What is a SaaS helpdesk?
A SaaS Helpdesk is a cloud-based customer service platform that simplifies how businesses manage and respond to incoming inquiries. Think of it like the Holodeck for customer support – with no installation necessary. It streamlines ticketing (recording an issue), routing (directing the query to the correct person), and escalation (moving up a tier when needed). Utilizing this system can elevate your team’s ability to efficiently solve all requests, allowing them more time to focus on deeper issues or deliver outstanding experiences.
The best SaaS helpdesks are user-friendly and have all the features you’d expect – including bots, knowledge bases, and customer portals. They’re also highly scalable and can be customized to meet the needs of any organization – to drive a better overall customer experience.
7 benefits of a SaaS helpdesk
1. Save Money
Think back to the scene in The Dark Knight when an infamous Joker set stacks of Money ablaze. If you’re running a support team without leveraging modern, cloud-based SaaS helpdesks, then your organization is just like that—needlessly burning away resources and time! Thankfully, you can avoid this scenario by relying on cost-efficient SaaS helpdesks instead of traditional on-premise systems.
2. Scale your business
For businesses that experience high seasonal demand, the most successful SaaS helpdesks utilize AI to grow their customer base without expanding their customer success team. This feature is invaluable for any company looking to scale up operations quickly. SaaS companies tend to run lean, so scaling customer service using a SaaS helpdesk is paramount.
3. Give your team time back
The support process usually has a lot of problems, as it takes too long to find customer information or to process a return. But the best SaaS Helpdesks use automation to eliminate these time-wasting tasks. This allows your customer service team to focus on more important things, like building customer relationships and providing better support experiences.
4. Integrate like a boss
SaaS helpdesks should connect to your existing apps out of the box, so you don’t have to jump through fiery hoops to talk with your CRM. The same works for vertical-specific systems of record for industries like banking and real estate. With the right SaaS helpdesk, you can integrate your existing tools into a single platform and streamline how your team works.
5. Create a culture of self-service
The best SaaS helpdesks allow customers to take advantage of self-service options like AI chatbots built on Knowledge Bases and FAQs. This will enable them to quickly find answers to their questions without reaching out to a customer service rep. With the right SaaS helpdesk, you can easily set up personalized experiences that match your customers’ preferences. This means you can provide custom support solutions to customers, such as creating tailored tutorials or offering one-on-one assistance.
5. Give you flexibility
Furthermore, cloud-based helpdesks should also be adjustable enough to integrate with any new systems that emerge or even your internal ones. The finest of these solutions have a Developer Platform integrated into them, making connecting to other systems effortless and straightforward. As the contentment of customers and team members progressively become interconnected, SaaS helpdesks should remain supple for both external and internal use. This entails functionality across all communication channels – including web, mobile app support, SMS messaging services, and email correspondence.
6. Keep the lights on 24/7/365
Leveraging the innovative power of AI chatbots, SaaS helpdesks offer 24/7 customer support – so you never need to worry about being unavailable. Your response times will be instantaneous instead of minutes or hours. This ensures that no matter what time your customers reach out, they receive a superb experience.
7. Keep your info safe and secure
When choosing a SaaS helpdesk, you don’t have to bother with on-premise security issues. To ensure your data is secure and managed correctly, pick a vendor that meets all the necessary standards, such as SOC-II, GDPR, and CCPA compliance. Also, look for Role Based Access Controls (RBAC) so only approved agents can access confidential information.
4 SaaS Helpdesk ideas
1. Start with self-service
Self-service portals are an exceptional customer service strategy, allowing patrons to submit tickets and access information without calling in. Not only does this reduce the number of phone calls received, but it also cuts down on time spent fielding client inquiries – a total win! With this simple software solution, your business can offer swift and competent support while equipping users with all they need for success.
2. Get an AI Helpdesk
Traditional ticketing systems are just as tedious and inefficient as the analog ones – tickets that need to be updated from To do, In Progress, then finally Done. Automated ticketing system empowering customers with AI-driven assistance before they even submit a ticket? Now, this is what Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) support should look like. If your customer support SaaS needs an AI Helpdesk feature, you’re missing out on massive potential and convenience benefits for you and your users.
3. Spin up the Knowledge Base
A Knowledge Base (KB) must be utilized to optimize the AI helpdesk. This KB is an accumulation of Frequently Asked Questions and Guided Conversations that customers can access to quickly get their questions answered without waiting for customer service help. Using this knowledge base drastically decreases the time spent on customer inquiries while still providing them with the answers they need fast!
4. Escalate to Live Chat
Even if AI Powered bots can manage most of your inquiries, human-to-human interaction is still essential. The best SaaS helpdesks allow for seamless escalation from tier 0 (bot) to tier 1 (live chat), so customers don’t have to start over with another platform. Live chat offers real-time assistance that enables a customer to resolve their problem.
How do AI helpdesks impact the SaaS industry?
AI helpdesks are a big deal. Think about how much more commerce you engage in online today compared to even five years ago. Without AI helpdesks, these companies would need to scale their support teams linearly to meet the demand. AI helpdesks provide personalized support, as they can analyze customer data and provide tailored solutions to their problems without getting a person involved.
1. Capacity
Are we biased? Maybe. But Capacity can deflect work from your cloud-based helpdesk, route tickets to the right person in your SaaS ticketing system, and automate the agent’s work behind the scenes.
2. Zendesk
We must credit Zendesk – it is a good helpdesk platform. For those who have read software comparison pieces authored by software suppliers, you might expect us to criticize our competitors in this segment – but instead, we recognize that there are plenty of customizable options readily accessible with out-of-the-box solutions.
And yet…the Zendesk bot is not great. It doesn’t have the same Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities as other vendors. But even if you love Zendesk – Capacity has integration to it. So you can have your cake and eat it too.
3. Freshdesk
We’ve seen many customers use Freshdesk due to the nature of their product suite. We’ve also seen many customers switch from Freshdesk to Capacity largely because with Capacity, you can get Workflows, Automations, and other SaaS support tools that make things easier. But for those who love Freshdesk – you guessed it – Capacity also has a cloud-based helpdesk integration.
4. Jira Service Desk
Jira makes a solid product – with customization at the forefront. That said, they are famous for having a hard-to-get-to support team. And again, Capacity has an integration with Jira too. Jira is also mainly for engineers. If that isn’t your focus, you don’t necessarily need to use Jira.
5. Helpshift
If you’re familiar with Helpshift, then you know about their unique Smart Reply feature that recommends automated customer responses based on earlier conversations and customer support trends. But while they provide this single service, Capacity offers much more! By integrating with Helpshift, you can keep utilizing the great Smart Reply functionality and benefit from additional features like Workflows, Automations, and analytics. Capacity is a smarter choice for businesses looking for an all-in-one solution.
In Conclusion
That’s the wrap on SaaS Helpdesks. If you’d like to learn more, you can create an account with Capacity in under two minutes or request a personalized sales demo.
