Freshdesk for Business: Everything You Need to Know

If you’re on the hunt for the best customer service software, Freshdesk for Business is an affordable help desk platform for businesses of all sizes that need to respond to customer requests and complaints across a variety of channels. And right now, Freshdesk has some new features and updated pricing(Opens in a new window) to know about. 

If you’re fielding inbound messages from social media, email, chat, phone, or all of the above, Freshdesk can help you manage all of these quickly, cleanly, and—with new AI technology—intelligently as well. Want to give it a try? A 21-day free trial(Opens in a new window) gives you plenty of time to learn about the ins and outs of the platform. 

If you’ve ever used a help desk platform in the past, you know some of the ways issues can ricochet: messy inboxes, multiple agents working on the same ticket, missed response deadlines, and awkward ticket behavior based on customer responses. Freshdesk can help eliminate all of this with its Team Inbox, Agent Collision Detection, SLA management tools, and even a “thank you” detector to cut down on tickets getting reopened due to simple (and polite) customer responses. 

Freshdesk also has an array of tools to help your teams work together, including a Shared Ownership capability so multiple groups can collaborate on a single ticket, and Parent-Child Ticketing to help simple problems get solved quickly while making sure other more complex issues don’t get bogged down.

Freshdesk’s cross-channel support also integrates with multiple social media handles to field inbound messages, serves as a call center to create and distribute tickets, and even WhatsApp support for businesses on the global stage. These are just a fraction of what Freshdesk offers, with so many more tools for service providers in the field, productivity tools, customer self-help solutions and a lot more(Opens in a new window).

(Credit: Freshdesk)

If you’re already using another help desk platform, Freshdesk differentiates itself from its competitors in a number of different contexts:

If you’re currently a Zendesk user, agents and admins(Opens in a new window) have found that Freshdesk’s intuitive AI is easier to navigate and use. Onboarding and setup for new agents are significantly quicker with 35% fewer rules, and Freshdesk’s automation features help agents complete tasks three times faster than on Zendesk. You won’t get hit up for pricey add-ons and enhancements for basic support functionality with Freshdesk either—its rates are affordable and transparent. 

For Zoho Desk users(Opens in a new window), that system’s lack of a native telephony system probably makes you feel like you’re always a step behind. Freshdesk’s built-in contact center lets you handle calls and tickets from the same window, giving you the full and necessary context for any issue. Freshdesk’s AI-powered chatbots go beyond just sales lead generation; their ability to field customer service questions keeps up to 80% of queries off the desk of your agents, allowing them to better serve the customers that need more specialized help. 

And if you are using the Kayako platform(Opens in a new window) right now, you’ll probably love Freshdesk’s simple, clean user interface that makes it easy to pick up tickets with no unnecessary clutter. Freshdesk’s ability to add relevant articles and contextual help in a single click will help your agents make faster, easier resolutions, and Freshdesk is built on the cloud so it can grow naturally alongside your business. Plus, if your business needs automatic 24/7 support, don’t find yourself paying extra fees for a service that’s only available part of the week the next time you find yourself needing help.

Freshdesk is also always keeping its systems up to date(Opens in a new window) (or keeping things fresh, if you prefer). New features include skill-based routing technology to make sure the right agent gets the right tickets based on their skill set, Custom Objects for getting all the context agents need, Workforce Management tools to manage agent shifts better, define clear SLAs and reduce response and resolution times to increase customer satisfaction forecast and monitor performance in real-time. There’s also newly improved telephony provider integration, auto-triage management to auto-classify tickets using a learning AI, a custom report builder for tracking specific KPIs, and a new Average Handling Time tool so agents and managers can see what tickets require the most time to handle and compare agent response time across your organization. 

As you can see, Freshdesk has a lot to offer anyone in need of a help desk platform or anyone who wants their help desk to better serve their customer base. If you want to give Freshdesk a try, its free 21-day trial(Opens in a new window) is the best way to get in and see what it can really do.