Most small businesses focus on building their brands by providing top-quality products or services and excellent customer experiences. However, manually managing customer support process is quite challenging in the modern world, especially for startups.
Let’s look at this, as a Customer Service Manager, you get to work in the morning and get tons of support emails waiting for your response. Where do you start from and how do you know which ones are urgent?
Categorizing and allocating them to the appropriate agents will definitely take time. Your support team might be overwhelmed with tasks and even experience burnouts. Customers are likely to get impatient or even churn. That’s where a help desk software for small businesses comes in.
Customer support operations are now performed automatically, in a streamlined and fast fashion. No more manually handling all customer concerns, you now have all company information in a central platform, repetitive tasks are a thing of the past, among others benefits.
In this blog, we will discuss why small businesses require help desk software, some of the best help desk solutions, and how to choose the perfect one. Let’s dive in.
Why do you need a help desk software for small businesses?
Technology has certainly made work easier for most industries, including customer service. While shifting from personal customer service to a small business help desk software may seem challenging, the risk is worth the reward. Here’s why.
Higher levels of agent productivity
A report by LinkedIn has shown that investing in AI ticketing systems can increase agent productivity by prioritizing up to 20% of the tickets.
By using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate responses, and sentiment analysis, as well as providing agents with knowledge instantly, customer issues can be resolved promptly.
Support agents have become highly productive by automating repetitive tasks and assigning tickets to agents based on their abilities.
Lastly, the task management feature breaks down procedures into smaller steps, leading to faster ticket resolutions and more efficient agents.
Ease of accessibility
The omnichannel support feature offers agents a centralized location for managing and resolving customer concerns across all communication channels.
Multilingual support reduces problems arising due to language barriers and makes support services more efficient. With these new opportunities, agents can easily reach out to customers without reducing the quality of customer service.
Enhance collaboration
Agents can easily collaborate with internal teams using a shared inbox, internal notes, @mentions, ticket sharing, ticket status, etc. This allows support agents to share knowledge among themselves for efficient ticket resolution.
Improve data collection and reporting
Reporting and analytics features allow for data collection as well as tracking customer service KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Some of the metrics include customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), first response time, and ticket volume.
The tracked metrics can be used to generate reports for data-driven decision-making and the provision of better customer experience.
Better security for customer information
Help desk security features such as roles and permissions, IP restrictions, password policies, and audit logs limit access of information to authorized agents only.
Additionally, support agents now have dedicated portals where to directly address customer concerns once a ticket is created. Each agent has a secure account protected by unique usernames and passwords.
These security measures ensure that only the assigned agent can access their account, safeguarding customer data and enhancing privacy.
How to choose the best small business help desk software
Choosing the appropriate small business help desk software can be challenging when you are not aware of all the necessary information and factors to consider.
To ease the burden for you, check out these important factors that will help you decide.
- Target objectives and needs: Ask your support team and other departments about the major problems affecting overall customer service. Use the information to choose a help desk that will help solve those support issues, thus achieving your set business objectives.
- Pricing: Most help desk solutions offer various pricing plans or packages to meet different business demands. The preferred tool must be within your budget, but still include all or most of the features you need.
- Scalability: A help desk that updates its features regularly and can accommodate businesses of all sizes is preferable. Check out their product updates page. The ideal help desk tool must have room for growth to meet the ever-changing customer needs.
- Easy to use: Pick a help desk that is easy to set up, has a user-friendly interface, and your team can easily navigate through for more efficiency and convenience. Avoid technical and complex ones.
- Features: The best IT help desk ticketing system for small businesses should include the basic must-have features for ticket management and keep updating or adding new features to fit the latest trends.
- Integration: Consider if the help desk can support the integrations with your company’s favorite tools and third-party apps, for more streamlined customer support operations and efficiency.
- Security: Consider the levels of security required for your business. Find the right small business help desk software with the proper security features to protect your customers’ data and the access agent require.
- Available channels for support: Check the provided communication channels for support, such as email, live chat, social media, messaging, chatbot, etc. The best small business help desk software should either offer multichannel or omnichannel support for streamlined communication.
A comparison chart of the best IT help desk ticketing system for small business (2024)
The following summary table consists of the best small business help desk software in the market today, with their respective top features and pricing plans. Find the information you need and match it to your business requirements:
| Help desk software | Pricing | Free Trial | Features |
| BoldDesk | Starts at $12 agent/month | 15 days |
|
| LiveAgent | Starts at $9 per agent/month | 14- or 30-days |
|
| Help Scout | Starts at $22 per user/month | 15 days |
|
| Kustomer | Starts at $89 per user/month | Unavailable |
|
| ServiceNow | Customized | Upon request |
|
| Spiceworks | Free | Free |
|
| SupportBee | Starts at $13 per company mailbox/month | 14 days |
|
| Front | Starts at $19 per feat/month | 7 days |
|
| HappyFox | Starts at $39 per agent/month | Unavailable |
|
| Jira Service Management | Starts at $17.65 per agent/month | Unavailable |
|
| Hiver | Starts at $19 per user/month | 7 days |
|
Best ticketing system for small business to consider
For any small business to thrive, it must know the right tools available to provide exceptional customer service.
Let’s have a look at these top help desk software for small businesses that you can use with ease:
1. BoldDesk
BoldDesk is a leading modern help desk software for small businesses with simple yet powerful functionalities to manage and resolve customer concerns seamlessly. With numerous features, it aims to enhance the overall customer experience.
This is how it works:
- With a ticketing system feature, every incoming customer request is automatically converted into a ticket, routed, and assigned to the right support agents. This keeps all concerns well-organized and easily manageable.
- The workflow automation feature handles manual and repetitive tasks to improve agent productivity and ensure smooth workflow operations.
- Document, store, and manage all company information in one place using BoldDesk’s knowledge base software. This optimizes knowledge sharing both internally among employees and externally with customers.
- Using artificial intelligence (AI), agents can proactively understand customer sentiments and streamline communication with them. Agents can also quickly provide information or responses to customers based on AI-generated suggestions, thus reducing instances of agent error.
- As a small business, you can easily incorporate your favorite tools or third-party apps through BoldDesk’s integration feature.
- Our help desk’s live chat software lets agents quickly respond to customer requests from various communication channels. This streamlines customer service experiences and boosts agent productivity.
- Its customization capabilities make it possible to customize your help desk to match your brand’s style and preferences.
- Streamline support for the high volumes of customer issues coming from the multiple communication platforms with BoldDesk’s omnichannel inbox. It ensures all customer concerns are received in once centralized location, where support agents can easily manage them in a timely manner.
- To ensure that your agents are always within reach, there is a mobile help desk feature allowing agents to respond to and resolve customer requests from any location.
- If your clients are in different locations globally, our multilingual help desk feature helps to break the language barrier by providing support in the customers’ preferred language.
- Through the reports and analytics feature, you can measure and track relevant performance metrics such as ticket volumes, response times, agent performance, and more. The gathered insights help businesses to make informed decisions from real-time data.
To top it all, in the released G2 Summer Awards 2024, BoldDesk was recognized and awarded a leader badge in the small business help desk software category.
It clearly highlights BoldDesk’s dedication and commitment to serve small businesses and achieve their goals.
Key features
- Ticketing system
- Live chat
- Task management
- Workflow automation
- Omnichannel support
- Knowledge base
- Mobile helpdesk
- AI
- Apps and integrations
- Report and analytics
- Multilingual helpdesk
Pricing
Agent-based pricing plans for small businesses
- Free for startups for one year
- Scale: $12/agent/month
- Momentum: $25/agent/month
- Enterprise: $39/agent/month
Free trial period: 15 days
2. Kustomer
Kustomer is another help desk mainly used as a customer engagement platform. With an omnichannel support system, they help businesses provide better customer experiences.
Key features
- Real-time analytics
- Chatbots
- Integrations
- Automation
Pricing
- Starts from $89 per user/month
3. ServiceNow
ServiceNow is an ideal help desk software for small businesses, mainly used for managing IT services. It has advanced features that help small businesses that require a scalable and efficient tool specializing in IT Service Management (ITSM).
Key features
- Change management system
- SLA management
- Integrations
- Configuration management
Pricing
- Contact ServiceNow
4. Spiceworks
Spiceworks is a cloud-based help desk software for small businesses with features to improve team collaboration, automatic ticket management, and optimize support operations.
Key features
- Automation
- Customizable knowledge base
- Customization
- Ticket management
Pricing
- Free
5. SupportBee
SupportBee is a help desk software for small businesses that improves customer support with its ticketing system and knowledge base software.
Key features
- Ticketing system
- Knowledge base software
- Shared inbox
- Customer portal
Pricing
- Plan starts at $13 per mailbox/month
6. Front
Front is an AI-driven small business help desk software with many collaborations and interaction features that simplify communication between customers and support agents and enhance your support team’s workflow.
Key features
- Integrations
- Shared inbox
- Workflow automation
- Multichannel support
Pricing
- Plan starts from $19 per seat/month
7. HappyFox
HappyFox is a help desk software for small business that uses a ticketing system to manage customer concerns. Integrated with Microsoft Teams, agents can optimize their workflow and resolve customer concerns.
Key features
- Integrated with Microsoft Teams
- Multichannel support
- Workflow automation
- Reporting and analytics
Pricing
- Plan starts from $9 per agent/month
8. Jira Service Management
Jira Service Management is your go-to small business help desk software with appropriate features for incident, asset, change, and request management.
Key features
- Integrated with Slack and Microsoft Teams
- Ticketing system
- Live chat
- Service level agreement
Pricing
- Plan starts from $22 per month
9. Hiver
Hiver is a help desk that has been integrated with Gmail for email management.
It blends smoothly with Gmail’s interface, allowing support agents to communicate with clients through email.
Key features
- Shared inbox
- Multichannel support
- Workflow automation
- Works seamlessly with Google Workspace
Pricing
- Plan starts from $19/user/month
10. LiveAgent
LiveAgent is another option to consider for your small business help desk software solutions. It comes equipped with different features that streamline customer support operations. One of its top features is that it has an extensive free plan.
Key features
- Email ticketing
- Customer Portal
- Customer forum
- Integration with iOS/Android apps
Pricing
- Starts from $9 per agent/month
11. Help Scout
Help Scout is a help desk tool that values communication for any business. It offers a shared inbox to keep your support team organized.
Key features
- Shared inbox
- Knowledge base
- Live chat
- WhatsApp integration
Pricing
- Plan starts at $22 per user/month
Discover the perfect help desk software for small businesses (2024)
When selecting the best ticketing system for small businesses, make sure to base your decision on thorough research.
Consider factors such as available features, budget, and scalability. When searching for the best small business help desk software, ensure you choose a solution that fully addresses all your expectations.
With BoldDesk, you can rest assured of efficient customer service delivery, outstanding team productivity and collaboration, and high customer satisfaction scores.
Start a 15-day free trial or book a live demo to start your journey. For further inquiries on our support ticketing system for small business, BoldDesk, please contact our support team which is more than ready to help you every step of the way.
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