The business sector today is more about products and services. Businesses need to have social media and web influence because modern customers are internet and tech savvier than before. This is why businesses need a viable support and query management element where they can easily help customers with issues related to their product and services.
We live in a tech-oriented world where people resort to social media or the internet to convey their issues or queries. Help Desk software tools are convenient and efficient tools that help businesses to do away with their clients’ complications and clutter to make customer support and query management much simpler.
Your business needs an open-source help desk software because it will make complicated processes much simpler, and save you a lot of resources and time. These tools will make your business more efficient.
What are Open-Source Help Desk Tools
These are convenient query and problem management systems that enable staff and customers to keep their businesses and enterprises in the loop with questions and problems from when contacted until a resolution is made.
Some of the vital elements of these tools are query management, ticket management, and support. They are good problem-solving tools that pave the way for customer satisfaction because they provide support through chat support, e-mails, toll-free numbers, websites, and SMS. Some of their functions include:
Research Base & FAQ Formulation
Open-source help desk tools simplify the query process by compiling FAQs from repeated queries. Customers are able to retrieve the FAQs at any point which saves both the staff and the customer time that would be used in the query application process.
Ticket Allotment & Management
Customer complaints are queries are usually allotted receipts and tickets by open-source help desk tools. This helps track the progress via ticket numbers from when contact is initiated to when the queries are resolved. These tools help keep track of the repeated queries then notify you of any of the queries should be dealt with together.
Automation
Help desk tools effectively automate repeat processes to save time. The software automates things like query resolution notifications and ticket allotment. These tools keep track of repeated customers to automate form filling processes.
3 Best Free Help Desk Software Tools
Freshdesk
This is a cloud-based multichannel open-source help desk solution for all enterprises. It is free and features social media ticketing, email ticketing, reporting, and knowledge-base management.
It also features Sprout, a unique selling proposition, that offers support for unlimited agents. Agents can track the status of open and closed ticked in real time using the ticket trend reporting feature. It also has four other plans – Forest, Garden, Estate, and Blossom.
These plans have expanded features like service level agreement (SLA), event-based triggers, surveys, and chat and chatbot-based support.
SysAid
This is an IT service management and help desk tool for all businesses. It is available both as an on-premise and cloud-based deployment option. The free version can be deployed on Linux and Windows servers. It can support up to 100 end users and up to two agents.
It features incident management, ticket management, knowledge-base management, workflow automation, and reporting functionalities. It has an asset management functionality, USP which allows users to track IT devices and assets. This feature helps agents easily find assets when handling queries that need hardware replacements.
They also have three paid plans – Full, Basic, and A La Carte. These paid plans are best suited for businesses that want to manage more than 100 assets and more than two agents. These plans include all the free features as well as configuration management database, patch management, SLA management, and multiple email boxes.
Zoho Desk
This is a cloud-based open-source helpdeskand customer service solution tool. The free version features an agent and ticket tracking, an email-ticketing system, a community forum, SLA management, as well as a Knowledge-base management functionality for up-to three agents.
The USP is the tool’s reporting functionality. It features agent dashboards, ticketing reports, and manager dashboards that provide business managers and supervisors a complete look at the customer support operations.
You can also upgrade to one of their three paid plans – Enterprise, Professional, and Standard for advanced features like custom ticket templates, social media ticketing, and advanced reports.
In Conclusion
These three open-source help desk tools will suit your business needs. Review the features of the tools in this list and choose one that will give you optimum business performance. We recommend comparing the free usage limits of your products and shortlist those that work for you accordingly.
