How to find the perfect HelpDesk for you? Hint: You have to create it

In one of our previous articles, we told you how and why we created our own CRM system. As we already explained, in some cases, developing your own system is more profitable and advantageous than buying one that is already done. Following those principles, we decided to follow the same path with our service desk.

The market is teeming with hundreds of HelpDesks and service desk applications, yet none of these options allow an employee to simultaneously work with more than 50-100 service requests or ‘tickets’ as it is commonly known. This was the determining factor for us to decide to create a solution in line with our business processes.

In our own HelpDesk, each member of the support team can process up to 1,000 requests simultaneously. The program, which is integrated with our website, first receives all support requests and then distributes them to the sales and technical support department (requests are also sent to developers). All tickets are divided into categories that can be adjusted by type and status. For each type, and for any specific product, there are message templates that administrators can send to users to save time. We have also taught our service desk to identify the moment in which the communication between client and agent has not been reactivated in a reasonable time to be able to follow up on the case immediately.

Speaking of streamlining the process, we have made all customer information available with a single click. Everything, the list of previously used licenses, information about the current license, server, product, previous tickets, etc., appears in a window, in seconds, so that the agent in charge of that client can have all the necessary information at hand. This particular tool, no matter how much we looked for, was something that we could never find in any of the solutions that are currently on the market.

Now, sales managers can handle up to 1,000 requests and technical support specialists can process up to 400 tickets in real-time. We could simply have hired more people to handle incoming requests, but we are trying to automate our managers’ tasks while expanding our internal processes.

We also thought about implementing a project management system, but, again, it seems that the existing solutions do not meet our specific needs. That is why we also decided to develop Deals, a program that represents communication with current potential customers. Deals contains important data about each project, lists all open requests, and have a feature that allows you to assign tasks to your coworkers. In addition, we have applied an agile project management tool, Kanban Board. This program is designed to visualize the stages of the requests, showing all the tasks closed in a certain period.

We could have saved time by buying a ready-to-use HelpDesk or CRM. However, there is no solution on the market that reflects all of our work processes. Such systems are implemented to simplify and optimize one’s work by providing information whenever necessary allowing automated reports. In our case, it could only be achieved by developing our own custom and convenient solution that matches our goals.