How to Choose the Right Software for Customer Support Services?

July 13, 2018
Business, Call Center, Lead Generation, Support ServicesNo Comments
Choosing the right support software is the first step to tackle after scaling your customer support team or simply realizing you’ve outgrown email as your current support solution. However, there is a ton of different support software out there.
 
Not only are the options pretty much endless, but every single help desk or support solution provider is obviously trying to put their product a step ahead of others. This means that they all look good at first glance, and choosing just one can be a pretty intimidating task.
The Process of Choosing Support Software:
Choosing the tool for you might seem complicated, but if you approach it in a structured way and involve your team into the process, it’s going to be much easier⁠—and hopefully also fun and constructive.
 
Here’s what you need to do on a very high level:
 
1) Figure out what you need as a company

The most important groups to think of when specifying your requirements are:

  • Your customers
  • Your support team
  • Your managers
2) Talk to your team

After you’ve put together a basic overview of your needs and future plans, you should also have a chat with other people in the team. The crucial people are obviously the ones who will be using the tool every day as well as those directly managing them.

However, having this discussion in an even bigger circle is great for unexpected but useful feedback and points, especially if you’ve cultivated an “everyone does support” culture in your company.

3) Put together a list of options

Go through as many unbiased review sites and listicles as you can, and just write down names of support software providers⁠—don’t worry about diving deep into features quite yet.

After doing your own research, ask your own network for recommendations. The best advice always comes from people that have actual first hand experience using these tools.

Who knows, you might be able to eliminate some options from your big list straight away⁠—or add some.

However, be careful to not take these recommendations too seriously. The fact that a solution didn’t work out for another company, doesn’t mean it won’t for yours.

4) Evaluate
You don’t even have to sign up just yet⁠—most serious providers have a list of features on their website or offer demo videos to show you what they have.  This will help you see which tools immediately have (or don’t have) the things you’ve established you need for your team.Remove the options that don’t meet your criteria from your list. If the list is still long, you can also rely on your gut a little and get rid of the ones you feel are too complex, too expensive, or that you just don’t like the look of.

5) Play around and choose one

Now that you have your top options, it’s time to sign up and see how you like actually using them. Most awesome support software has a trial or a demo account you can use to get into it.Play around with it to get a feel of how it works and what the features you’re looking for actually look like.

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Source: GrooveHQ