Must-Have Features Of Help Desk Software

Featured article by Ron Evan

Investing in help desk tools is a great way to create unmatched customer experiences that put you ahead of your competition. But investing in help desk software may not make the difference you wish to get if it doesn’t have the suitable features.

The right features can vary from one industry to another. However, there are some standard must-have features irrespective of your industry.

If you are new to using help desk software or want to invest in one, this post highlights the bare minimum features you may need to have on your help-desk software.

Self-Hosting Option

Self-hosting can sound like a thing of the past with the many high-security cloud options available. Even with the highest standards offered by cloud service providers, self-hosting remains the best option for organizations concerned about their data security.

Some industries like the healthcare sector have guidelines concerning data privacy, making self-hosting the only secure option for organizations in the industry.

Before investing in help-desk software for your organization, you may want to check out this guide on choosing a self-hosted help desk software to help you get it right the first time.

Multi-Channel Support

The main reason any organization invests in help-desk software is to better customer experiences. One of the best ways help-desk software can improve customer experiences is by offering multi-channel support. 

Multi-channel support is essential because every customer has their preferred communication channels and should get the same experience as another customer using a different communication channel. For example, a customer reaching out via voice call should get the same experience as one reaching out on email.

An excellent place to start is to get a help desk tool that allows for support via voice calls, text messages, email, and the organization’s website and social media platforms.

Ticket Management and Tracking

Ticketing is a core feature in any help desk management. Being a core feature does not mean that all help-desk tools in the market prioritize this feature. Therefore, you must ensure that your software of choice has ticketing capabilities to suit your business needs.

Some of the ticketing capabilities you may want to consider in help-desk software include its ability to assign, reassign, escalate, resend, route, close, and cancel tickets. You may also consider a tool that groups similar tickets for bulk actions.

Knowledge Access

When starting up, it can be possible to respond to all queries that a customer may have. But as you scale, customer support can become quite a task that can overwhelm an organization’s help desk. 

Providing a knowledge base where a customer can access knowledge about some common problems can help you ensure that not all customer queries will need a direct human interaction. 

Having a tool with an easy-to-access knowledge base should be a priority when looking to invest in a help-desk tool. A knowledge base does not help the customer only; it also provides customer care representatives to retrieve information when helping customers.

Intuitive Interface

Introducing a new system in an organization can be overwhelming for your team and can lead to poor service delivery in the initial stages of its implementation. While minor mishaps are inevitable, getting a tool with an intuitive dashboard can make the transition process smoother and fewer service delivery interruptions.

A great way of getting a tool with an intuitive dashboard based on your industry is getting a tool that has a customizable dashboard.

A customizable dashboard helps clear clutter on the dashboard allowing your team to access the features they need the most at the shortest time possible. Easy to use software also helps ensure that very little time will be spent training your workforce on using the tool.