to access any other enterprise application.
5. Security and compliance
Check if your new helpdesk software conforms to the latest data protection and security guidelines issued from time to time by law enforcement authorities. Security and compliance within your customer support software protect your client data. A robust and secure system gives your customers peace of mind and the confidence to conduct business with your brand, besides upholding your commitment to safeguarding valuable data.
6. Software demonstration and free trial
Demonstrations and free trials are among the most important stages in your software purchase journey. When you sign up for a free trial, you get to see the product in action and decide whether it fulfills your requirements. You get an opportunity to understand the software's features and functionality and how it will benefit you. You also get to evaluate its performance and ease of use before making a purchase commitment. Sign up for a free 30-day trial of AI-powered customer service software.
7. Consider the pricing and product reviews
Before making a final decision, read reviews and ratings of different helpdesk software. This will give you an idea of what other users think about the software and how it has worked for them.
Also, look for help desk software that offers flexible pricing plans that can be customized according to your business needs. Many helpdesk softwares offer free trials that allow you to test the software before making a purchase decision. Take advantage of these free trials to get a feel for the software and see if it meets your business needs.
8. Availability of AI-powered features
AI-powered features in your helpdesk software can potentially transform how businesses interact with their customers. They can provide quick solutions, personalized services, and instant support, helping businesses improve customer satisfaction, reduce response time, and build long-term relationships. A few AI-powered tools that improve the quality of your customer support operations include:
- Conversation bots / chatbots: Conversation bots are instrumental for business growth and directly impact your organization’s overall customer satisfaction (C-Sat) score. Virtual assistants and AI-powered chatbots via text and messenger platforms are examples of conversational tools that aid customers and promote self-service, thus reducing pressure on live support teams.
- Sentiment analysis: Sentiment analysis is a natural language processing (NLP) technique that involves the use of computational algorithms to determine and understand customer sentiments or the emotional tone of their messages. The main goal of sentiment analysis is to identify whether the expressed sentiment is positive, negative, or neutral. This helps businesses better understand customer needs and preferences and tailor their services accordingly.
- Predictive analytics and predictive suggestions: Predictive analytics is a technique that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) algorithms to analyze customer data and predict future behavior. Predictive analytics helps businesses anticipate customer needs and provide personalized services.
On the other hand, predictive suggestions help your support agents by providing suggestions or resolutions that help close the tickets in the shortest possible time. The AI learns from actual use cases and emulates behavior similar to live support agents. Faster and accurate responses ensure that customers are satisfied, and the extra help ensures your support teams do not have to focus on repetitive tasks and are happy as well.
Conclusion
Your helpdesk software is the foundation of excellent customer service and helps you upgrade your support operations. Besides improving your service team's experience and easing their workload, your customer support software should enable seamless communication, allowing various teams to communicate and converse.
Your service agents should be able to collaborate on difficult tickets, communicate with customers, manage communication across multiple channels, and automate most routine and time-consuming tasks. Ultimately, that would translate into a stellar experience for them while serving customers. ThinkOwl offers an intelligent helpdesk software that combines advanced features with the powers of AI. This solution not only aids your support teams in being more productive but also helps maintain a standard of efficient customer service experiences. Book a free demo!
