If you’re running a medium size or small business then Help Scout might be the ideal help desk software for you. It takes minutes to set up, without having to deal with backend and configuration complexities.
Help Scout Pricing
Help Scout offers 3 pricing plans:
Basic:
$8/mo/user
Main features include:
1 Mailbox
Beacon
Saved Replies
Help Scout for iPhone
Help Scout branding
Standard:
$15/mo/user
Main features include:
All Free features
5 Mailboxes
1 Docs knowledge base
Reports
Workflows
Satisfaction Ratings
Plus:
$27/mo/user
Main features include:
All Standard features
Unlimited Mailboxes
3 Docs knowledge bases
Teams
Custom Fields
Free inactive Users
Annual payment earns you one month free. You can start with a 15-day free trial, with no credit card required. For annual billing you’ll get a 10% discount.
Help Scout Design
Help Scout integrates with your email service, therefore the interface is quite simple and the UI has a clean look and feel.
Help Scout Features
Helpscout’s main features include: shared email inbox for managing tickets, Docs (for building a help center or knowledge base), saved replies, reports, office hours filtering, phone conversations or voicemail integration.
50+ voicemail services are supported out of the box for logging phone calls on your computer.
Help Scout is packed with great features and some of them are only available with the Plus plan. Be sure to check the full feature list before committing to a plan.
Help Scout Backend Features
The user interface is uncluttered and pretty intuitive.
There are five menu items on the top left side of the screen:
- Home: This is where you go when you first login. Once you get started you can add several brands, products or email addresses into your account. These options will appear on the dashboard.
- Mailbox: You can support several brands, products or email addresses from a single account. Each mailbox has unique permissions, settings and folders.
- Docs: Here you can create up to 5 knowledge base sites so customers can find answers from any device.
- Reports: This section will help you keep track of all the important support metrics, employee performance and customer satisfaction.
Help Scout Reports
The reporting interface is really great.
The reports available (four or five depending if you have Docs installed or not) can be viewed at any time via the Reports dropdown menu.
The Conversations report shows you how much volume you’re handling during a certain time period, the Productivity report measures efficiency across the help desk, and the Team and User will give you insights about how members of your team are doing. The Happiness report will show how your team is being rated by customers. If you have Docs installed, this report will help you understand what your customers are searching for in the knowledge base you have created, and how helpful the information is, as well as what percentage of customers are still sending an email after browsing the knowledge base.
Help Scout Flexibility
An iPhone app is available for replies on the go. You can check in on your mailboxes, manage conversations, and share tickets with your team members.
A well-documented APIs is available for developers to create their own integrations.
Right now a live chat option is not available out of the box but you can easily integrate third party apps like Olark or ClickDesk, HipChat, and many more.
Help Scout Extensibility
There are 40 web app integrations available at the moment, so you can account with your favorite apps and services like:
- Talkdesk
- FollowUpThen
- Hively
- Capsule
- Nicereply
- HipChat
- Campfire
- Slack
- MailChimp
- Magento REST API
- Shopify
- Mixpanel
- Bigcommerce
- Campaign Monitor
- KISSmetrics
- Infusionsoft
- Olark
- Pipedrive
- SnapEngage
- WooCommerce
- Constant Contact
- PipelineDeals
- FreshBooks
- FullStory
- Bronto
- Google Apps Integration
- eBay and Amazon Integration
- Smooch
The free plan doesn’t give access to integrations.
A well-documented APIs is available for developers to create their own apps.
Help Scout Support
There are more ways to contact their support team:
Email: via a direct email address or a web form.
Phone: you may schedule a call with one of their experts.
A decent knowledge base is available (with walkthroughs and video tutorials available) as well as a blog.
Conclusion
If you need an easy to use help desk application, look no further than Help Scout. They have a great reports section, and an extremely easy to use interface.
