Thinking about the development of a cloud-based helpdesk system in 2018 from the outside seemed not the most sober idea - at first glance, there is a market, there are domestic and foreign solutions, there are also enough self-written systems. Thinking of developing a new system when you already have a large CRM development and more than 6000 “live” and active clients who constantly need something is resource madness in general. But it was these six thousand that became the reason why we undertook and wrote our helpdesk. In parallel, we conducted market research, talked with our future competitors, tortured the focus group, tested demo versions in the modest hope of understanding that everything was invented before us. But no - we did not find any reasons to stop development. And the first access to Habr in early August showed that everything was not in vain. Therefore, today it is somewhat subjective - about our observations of the world of helpdesk systems.
When technical support worked somehow not very well
The reasons that made us write our helpdesk
Our did not just appear. So, we are developers of solutions for automating small and medium-sized businesses, among which there is a flagship - RegionSoft CRM. We wrote about 90 articles about it on Habré, so the old-timers of specialized hubs have already managed to divide into haters and a support group. But if you haven’t joined yet and generally hear for the first time, then let’s explain: this is a universal desktop CRM system that is installed on the client’s server, actively refined to meet client business requirements, supported, updated, etc. And we also have several thousand clients who ask questions, send bug reports, ask for help and just want something. That is, appeals and applications - a wagon and a small cart. As a result, at a certain moment our support had an overload, hot headsets, phones and nerves, confusion with the order of tasks, priorities, and so on. For a long time we solved these problems using our desktop CRM, then tried various bug trackers and task management systems, but it was not the same. We realized that in order to work effectively, we must first of all provide our customers with the opportunity to independently and around the clock create requests (applications) and control their processing by our operators online. It follows from this that the solution should not be desktop, but cloud-based, accessible from any device and at any time. We have formulated several main conditions:
- maximum simplicity and transparency: application → clarifications → progress of work → result
- cloud client portal with maximum simplicity and linear interface: registered → logged in → wrote → checked status → chatted → satisfied
- no overpayment for functions we do not need, such as integrations with social networks, complex dashboards, client base, etc. That is, we did not need a hybrid of helpdesk and CRM.
And what do you think - we have not found such a solution. That is, we looked at more than 20 solutions, chose 12 for the test, tested 9 (why we couldn’t, we won’t say why to offend competitors, but on one of them, for example, the portal did not start - I promised in 5 minutes, and then it hung ).
All this time we have been evaluating the market and recording observations: from the positions of a development engineer, supporters and marketer. What have we learned and what has jarred us a little?
- Some helpdesks do not have client portals - that is, the client cannot see what is happening with his application, who is working with it. Almost all services boast of omnichannel (collecting applications even from Odnoklassniki), but at the same time, most do not have easy access to the service when you log in and your applications are in full view.
- Most of the helpdesks are designed specifically for the needs of the IT service, that is, they refer to ITSM services. This is certainly not bad, but many companies that have a support service (from an online store to a service center and an advertising agency) need helpdesk. Yes, solutions can be tailored to any theme, but how many extra features will be left hanging in the interface!
- There are industry-specific solutions for service centers on the market: accounting and labeling of equipment, repair services, geolocation of couriers and service workers. Again for non-service companies past.
- Universal solutions that can be customized to any business requirements are quite expensive. And of course, the setting (later you will understand why it is not finalized) - for some money. Foreign solutions are indecently expensive for the Russian market.
- Some vendors accept payment immediately for a minimum period of 3 or 6 months; you cannot rent software using the SaaS model for a month. Yes, they promise to return the “unused” money if you decide to stop using their helpdesk during this time, but this situation in itself is inconvenient, especially for micro-businesses that need to carefully control costs.
- To our great surprise, most helpdesk vendors either refused to finalize it in principle, saying that there was no such service, or sent it to the API. But even platform solutions answered that, in principle, they could help, “but you better try it yourself - a full-time programmer will figure it out.” Well, we have them, but who doesn't?!
- More than half of the solutions have an overloaded interface and, as a result, staff training is required, since this all needs to be somehow navigated. Suppose an engineer can figure it out himself in a few hours or a day, but what about simple supporters who already have enough workload?
- And finally, what angered us the most - the vast majority of tested systems are surprisingly slow! Portals are created for a long time, they open and start for a long time, applications are saved slowly - and this is with a good connection speed (on tests about 35 Mbps). Even at demonstrations, the systems hung and the elementary opening of an application took 5 seconds or more. (By the way, here we were most touched by one of the managers of a well-known vendor, who, when asked why the download wheel is spinning for so long, replied that this is how Skype transmits, but in fact it does not hang). For some, we found the reason - data centers are far from Moscow, for some we failed to get to the bottom of the reasons. By the way, some helpdesk developers emphasized several times during a conversation that all data is stored in Russian data centers (what 152-FZ brought people to!).
In general, we are discouraged. And we decided that we need to develop our own helpdesk - which will suit both us and our clients from all business areas, and service centers, and IT companies (including for organizing an internal client support service - it works very cool as an aid to system administrators). No sooner said than done: on August 3, 2019, we launched into production - a simple, convenient cloud-based helpdesk with client access. By that time, we were actively using it ourselves - this is how it looks now with us:
The main window with a list of applications and customer requests
So we went into production
And here comes the moment to talk about Habré on Habré. We have been running a blog for over three years, experienced and trained - so why not come out with a new product? It was a little scary, but still we took the first three steps:
- Wrote a post”- they slightly revealed the topic of organizing technical support in the company and introduced ZEDLine Support.
- Wrote a post”- they talked about the complex relationship between the head and the system administrator, revealed the topic of forming technical support for an internal client.
- We launched contextual advertising on Google and Yandex - in both cases, only on search, because we have long and firmly been disappointed in the contextual display network.
Our fears turned out to be exaggerated. In the first month we received more than 50 registered portals (to be honest, we didn’t even plan such a result), a lot of contacts with potential clients and even the first warm and pleasant reviews, in which they especially noted ... the simplicity and speed of our ZEDLine Support. That is exactly what we originally started the development of this service for. Now we are actively working with requests, no less actively filling the backlog and adding features.
Dreams come true: what ZEDLine Support looks like now
The main essence of any ticket system is the application form. It should be convenient for the client, simple, not have unnecessary and confusing options, and at the same time provide comprehensive information on the problem so that the operator can immediately take the task to work and understand what exactly is wrong, in what direction the problem needs to be corrected or request additional information.
As a result, we receive requests of the following form:
And most importantly, we have implemented a much-desired portal scheme. The portal is a personal environment for the interaction of the portal owner with his clients. If you have created a portal for yourself, it will have a unique URL, its own database, disk space, and so on. Your clients will be able to enter this portal using the URL provided and create requests or requests that immediately go to a single log, from where they are sorted into work by operators (your employees).
How does the client know the URL of your portal? Having our helpdesk, you place a link to it wherever the user may want to ask you a question: on the website, in social networks, in e-mail or instant messengers and chats, and even in a widget or an article on Habré. A user clicks on your link, registers in a three-field form, and enters the app. Login and password are duplicated in the mail.
In addition, operators themselves can generate invitations for clients from their personal account in order to save clients from even the elementary filling out of a small form. The invitation will be sent to the client by e-mail, and the text of the invitation itself will already contain all the necessary information to enter the portal: URL, login, password.
Immediately after registering or receiving an invitation, the client enters the portal, creates an application by filling in the fields of the questionnaire, and gets access to his copy - that is, he sees the statuses of his requests, can create and see messages in the internal chat with the operator, can attach and view attachments, in general, monitor the progress of solving his problem. For all events, the user receives email notifications, so there is no need to sit in the interface and press F5 to update the ticket parameters.
This approach to the interface allows you to go through a simple registration and immediately get down to business, and not understand the wilds of functionality. This is logical, because the client can use the helpdesk only a few times (and sometimes even once) during the entire life cycle of interaction with you, and it does not need to be reloaded.
Appetite comes with eating, and while we were developing the operator interface and client portal, the idea came that the personal account should also be logical, convenient and comprehensive. And so they did: in your personal account you can set up your profile (if you are an operator), set up ZEDLine Support itself, track payments, view users, set up a questionnaire and view statistics (if you are an administrator). Again, the principle of “reasonably simple” is implemented: the operator works in the most simple interface and this provides a number of advantages:
- it is not distracted by other sections
- system settings unified
- the responsibility of the administrator for settings failures is obvious
- most of the information is protected from operators
- operators learn to work with such an interface very quickly (savings in training + quick start).
By the way, about training - at the first login, the user is greeted with an interactive tutorial that “guided” the beginner through the entire interface and told how ZEDLine Support works. It will be displayed until you click the "don't show again" button.
All clarifications and questions are asked in the chat, so you can:
- track the progress of the issue and control the status change
- transfer (delegate) the task to other employees without retelling the previous story
- quickly share the necessary files and screenshots
- save all the details about the problem and easily refer to them if a similar one arises.
For now, let's go back to the administrator's office. There, among other things, there is an email setting for alerts, disk space control, and so on. And there is also billing - you will always know when, what money and what was spent.
Billing has two sections: subscription and transactions. In a subscription, you can literally change the tariff, the number of operators, renew the subscription and replenish the balance with just one movement. In case of replenishment, an invoice for payment is generated for you directly in the ZEDLine Support interface.
In transactions, you can see all operations related to payments and debits. You can also see who and when made the payment and made the transaction. By the way, payment with bonuses in the screenshot is not an accident and not a test: until September 30, 2019, there is a promotion - when replenishing the balance, we give 50% of the replenishment amount as a bonus. For example, when paying 5 rubles, 000 rubles are credited to the balance. And approximately the same entry will appear in the billing interface 🙂
And yes, since it came to payment: we have a free plan + three paid ones. And we can say that we are ready to modify the ZEDLine Support helpdesk to meet the requirements of your business - for a standard hourly wage for our company's programmers. We very often do improvements for RegionSoft CRM, easily and quickly write and agree on the terms of reference and get to work, so our experience allows us to make custom solutions as well.
At the moment, the ZEDLine Support helpdesk is integrated with our RegionSoft CRM CRM system, but now we can provide access to the beta version of the API on special request and, in addition to improvements, there will be many opportunities for integration.
And finally, we managed to achieve another very important goal from our point of view - to make the system very fast. After all, the speed of the system's response to user actions makes the work of users comfortable. With the further development of the system, which is inevitable, we will pay special attention to speed and fight for it.
In short, this is how our — and, judging by the feedback from the first users, we did not miss.
Who needs helpdesk and why?
At the beginning of the article, we mentioned that most of the helpdesks are about IT and for IT people. This has its own logic, but it is not entirely fair. Here is just an approximate list of those whose work will be facilitated by a simple and convenient helpdesk.
- System administrators who can create an internal ticket system to work with colleagues' requests and not randomly rush around floors and offices, but calmly respond to official requests (they are also proof of busy working hours).
- Service companies and service centers that work with different equipment and different tasks according to customer claims.
- Any company where there is customer support by phone and via chats - in order to allow the client to formulate his question in writing and control the progress of work, and at the same time store all requests in one place.
There are a million reasons to write to the company rather than call, among which there are two main ones: the habit of communicating in instant messengers using text and the ability to start solving a problem during working hours without hiding with the phone in the corners and without disturbing colleagues. One link to your helpdesk instance will help solve all the problems of omnichannel, accessibility, responsiveness, etc.
Today our team uses helpdesk the longest (which is logical), and we, being experienced business automators, are constantly exchanging opinions, looking for new features, and sometimes arguing. But one opinion converges: it is convenient for us, it is convenient for our customers who leave appeals. And it has become much easier for support operators to work with user requests.
When a company outgrows a certain barrier, management comes to understand that it is not enough just to sell a product or service to a client. It is necessary to organize interaction with the client so that he evaluates the quality of the after-sales service, paid or free. You need to fight for each client and counteract the backlog of regular customers by accumulating a client mass. And this is achieved in turn by working to increase the level of loyalty. Therefore, the client must be sure that his appeal to the company with a problem will not get lost and will not hang somewhere in the bowels of the employees, and will not depend on the human factor. It is this problem that allows us to solve .
Source: habr.com