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Archive for help desk software

Web-based Software

By Steve · Comments (0)
Friday, February 26th, 2010

Web-based software, or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions, will account for 25% of all new business software by 2011, according to Gartner. Why are decision-makers increasingly turning to SaaS for application deployments?

Find out how to achieve business benefits through SaaS, which include:

• Higher productivity and ROI
• Lower upfront software license and staff costs
• Increased agility to scale software in meeting business change
• And more!

SaaS can make a great impact on your business’ bottom line.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or web-based software is software that is delivered via the web and priced as a monthly, quarterly, or annual subscription. It transfers the burden of implementing, maintaining and keeping the application up to date and running smoothly from the customer to the vendor. It eliminates the costs and complexities of installing and integrating hardware to support the software and hiring additional staff to support the application.

SaaS permits users to more quickly and fully leverage the software functionality. It also enables users to immediately benefit from the software vendor’s latest technological features without the disruptions and costs associated with software updates and upgrades.

All types of businesses and all sizes of organizations can benefit from web-based software. Mid-sized organizations using help desk software or customer management software stand to benefit most from this new innovation.

Today’s economic environment has intensified these companies’ needs. Customers expect more service than they got in the past couple of decades – and research shows that customers’ expectations are rising. Customer loyalty is fleeting. Competition is rising and intensifying due to globalization and eCommerce. Employees are being encouraged to work from home or forced to spend more time on the road meeting with customers and partners face-to-face. Rising costs and tightened credit are forcing organizations to tighten their operating and capital budgets.

If you are wondering if SaaS, or web-based, help desk software or customer management software would work for your company, please contact Cynergy Software at 800-349-0527.

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Categories : Customer Support Software, help desk software, Web Based CRM Software
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Help Desk Software Saves the Day!

By Steve · Comments (0)
Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Win with Help Desk SoftwareAbout a month ago I got a call from a client overseas.  They were having issues keeping track of a flood of calls that they were getting from remote users.  They had been tracking the clients in the past using emails and an Excel spreadsheet.  Thus every time they would receive a call or email, they would copy and paste the email from Outlook over to Excel, or write the info from the call into the Excel spreadsheet that they had been using for several years.  Problem was, they had to update the spreadsheet on a regular basis, and invariably they would miss tickets by not pasting the correct cells, or some of the help desk ticket calls would disappear when they pasted from one place to the other.  After a short overview of Cynergy’s ticketing system, the prospect was able to see how easy it was to log a ticket in Cynergy, and keep track of it on the user dashboard.

Help Desk Software to the Rescue!

And, the client was able to see where tickets could be ordered in any way they wanted as well as escalated from one service level to the other.   In addition, the client was able to see their customer’s information on the same screen without changing to their spreadsheet or CRM system.  Thus callbacks were much easier and more orderly.

Then yesterday, the same customer called us for some additional training on our project management system.  They had been using another Excel spreadsheet for keeping track of projects and their Outlook for scheduling those projects.  After a short training session, the client was ecstatic about some of the features they learned about, as well as a much deeper understanding of how the project manager could actually save them valuable time without having to call each other on collaborative issues.

Thus, another satisfied customer!  But more importantly, we saved them time, and made their job easier.  Now that’s what I call a Win/Win situation!

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Categories : Customer Service Management Software, help desk software, Uncategorized
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Help Desk Software

By Steve · Comments (1)
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

2010 image for Help desk agents

There are 5 distinct ways that Help Desk Software can improve your business in 2010

1.  Help Desk Software will give you a way to keep track of tickets that you have posted for a client or customer.  These tickets can be escalated automatically so nothing falls through the cracks.  They can also be monitored so that anytime a change takes place, the ticket owner can be notified of the change.

2.  Help Desk Software can also contain a calendar that allows the user to schedule installs, moves, adds, changes, just about any event that takes place can be scheduled and tracked.  These scheduled events can also be alarm coded to notify people prior to the event so they don’t lose the date or schedule of the event.  This also allows management to view all of the users and their status on any given day.

3.  Trouble Ticket Software systems generally contain a KnowledgeBase module that can help the agent solve issues.  The knowledge center or knowledge library can also give the agent a resource for getting to resolutions in a short amount of time.  Some of these modules will even allow end users to submit tickets to their portal, or use email to submit trouble tickets in an efficient manner.

4.  No Help Desk Software would be complete without a robust CRM (customer relationship management) or Contact Management system.  Generally this system will give you multiple addresses for contacts, companies, jobsites or divisions, as well as places for additional phone numbers, notes, and user defined fields to further describe the contact or client company.

5.  Imagine being able to see a listing of ALL of the customer service issues within your organization that are outstanding, along with the status, user assignment, and estimated time of resolution.  These helpful dashboards are a great way to allow owners and managers to be able to keep track of their help desk tickets, and improve their business.

Help Desk Software does not have to be expensive.  There are many affordable systems available today.  Just make sure that you choose one that is easy for your agents to learn and use, and one that you can grow into.  Because as you improve your customer service, you are going to improve your business.

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Improve Your Business in 2010 through Web-based Helpdesk Software

By Steve · Comments (0)
Monday, January 11th, 2010

Improve Your Business in 2010 through Web-based Helpdesk Software

Helpdesk Software will improve your business in 2010. The recession is over – or so they tell us. However, most of our companies are not yet in recovery mode. Therefore, the question is: How do we improve business in 2010? How can Helpdesk Software improve business in 2010?

To better understand how helpdesk software will help your company improve its performance in 2010, take stock of the various customer touchpoints. Does your company use each of these? How does each relate to the others? Which type of customers most often use which touchpoint? What do they do if that does not solve their problem or answer their question? Touchpoints include:

- Web Self-service
- Interactive voice response
- Contact center agents
- Face-to-face

Your helpdesk software must allow your clients to help themselves using the internet. Some companies call this web-based help desk software or Software as a Service (SaaS) . The software must do two things at this touchpoint: it must have a database of questions and answers that the client can access and it must generate a help ticket that alerts a contact center agent.

Often the database of questions and answers will be sufficient to answer the client’s questions and solve the problem. When it does not provide the solution, the customer must have a method for generating a help or trouble ticket that provides a live person enough information to provide help to the customer through e-mail or a telephone call. This ticket should also be trackable throughout the system. For example, if the customer calls the agent back two weeks later, both of them should be able to see that ticket and what the agent did to resolve the problem. The agent’s boss or other colleagues should be able to access the ticket to continue the process of resolving the problem. And managers should also be allowed to see the time taken, number of people involved, and other history to the ticket. Each of the agents and managers should also be able to see the same database of questions and answers that the client sees so that they understand what he is talking about and can correct any misunderstandings.

Interactive voice response, chat, contact center agents, and face-to-face techs all employ real people to solve clients’ problems. Many clients prefer to “talk” to a real person. However, this is a more expensive option for the company. There are many ways in which to slash the amount of time these people are involved in each case. One of the simplest, yet most effective, is to incorporate the ticketing process into the company’s e-mail program to keep everyone in the loop. Tickets can be initiated from the customer or from a company employee. This increases customer satisfaction and professionalism, decreases time for each task, and increases the accountability of each company employee as well as increasing overall company profitability.

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Help Desk Software: 3 Humorous Things to Think About

By Steve · Comments (0)
Monday, December 21st, 2009

Help Desk Software: 3 Humorous Things to Think About

If you are a Help Desk Agent, you have spent many hours waiting on the next phone call or e-mail and many more hours chasing down answers to customers’ concerns. What do you do during those idle hours? Have you got any really good or really funny thoughts or activities in which you engage?

Let’s take a look at three things help desk agents think about during their idle hours:

1. What does the customer look like? It is true the “customer” is probably a company in many cases, but the person who calls or e-mails is a real live person. What does that person look like? What is his role in the company? One great way to answer those questions is to start imagining Dilbert comic strip characters like dorky Dilbert, air-head Alice, awful Asok, elevated Ellen, or the diligent Dog. Check them out.

2. How am I supposed to get everything done that is expected of me? This one is a little like the recent For Better or For Worse comic strip. The kids and mom are Christmas shopping and see a Santa at the mall, one ringing a bell for the Salvation Army on the street corner, etc. One child looks at Mom and asks, “Mom, how come there are so many Santas?” Mom says, “maybe they’re all Santa Claus?” and the boy wonders, “Is that possible?” to which the Mom replies, “The job of being a Santa is pretty special . . . it’s just like the job of being a Mom. Everyone expects you to do everything and be everywhere at the same time!”

3. How could they break our product like that?! What did they do to it? Perhaps the thoughts turn to The Nutcracker and the broken nutcracker! Must have a been a jealousy thing. From there the imaginations run wild! Check out the story.

Give us some ideas about humorous things you or your help desk agents think about.

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Categories : Help Desk Humor, help desk software
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Fast, Effective Help Desk Responses Build Loyalty and Revenue

By Steve · Comments (0)
Friday, December 18th, 2009

Fast, Effective Help Desk Responses Build Loyalty and Revenue

Responding quickly and effectively to customers’ concerns builds loyalty to your brand. It is well documented that customers who experience problems with a company’s products or services to which the company responds promptly and effectively are even more satisfied with and loyal to the company than are customers who never experience a problem.

- Fast, effective responses show that your organization views its customers’ concerns as high priorities.

- Fast, effective responses eliminate (or greatly reduce) the time your customers spend worrying about or wondering whether their concerns will be addressed.

- Fast, effective responses eliminate or reduce the need for your customers to investigate alternative solutions or workarounds to address their concerns.

One of the most productive and highest-payoff applications of corporate resources is responding to feedback from profitable customers and addressing their concerns quickly. The moment a customer expresses dissatisfaction is the very moment at which an organization, through its response, can most influence customer retention, recurring revenues, and customer lifetime value. A satisfied customer will become loyal and will tell others; a dissatisfied customer will broadcast far and wide his dissatisfaction, driving business away.

Your help desk or customer management software is your first line of defense when a customer expresses a concern or his dissatisfaction. That software must immediately open a ticket (sometimes called a case) and notify the correct team or person to deal with the issue. It must also make it easy for that person or team to include other team members from across the organization without re-explaining the issue or what has previously been done. Therefore, real-time alerts and real-time collaboration are key elements to fast, effective responses.

Having a KnowedgeBased Software can certainly take a load off your customer support agents and make their job easier.  It will also give answers to your customers which can certainly increase their confidence in your willingness to deliver world class support customer service.

Your software must have escalation rules set up and must generate a deadline for resolution in order to keep the process moving quickly and smoothly to completion in a timely manner. It must provide quick and easy access to a well-structured knowledge base. By tracking who has done what (and when), your software will eliminate duplication of effort and streamline responses to the customer.

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Categories : Customer Service Management Software, Customer Support Software, help desk software
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What Does Your Help Desk Need?

By Steve · Comments (0)
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

What Does Your Help Desk Need?

It is obvious that a Help Desk needs to help customers. But what are some of the ways in which a Help Desk should be helping customers? And are there ways in which a Help Desk can actually help your company?

Let’s look at five ways a Help Desk should help customers:

1. A Help Desk should speed and coordinate responses to customer concerns.

2. A Help Desk should build the satisfaction and loyalty of all customers.

3. A Help Desk should be able to save the customers who are at risk of discontinuing to use your products or services.

4. A Help Desk should disseminate information across departments and collect responses from various departments to speed effective answers to customers and inform the correct departments of potential problems.

5. A Help Desk should use software that can aid in the above functions without adding a great deal of cost to the company.

Since the Help Desk will be saving customers and answering their concerns, that Help Desk will be adding the future value of those customers’ loyalty and continued use of the company’s products or services. This increases the overall customer lifetime value.

The Help Desk will also be gathering information for future use on customer likes and dislikes and on what does or does not work well about the products or services. This translates to significantly increased profitability through new or improved products or services or different marketing of those products or services.

Through that process and the record-keeping that accompanies it, the company can make improvements to its products and services and cash in on the value of long-term satisfied customers. The Help Desk, therefore, adds long-term profitability to the company.

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3 Help Desk Solutions

By Steve · Comments (0)
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

There are any number of ways to Organize and run a help desk.  This blog post is for the existing helpdesk organization and is meant to give them 3 ideas to improve the environment of the service desk organization.

3 Ways to Improve Your Help Desk

1.  Are you surveying your customers at the end of each month?  Or just when business hits a low?

How happy are your customers really?  The only way to really find out is the call them.  If you have a thousand customers, sending out written or electronic surveys may possibly send up a few flares, but most customers don’t have time to sit and fill out a survey, and if they do, they don’t really give you enough details to allow you to improve your organization.  The only way that you are going to do that is to work at it each month.  Set aside 4 hours every other week to sit down and call your largest clients.  Just check in with them to see how things are going.  Look at the sales trends within your organization, if you have a customer that shows promise in the upward curve, make it a point to check in with them to see how you can improve their business.  Pay little attention to the bottom 50% of your customer sales report unless you can pick out one that is climbing the chart.  In most cases, the top 20-30% make up 80% of the sales anyway.  And I’m not saying to ignore the bottom 50% with mediocre customer service, I am simply saying that the top of the pyramid will give you better answers to improve your business.  Make the information and notes that you take away from these calls public for your staff.   I suggest that top management perform this tasks, and before you know it, it will have a trickle down effect to the rank and file.  And people will notice.

2.  Are you surveying your Company?  Or just listening to the squeaky wheels?

Your staff is a good barameter on your customer’s as well.  Have short but informative meetings with them as a group to discuss the last month’s customer service tickets and how the issue was resolved.  Also pay attention to how quickly the issue was resolved.  You don’t have to reward your people for giving good service.  Recognition is generally the best reward.

3.  Are you surveying your employees?

Surveying your employees is necessary if you are going to continue to deliver first class customer service.  Are your people happy in their jobs?  Do they have the tools necessary to be able to do their jobs correctly.  Are there particular customers that are making their jobs more difficult, and could these clients be shifted to other reps for efficiency?  Nothing can tarnish your customer support faster than a bad apple.  We strongly suggest that our clients record every phone call that takes place on the system.  By monitoring these calls on a frequent basis, you can determine the level of service that your customers are getting.  Just by having the recordings take place let’s your staff know that you are going to be checking in with them on a regular basis.

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Categories : Help Desk, help desk software, Uncategorized
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What Does Your Active Ticket Help Desk Software Need?

By Steve · Comments (0)
Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Do you need a web based help desk software that easily tracks and manages customer and/or end-user e-mails? Does it need to efficiently track and manage trouble tickets? Does it need to create a trouble ticket for an entire department or group?

If your company provides active ticket customer support to many users but you only have one or two IT technicians, you need a help desk software that:
- Uses trouble ticket rules to automatically escalate
- Can provide ticket templates for repetitive issues
- Has unlimited user-defined fields
- Is permission driven
- Notifies managers of ticket and issue responses
- Tracks time spent on issues
- Prints tickets
- Provides customizable reports
- Gives the options of searching trouble tickets by any field and viewing ticket histories withing the customer or conact record

If any of this sounds interesting to you, contact us for more information or a free trial today.

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Categories : help desk software, Web Based CRM Software

Turning to Web Based Customer Support

By Steve · Comments (0)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

  Turning to Web Based Customer Support for Improved Customer Retention

I had searched for different ideas to improve our customer support for quite some time.  In our business, clients don’t wait for solutions; they either get them from us, or find another vendor.  And our current method was costing us clients.  We tried excel spreadsheets, whiteboards, and writing our own system, but our people just wouldn’t use them because they were either too difficult to use, or took too much time.

I tried outsourcing thinking that if the company providing the customer service was able to focus solely upon our customer support using supplied scripts and answers, they would be able to answer our clients questions and provide them with a better level of service than our internal people.  Plus I figured that I could finally get some reports on how many of our clients were calling, what they were calling about, and how long it would take us to get a resolution for their issue.  Well, the outsourcing was a disaster.  Clients kept asking questions that we failed to get into the knowledge base for the outsourced help desk.  Even though we used a US based help desk, and they in turn had an impressive Web Based Help Desk Software system that was giving us answers each week regarding the number of calls, subject of the call, and resolution, our clients were still frustrated at the lack of information or response time for answers.  I called the outsourced help desk one day and experienced the same result so I knew something had to change.  I asked the help desk company executives what they were using to track issues and deliver reports but they were hesitating to tell me because they obviously knew I was frustrated, and didn’t want to lose my business. 

So I called back into their help desk one day pretending to be a customer of my own, and after a lengthy description of my problem, as the help desk agent was reading from the knowledge base article they had looked up, I complemented them on their great customer service.  They said, well, “this software makes it easy.” And I asked, “Really, what kind is it?”  And they responded, “Well, I think it is ours, because our company information is all over it, but the powers to be around here refer to it as Cynergy Help Desk, so I think they developed it for us

So I did a web search for Cynergy Web Based Customer Support, and found a company named Cynergy Help Desk Software.  Their engineers listened to my issues, and showed me how Cynergy could improve our organization.  And it was more affordable than I expected.  Cynergy delivered the solution in less than 10 days, trained my customer support people on the application, and were there every time we needed help on the system.  And the best part?  Our people loved it!  It was easy to use, easy to get reports from, and our customers appreciated the extra effort we put forth to give them a system that delivered great service in a timely manner. 

We still work hard to deliver great customer support, and it is truly hard work, but saving clients and improving our customer support has just gotten better and better and that’s what our business is all about.  I love a happy ending.

Willam Kary

CEO

Impact Sales Solutions

 William Kary is CEO of Impact Sales Solutions.  A medium sized company with over 100 employees in Toledo, OH that delivers customer contact and support to some of the leading newspapers in the U.S.  Mr. Kary lives in Long Boat Key, FL.

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Categories : Customer Service Management Software, Customer Support Software, help desk software, Uncategorized
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