I read this article about setting up a helpdesk several weeks back and am now getting around to looking for solutions as it would save me quite a bit of time

Was wondering if anyone here runs a similar type of system for thier sites and if they could make any recommendations or put forth any advice

thanks

I do. It's called E-Mail. Works pretty good to.

It seems that these types of systems would be good for those sites that run anything that might be technically difficult, or run into computer problems. The article you posted a link to, as an example, featured some dude with a software company. Without even knowing what software it is, I would say 'YES', that type of system is practically mandatory... you know.... cause winblows be crashin' your interwebz.

In my case, I don't receive too much traffic. Even if I somehow managed to get 2,000 people a day, I still wouldn't need the service. But thats based on the type of product I feature vs. my target audience. The DIY crowd has it's pluses and minuses.

SR isn't giving you any trouble is it? Is CE asking too many questions every day? (just kidding bud)

friggin CE won't leave me alone....man what a pain

nope but i do run a few membership sites where i get the same types of questions asked all the time:

> my password doesn't work...

> i didn't get my confirmation email....

and so on...you get the idea

it does add up to a lot of work so i'm thinking a well orgianzed system like Willie's makes sense for me

so before going out an making any purchases i just wanted to see if anyone here had tried any- rather get feedback from the people here then any other source on the net

thanks anyways bud

While I don’t see any practicality for a merchant to use HelpDesk, there are probably some applicable areas to utilize it in. If the site is catering to techies then its probably worth it. I know that I use it whenever I talk to my ISP or host because I can paste error messages and links into it, as well as do something else while I am waiting.

But if it’s for this site, maybe something like a form for a “helpdesk inbox” then use a simple email auto responder to let them know you got the message.

The article sounds like a sales pitch for the product he uses.

I bought an open source php-mysql one called green desk tidy for about $80 and integrated it with my articles/members  service

Problems:

1 - spam
2 - smarty
3 - errr..... can't think of a third one

The system was easy to spam, especially since I had it configured to read from one of our catch all email addresses.
In fact i configured it so that un-registed tickets went to the email side of things and registered user tickets went straight into the database. Can't remember why i did it that way; it was probably the easiest at the time.

TBH -  I hate customer service, which is why i try to find ventures that don't have customers.

When you make it really easy for people to submit support tickets it makes them lazy and you just get loads of questions about the same thing. Green desk tiny did come with 3 parts - the helpdesk (ticket part) a FAQ and knowledge base CMS.

If you are able to structure your FAQs and knowledge base really well so it's really easy, has both quick-fix cheat sheets and comprehensive articles/tutorials then you'll minimise the use of the ticket part - which can get really time consuming.

The great thing about these packages is that you can use kthe accross multiple websites - getting all the forms to post to the same place, reading the faqs from the same db etc etc.

GreenDeskTiny was PHP, MySQL and open source  - yes i had to pay for it but the open nature of it meant i could hack it apart and use it as i wanted, as much as i wanted

< >
Hey Nic, now I know why it takes so long for you to answer my questions.
</ >

Ok, now you guys can return to the really important stuff. Sounds like I may learn something without the need to
(clears throat), ask

WS > nope not for SR...got a few decent traffic membership sites that require a lot of customer support so thought this would integrate well into all of them- keep things organized.

Northie > awesome...wanted an open source one. Appreciate that > going to check them out now...

CE > ....

saw that article and thought it was a bit naff as it didn't mention kayako which seems to be the standard. just to say 'there are others' and move on without giving any of them a mention I thought was a bit on the tight side.

we're using a package which has a support desk and ticketing system built in, we're doing all our ringtone support stuff through it as it's a thousand times better than doing it all by email. also like northie i can't stand doing customer support so we employ someone to handle the bulk of that stuff for us.

The average ringtone punter will send a mail like 'i aint got me ringtone' with no more details - you know the kind of info we'd actually need to be able to help this person without being psychic.

We can now reply with a canned response in a few clicks and we'll see all the message / conversation flow on screen so we can reply without having to find emails from that person to tie all the info together.

Should have ran with something like that years ago, it's an awesome time and sanity saver!

http://www.kayako.com/ - live chat - tickets - knowledgebase / articles - email piping - the works!

Thanks Mob,

another buddy of mine raved about Kayako but the first thing i noticed about it was it isn't  open source and i've had nightmares using encrypted service providers before (never tried a help desk)

has that been an issue at all with Kayako?

o and if you wouldn't mind...can u send me the URL to your desk (or PM) - just so i can see what a setup version look like - would appreciate that

thanks!

Hi Nic,

I'm actually running my ringtone support through WHMCS which handles ticketing as a bonus rather than a primary function. It's primary functions are way more impressive than ticket and knowledgebase management!

Another installation of WHMCS is powering my new hosting site, here's the knowledgebase and submit ticket pages. Still not 100% finished that site yet.

The reason I said Kayako is because I keep hearing such good things about it, administrator settings with user permissions and access roles, service level agreement on tickets like 99% of tickets answered within XX minutes, much more.

Right now WHMCS is doing us fine with support but if the hosting or the ringtone support needs started to explode I'd be going for an owned eSupport license just so I had more options with staff and permissions.

It's paid and encoded but it does seem the standard.

Thanks Mob!

Yea there sure is a lot of raving about Kayako...was just scared about the encryption but think you're right and am leaning that way!

I must say your site is looking very nice right now- well done, well done!

Hi ALL not getting into this discusion lol. Just  showing you a small spelling error mobtex .
             
(  cPanel is a fully featured control panel, here you'll find into on how to make cPanel work for you)
                    into... im assuming is suppose to be info
                               
           Regards Jan.

Thanks! Nicely spotted, corrected!
Appreciated.