Tweet this Video
Share on Facebook
Share via E-mailOn today’s show, we’re going to review how Zendesk can save your time and increase satisfaction with your customer, clients and end users.
Too many requests on Monday morning from your users?
Have trouble keeping track of computer issues on your network?
Looking for that servererror message from last month?
Zendesk is your no worry, easy to use helpdesk solution for you. Learn how it stacks up against other helpdesk solutions, how it can save you time and money plus I’ll share my personal experience with it.
With out of the box support for custom subdomains, an open REST and mail API, custom email & forwarding, macros/triggers, SSL, integrations to a ton of cloud apps including Salesforce, Harvest, Batchbook, Get Satisfaction plus support for remote authentication via Active Directory, website authentication including Drupal and Ruby on Rails and user import options, Zendesk is a rocking solution for supporting customers!
I’ve been using it for 2 years and now I do the webinars at Zendesk to help new folks get started on the platform.
Tech and Today
Delayed write failure with your external Firewire and USB hard drives
Proposition 8 in California for Gay marriage and why this is similar to the Large Hadron Collider
Get Clients Now!: A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals, Consultants, and Coaches
What is a helpdesk?
A centralized location to create, track and resolve technology issues submitted by users or noted by IT staff
Other names – issue tracking, help desk, ticket tracking, support system
Benefits of using a helpdesk
Less overlap of effort
Reduce data entry
Fix issues faster
Less downtime
Centralize solutions
How IT staff manage requests
Email
Paper
In their head
Problems with existing helpdesk solutions
Lost requests
Incorrect understanding of the problem
Unable to track status
Ineffective communication of status to end user
Unable to reuse solutions
Why are more companies not using helpdesk solutions?
Unaware
Used to doing things a certain way
Perception of complexity
Perception you need to be techie
Helpdesk and ticket tracking software is simply a tool to manage requests
Comparing helpdesk solutions I’ve tried
Kayako
Cerberus
Remedy
RT Request Tracker
Active Campaign
Spiceworks
Various PHP based helpdesks
There are nearly 80 helpdesk solutions listed at Wikipedia
Features of Zendesk
Send updates to end users
Reopen tickets
Primary company contact can see all tickets
Logic in Macros
TimeTracking
open API
Forums/Knowledgebase
Convert solutions to Forum/Knowledgebase
My Support experience with Zendesk
Fast
Accurate
Expertise
Flexible
Open
Interactive
Active in Social Media
Have a blog
Cost of Zendesk
Updated 5/11/2010
30 day trial
Plans start at $9 month for the solo Zendesk plan. You then can go with the regular or Plus+ plan to support additional users.
Starts at $19/month with cost increasing based on number of agents, branding, SSL
They have a free plan with limit of 50 end users
Wishlist
Import tickets / formal export tickets
import users / formal export users
Ability to share a specific solution with multiple Forums
Easier to embed video from hosted video sites using wysiwyg editor
Monthly live QnA where we can tune in, listen to recent development news and ask questions
Nice presentation, but sorry….I still like my Web Help Desk. I need that liiittle extra bit of flexibility. Zendesk is great, just not for my needs. Thanks again for the presentation. Cheers!
[Reply]
Adria Reply:
May 27th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
@Ted Goldberg,
What sort of flexibility does Web Help Desk provide that you see lacking in Zendesk?
[Reply]
Ted Goldberg Reply:
May 27th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
@Adria,
Albeit Web Help Desk does offer a SaaS hosted option like Zenny, we kept it in-house with their on-premise license. We needed inventory tracking, customer satisfaction surveys, and more agent ticket routing flexibility.
Zendesk tended to be a bit more “issue tracking” only. We needed full service desk functionality right out of the box. It’s a great little issue track app, no doubt…it just didn’t fit our service management offerings like Web Help Desk does. :(
Cheers.
[Reply]
Adria Reply:
May 28th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
@Ted Goldberg,
Interesting. I look forward to Zendesk putting up case studies like Google has been doing or the interesting videos that @37Signals shares from their users.
It’s hard to think outside the box on software so storytelling helps!
I have tried Zendesk but went back to Spiceworks as it intergrates with a IT inventory which helps track issues with machines as well as users
[Reply]
I had a chance to test Zendesk, Spiceworks, Web Help Desk and Kayako but none of them were able to suit our company needs like Help Desk Authority.
We liked that you received both windows and web interfaces and that it integrated with active direcotry.
Other pluses for us were the built-in knowledgebase, asset management and the fact that the price tag was very reasonable.
[Reply]
Zendesk is great design wise but feature wise it falls far behind Kayako or Vision Helpdesk.
We use Vision Helpdesk to Manage our multiple companies at one place. Again Zendesk is costly.
Vision Helpdesk comes at $9.99 per month for Unlimited Staff and Unlimited Tickets.
[Reply]
Adria –
Most of the hosted help desk software companies that exist today base their solutions on technology that existed 5-10 years back – including zendesk and kayako. They are limited in scale. Businesses which choose these help desk will find that as their customer base increase, the support software does not. Which is a bad thing.
Most hosted help desk software vendors will find it tough to compete with cloud based solutions like what we provide (agreed we are still evolving – but rapidly). we have almost achieved feature parity, most of the really essential features are covered.
If and when the time comes, we will be poised for great scale while others would struggle. Helpdesk software is not rocket science. Anybody could do that. We just got lucky with the timing of things. Just caught the cloud computing wave at the right time.
~JM
[Reply]
Adria Reply:
April 12th, 2011 at 11:55 am
JM,
Unfortunately your self testimonial is not only inaccurate but self promotional. I’m going to leave it up here to allow people to see your misguided ways.
A short list:
- I’ve never heard of your product
- The website looks amateurish
- How many customers does your product have?
- What do you integrate with?
So you’ve called yourself and your product out as an envious company. Good luck with that…
[Reply]