Since the time I’ve been in web hosting business, i always wanted to provide good support to my clients and keeping a track of all their queries including sales and support issues. Tracking the queries of clients via a help desk gives us the advantage which an email service cannot offer. I had undergone extensive research before starting a hosting business and forums like webhostingtalk have loads of tutorials on starting the right way the first time.
Many billing systems have inbuilt help desk though they lack in one feature or the other. I have used a few billing software’s like modern bill, WHMCS and AWBS. Eeach billing software has its own advantages and disadvantages which I will be blogging in the near future. Talking about help desk, I found kayako to be the far superior one without costing a fortune.
Many hosting companies I’ve observed have either their own in-house developed helpdesk or using Kayako helpdesk apart from a few others using other vendors. Let me share a small incident from the year 2003. I purchased kayako license and then received a call from their sales team confirming the order and the person speaking on the other end had Indian accent and I was quite amazed to know that the company was Indian based. Having dealt with US vendors since beginning, it was quite a nice feeling to know that the software which I admired most was written by Indians. I started with their basic version of support desk and then upgraded to “supportsuite” which was a good choice considering the vast features available including live chat support software.
Back to the original discussion, A professional helpdesk really helps you simplify support queries and could be tracked and responded easily by any shift technicians. The clients are replied with a tracking id and auto responded to notify them their ticket has been received and being taken care of. The clients have an area where they could log in to view the responses and update accordingly. I’ve purchased the owned license and though it’s a one time fees, it is justified with the features the software has to offer.
Any hosting business with a long term plan in mind should settle for a professional helpdesk and kayako was an example in my case though I am sure if you research a bit you could find the right one of your choice. Do not compromise on your support system as support is the most important aspect in hosting business. if you do not provide good streamlined support and easy accessibility for a client, they are long gone even before you realize.
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