By Rachel Andrew CHAPTER 11Try to make the experience of receiving support as simple as possible.
The large helpdesk systems all do a fairly similar job, with slightly different
features and focus. They can help you create fairly complex systems for
your support operation. If you have very simple support needs then a full
helpdesk might seem like overkill. I believe this is why many companies
stick with just managing email support in their inboxes. However, there are
smaller solutions out there as companies seek to solve support issues in new
ways. One such solution comes from the developer of the HelpSpot system
we use, and it’s interesting because it’s a new product in the same space as
HelpSpot, but designed to fill this need for smaller, simpler systems.
Snappy^12 is a brand new product, but I mention it here as I think it has
a lot of potential for anyone reading this thinking that a big solution is un-
necessary but who would like to have something in place to help manage
email requests. Snappy simply manages email tickets and responses in a
modern and streamlined way. Your customers can send you emails and you
can reply by email, but Snappy solves that immediate problem of tracking
what has been responded to.
ReSPonDing To a TiCKeT in SnaPPY
I think solutions like Snappy have a lot of potential for developers of small
products. I can see this being a great solution if you support a mobile app,
for example, where questions tend to be fairly straightforward. Ian wrote a
blog post^13 about some of the thinking behind Snappy, which is interesting
coming from someone who has also developed a larger helpdesk solution.
As the theme of this book is facing the future, I think including new
breed support systems is important and I’ll be very interested to see how
Snappy and other systems that get away from traditional helpdesks devel-
op. It is also interesting that a new system goes back to email at its core.
Email is definitely not dead for most customers, and is often the easiest
way for them to talk to us.
12 http://www.besnappy.com/
13 http://www.ianlandsman.com/2012/08/28/building-a-better-human-helper