Freshdesk

Freshdesk is an award-winning cloud-hosted customer support and helpdesk software. It simplifies support services by providing an easy-to-use interface for the customers and support team. Thus, improving customer satisfaction and experience. Companies can easily achieve streamlined workflow and automation with Freshdesk.

Since its inception in June 2011, Freshdesk has helped its customers provide exceptional customer support.

Freshworks, Inc., the parent company of Freshdesk, has used its customer support software to effectively manage its other 5 products and expand its business to more than 150,000 clients worldwide. 

Getting Started:

This Helpdesk Ticketing Software provides freemium services. It even provides a 21-day trial account of their Estate Plan (a higher version of the Software). The trial experience crafted by them is really insightful. Once you log in as an agent, Freshdesk support ensures your journey with them is perfect by providing demos via email, personal phone calls, and follow-backs.

The impeccable support provided by this Helpdesk Software gives an insight into ‘How effective your support can be using Freshdesk’.  

Features:

TICKETING

Ticketing is the Atomic Unit of any Helpdesk Productivity Software. Freshdesk hosts an informative and holistic dashboard for ticketing. Multiple actions are accessible at the fingertips.

Ticket Inbox Features

• Team Collaboration: All teams can collaborate to serve the customers with easy transfer of tickets. When faced with a development issue, the Support team can easily loop in the Development team.
• Creating and Saving Custom Views: Each Agent can create his/her custom views, which can be saved with a unique name for each view.
• Assign Status, Priority and Agent: One can quickly manage tickets by defining the Ticket Properties. The ticket status is displayed in the sidebar.
• No Work Collision: It might happen that multiple agents end up working on the same ticket. To avoid this case, Freshdesk provides an Agent Collision Detection feature. Agents can see who else is viewing or replying to a ticket using agent collision detection.
• Notification for updates on the ticket: Agents are notified about any updates on the ticket since they last opened it.
• Private Notes: Private notes can be added to tickets. These notes are hidden from the customers but can be seen by an agent who can view the ticket. These help with training new employees.

SUPPORT VIA MULTIPLE CHANNELS

Regarding Support, ‘The more, the merrier’ is true. Customers try to connect with the company in the easiest way possible. With multiple platforms available, preferences change with each customer. Freshdesk makes it easy by integrating multiple channels into a single support platform.

• Direct Email Channel:  Agents can assign, categorize and resolve email tickets formed from support. All emails to support are directly converted to tickets. These tickets can be managed via Freshdesk or Email.
• Feedback Widget Channel: This widget can be embedded anywhere on the website. It is similar to the support form, where the customer can easily input queries. Tickets are generated from this form.
• Facebook Channel: With Facebook, the helpdesk team can create curated Wall posts and direct messages to help customers easily. Moreover, Posts and Direct Messages can be easily converted into tickets.
• Twitter Channel: With Twitter, Freshdesk helps the helpdesk team find tweets related to an individual’s business. It even monitors keywords and trends for the user. Twitter mentions and DM can be converted to tickets.

PEP UP SUPPORT WITH GAMIFICATION

• Freshdesk Arcade is the Game. In this, Ticket scores are monitored for each agent. Completing tasks with better customer satisfaction adds points to the agent’s score, while negative feedback or a low response time subtracts. Agents win trophies and badges for their performance.
• Multiple quests are also available to increase the excitement and productivity of agents.
• This is how you can get started with gamification!

HELP BEFORE THEY EVEN ASK!

• Technical documentation, product tutorials, answers to frequently asked questions, and other tips can be made available by setting up a knowledge base. When a customer Googles his problem, the knowledge base can provide him with the solution. Thus, helping improve customer satisfaction and reduce ticket volume.
• Freshdesk provides Support integrated with Google  Analytics. Integration with Analytics provides insight into customer problems and guides content creation. Community Forums, too, can be easily established using Freshdesk.

REPORTING

• Freshdesk provides various reporting functions that easily equip agents with answers to the following questions:
• How is my helpdesk doing? (Helpdesk in-depth report)
• How many agents should be on shift today? (“Day of the week and hour of the day trend” report)
• Are my customers happy? (Top customer analysis report)
• Which tickets are causing the chaos? (Ticket level scrutiny)
• Who are my best agents? (Multiple metrics)
• What are my best groups? (Performance distribution report)
• What is my support team’s capacity? (Response metrics)
  
  

PERSONALIZED DASHBOARD

The visual Dashboard can observe and monitor all reports and performance indices. It provides a bird’s eye view of the Support.

INTEGRATION

• Freshdesk can be integrated with a large pool of Apps. Visit Freshdesk Marketplace to discover more.
• Unique requirements can also be catered to by creating custom Applications and sharing them on Freshdesk Marketplace.
• An easy API Integration facility is available.
  
  

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• DEVICES SUPPORTED

1. Mac
2. Web-based
3. Windows
4. Linux

• GLOBAL SUPPORT

1. Multilingual support (more than 30 languages)
2. Integratable with services like Transifex, Localize, OneSky and Google Translate.

• SECURITY

1. Custom SSL certificates
2. Trusted IP (whitelist specific IP ranges)
3. Virtual private network
4. Single Sign-on

• Pricing Model

1. Free
2. Monthly Payment
3. Yearly payment

• TARGET MARKET

1. Large Enterprises
2. Midsize Business
3. Small Business

• DEPLOYMENT

Cloud-hosted

• AVAILABLE SUPPORT

1. Phone
2. Email
3. Training
4. Live support

PROs :

• Freshdesk is free for unlimited agents in its basic plan i.e. Sprout version. Perfect for businesses without extensive support requirements.
• SLA policy is available for all pricing versions. Custom SLA policies from Estate Version.
• Quick editing of Ticket View without Apply Button.
• Tickets can be exported in CSV and XLS format with all available fields. The fields can also be customized.
• Tickets can be managed via email using special commands.
• Example: @Simonsays “status”:”pending”, “priority”:”medium”, “agent”:”John Robert” @Simonsays syntax can assign properties of the tickets without entering the Freshdesk System via a browser.

Cons :

• Setting up support via Freshdesk takes time as multiple attributes are configured.
• Images in ticket attachments open in a new tab instead of a Quick view.
• Agent Time tracking is not automated. The agent needs to punch in his time manually. It can be automated via Integration with time-tracking applications.

Personal Experience:

The Software is self-explanatory. No technical skills are required to set it up. The experience created by the Freshdesk Team is easy to comprehend and holistic. The large database of video tutorials, how-to articles, and extensive support make the adaptation of the software smooth.

With broad features, it reduces many tasks and streamlines workflow. Thus, helping its customers never to lose their customers.

Freshdesk, a product of Freshworks, is really a product that your team will love!