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INTRODUCTION
WE WERE ON A MISSION……To find powerful, simple, reliable and cost effective Support / Help Desk software.
We looked at over a dozen different platforms, searching for the right software.
Although there was NOTHING necessarily wrong with any of the software platforms we looked at, the things that we were looking for in our support software was just not there.
Then, as we began to look into Help Scout, we realized that everything that we were looking for in our support software could be found in Help Scout.
Get your FREE 15 day trial of Help Scout so you can see first hand how amazing it is!
WHAT IS HELP SCOUT?
Help Scout is an all-in-one customer service and support platform that helps you easily manage every aspect of supporting your customers.
Big brands like MemberPress, ClickDesigns and Systeme.io are using Help Scout to manage their customer support, and the result is happier customers and clients.
In fact, “More than 12,000 businesses trust Help Scout as the backbone of their support team.”
Help Scout is packed with all the features you need to handle any support question or issue. All within a clean, easy to use interface.
Some of these features include…
- Shared Inbox
- Knowledge Base
- Customer Management
- IOS and Android Apps
- Live Chat
- Reporting
- And MORE!
As you can see, Help Scout is a very robust platform!
6 WAYS HELP SCOUT MAKES CUSTOMER SUPPORT EASY
- SIMPLE, EASY TO USE INTERFACE
- EASY TO BRING IN SUPPORT MESSAGES
- INTERNAL COMMUNICATION WITH TEAM
- SAVED REPLIES
- SEE WHEN THE CUSTOMER HAS VIEWED YOUR REPLY
- SIMPLE, AFFORDABLE PRICING
Let’s take a look at each of these in detail…
1. SIMPLE, EASY TO USE INTERFACE
When you start using Help Scout the first thing you’ll notice is how super clean and user friendly the Help Scout platform is to use.
As you start exploring the interface, your learning curve won’t be an issue, when compared to the other software platforms that are out there.
Help Scout strips away all the convoluted and confusing aspects of using support software. Their main focus is on helping you provide superior customer support.
When looking at your Mailbox, you will notice the minimal design, and that only the things you need to see are there, without anything else distracting or cluttering your view.
Replying to your messages only takes a few clicks of your mouse, and will allow you to handle a large amount of messages in no time.
2. EASY TO COLLECT SUPPORT MESSAGES
One of the most important things your help desk software needs to be able to do is collect the support messages from your customers.
Help Scout provides 3 easy ways for you to collect support requests from your customers…
1) Email Forwarding
2) Help Scout Beacon (a.k.a. Website Widget)
3) Website Contact Form
Let’s take a look at each of these…
1) Email Forwarding
Help Scout provides you with a default email address that you can use to collect support messages from your customers.
All you have to do is forward your Gmail or Business Email Address (ie. support@yourdomain.com) to your Help Scout email address.
When a new email comes into your Gmail Account or Business Email Address, it will get forwarded to your Help Scout email address, which will create a new support ticket inside your Help Scout Mailbox.
Click HERE to learn how to forward your Gmail to Help Scout.
2) Help Scout Beacon (a.k.a. Website Widget)
The “Beacon” is a Website Widget that creates a “Help” icon in the corner of your website that people can use when they need support.
Click HERE to learn how to create a new Beacon.
Click HERE to learn how to install the Beacon on your WordPress website.
You can setup the Beacon to help your customers get support in 3 different ways…
INSTANT ANSWERS
Activate your “Knowledge Base Articles” on the Beacon so that customers can find answers immediately, before they have to contact you.
SUPPORT FORM
The support form allows your customers to submit support messages that are delivered right to your Mailbox.
LIVE CHAT
When the “Live Chat” function is activated, you will be able to talk with your customers in real time. If you aren’t online, a support message will be sent instead.
Click HERE to learn how to setup Live Chat on your website using Beacon.
3) Website Contact Form
Do you already have a contact form on your website? You can start collecting support messages right away using your Help Scout email address.
REPLACE YOUR CURRENT EMAIL ADDRESS in the form (where the data gets sent to) with your Help Scout email address.
This means that when someone submits the form, the information in the form will go DIRECTLY to your Help Scout Mailbox as a Support Ticket.
If you are using an HTML form, replace the email address in the “mailto” part of the code with the Help Scout email address.
3. INTERNAL COMMUNICATION WITH TEAM
Consulting with other Team Members on specific Help Tickets is a breeze.
All you need to do is create a Note, then use @ to bring in the Team Member you want to send the Note to.
Only that specific Team Member will see the Note, not the customer or any other Team Members.
When they reply to the Note, only you will see the reply, and again the customer won’t see any of these Notes.
All of these Notes are now a part of the individual help ticket, and will be visible even after you reply to the customer.
Having the ability to use Notes inside Help Scout is a very powerful feature, and one we couldn’t live without!
4. SAVED REPLIES
One of the ways Help Scout makes it super easy to reply to your customers is through the use of Saved Replies.
Every business will have customer questions or issues that come up over and over. If you had to manually type the response to each of these questions every time they came up, you would just be wasting valuable business time.
Inside of Help Scout you can pre-load the answers to all of these questions as Saved Replies.
When you need to quickly reply to a customer’s question, all you have to do is click the “Saved Replies” icon and select the answer from your list of Saved Replies.
Not only will this allow you to save time when providing customer support, but it will also ensure that the correct answer is given to your customer question every time, no matter which team member is assigned to handle that question.
5. SEE WHEN THE CUSTOMER HAS VIEWED YOUR REPLY
One of the features of Help Scout that we really like is the ability to see exactly when the customer has viewed our reply.
This brings assurance that our messages are being received, and that the customer is getting the best possible support.
6. SIMPLE, AFFORDABLE PRICING
The Help Scout pricing structure is very straight forward and affordable.
In fact, out of all the Support platforms that we looked into, Help Scout is one of the most affordable, and is signifigantly cheaper than some of the more popular platforms.
The “Standard” plan is only $25 per month (when paid monthly) and if you go with the annual plan, it’s only $20 per month.
Remember, when you use our link, you get a $50 discount, which means that your first year of service is only $190 (about $16 per month).
CONCLUSION
Okay, in this post we’ve presented some reasons why Help Scout makes providing customer support easy, and why we feel it’s a great option for providing support for your customers.
We realize that Help Scout is not for everyone. Each of us have our own feelings about what help desk software is right for us.
However, after trying several other help desk software platforms, once we found Help Scout, we stopped looking because we felt like we found a winner!
If you are looking for help desk software, we suggest that you sign up for a FREE 15 day trial so you can see if Help Scout is right for you.
Make sure to use our link so that you will receive your $50 discount!
