What is Help Desk Software?

Help Desk software is a centralized portal where customers or internal team members can submit questions, receive product support, or resolve technical issues efficiently through an automated ticketing system.

Most help desk software systems leverage a ticket system that gives the customer or team member the option to select the type of support they need and submit their question using menus or free-form text boxes. Once this information is submitted, the system creates a ticket and moves the request into queue, according the nature of the request and which department should receive it to provide assistance.

Your staff can work through tickets in order of priority or submission to provide answers and support in a streamlined, organized fashion that is all tracked and stored in your system, creating a record of all the communication and work that took place from the time the ticket was opened until the issue was resolved. Using help desk software ensures that customer or team support requests are handled in a timely manner and gives your support teams the tools they need to work more efficiently. 

Help Desk Software Vs. Contact Center Software

While help desk software and contact center software solutions are both rooted in service, these two systems are typically used in quite different ways.

Help desk software is typically used by companies to provide internal technical support to their own teams or help track work done in certain releases and upgrades to their systems. It may also be used by companies who offer technology-based services, as a way to manage technical requests and questions. 

On the other hand, contact center software provides a full suite of multi-channel (email, phone, chat, etc) tools that are intended to serve customers and help them with questions, resolve issues related to products or services, or upsell them to other products. Contact center software tracks customer interactions and provides tools to analyze customer behavior and patterns with advanced analytics. A contact center may actually support many departments within a company, including inbound customer care as well as outbound sales and marketing.

The top features in Help Desk software include:

• Ticketing automation
• Customizable ticket submission forms
• Grouping of related tickets
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
• Tags for organizing tickets
• Customizable ticket pages by customer or employee
• Customizable, individual ticket queues
• Customizable ticket statuses (other than just “open” or “closed”)
• Control of public and private ticket updates and actions
• Inventory integration

The benefits of Help Desk software include:

• Streamlined, efficient management of tech support requests and issues.
• Enhanced visibility into all open issues, for staff and customers, from the time a ticket is opened until it’s resolved.
• Improved agent and technical support productivity and organization.
• Fewer missed service or support requests.
• Simplified operations and more ease in meeting SLAs.

The level of service that customers and internal employees expect has increased substantially thanks to the conveniences and speed of technology and how it supports service today. Help desk software will continue to innovate along with this trend to ensure that solutions offer all the tools that a company needs to provide superior support and keep pace with the demands that puts on staff. 

Support and service is becoming more popular on social channels, and many consumers will seek help, advice, and support through social channels. Help desk software (along with other software solutions) are becoming more robust in how they integrate with social channels and will continue to provide tools to support this trend.