Our Freshdesk review, features, user tests, problems and solutions

Need a Freshdesk review ? Some companies implement this customer support solution to use it as a CRM tool (without actually replacing it): this helpdesk tool dedicated to customer support in fact offers numerous functionalities, the main one being ticket management to organize the management of requests, and in fine, sales performance, by controlling follow-up and customer data.

appvizer 's mission is to guide you in your choice of SaaS software, and to give you our opinion on the best customer service software. Should you choose Freshdesk? Is this platform capable of boosting your agents' productivity and increasing your customers' satisfaction? Let's take a look at all facets of the tool to help you form your own opinion.

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Freshdesk review summary :

Freshdesk, for what type of business?

Evaluating ticket management: Features table

User test: the customer service agent dedicated to after-sales service

Customer testing via the web support portal :

• Knowledge base
• Community forum

Helpdesk security assessment

How we feel about performance reports

Stimulating employees in a fun way? We love it!

Our opinion on integration capabilities :

• Native integrations
• Create your own integration with a FreshPlug

Let's take a look at the solution's suitability for international expansion

Freshdesk customer feedback

Our recommendation: get support:

• 8 questions to ask yourself before deploying customer service software
• Tailor-made advice is essential

Our view on pricing

Freshdesk, appvizer's opinion

Freshdesk, for which type of company?

The obvious: a customer support solution is only useful if the number of customers managed per person is large, and if at least two people are handling requests, or if support needs are substantial.

The prejudice: Freshdesk is only used by large SMEs or major international accounts.

Freshdesk customers come in all shapes and sizes: companies of all sizes and sectors rely on Freshdesk, including service companies, industries, high-tech startups and software publishers. In France, La Poste and Pages Jaunes are among our long-standing customers. Abroad, the solution has won over Honda, Azimo, Sony Pictures, etc.

Take a close look at your organization's needs and situation: if necessary, call in a specialized expert to help you take a step back and benefit from sound advice. We'll give you a few tips on this below.

First, let's take a look at Freshdesk's features.

Evaluating ticket management

appvizer's appraisal of Freshdesk's ticket management features: centralization, automation and productive intelligence are three key concepts that define the software's system as a true service center. The table below details and justifies these three superlatives.

User test: the customer service agent dedicated to after-sales service

• our service team is on hand to deliver as quickly as possible,
• the customer will benefit from a commercial gesture,
• the carrier has had a tire problem and delivery will be made today in the morning,
• in line with our internal customer relations policy, delivery costs are waived in the event of delays of more than 12 hours.

The customer sees our message in response to his request on Facebook.

I create an alert for 2pm in the afternoon, in order to check that our customer has received the delivery within the new promised timeframe.

At 2pm, my alert warns me: I check. The delivery has been made. The ticket is closed. The customer's signature on the delivery note automatically triggered a customer feedback request: this is an automatic form with multiple scenarios for the customer to tell us about their experience.

By providing feedback on their order, our customers receive a 10% discount on a minimum purchase of 110 euros.

In this way, we can measure how our actions and responsiveness are perceived, assess our customers' overall satisfaction, and improve what needs to be improved.

When we apply Freshdek to concrete actions, we see that the system has a number of strong points:

• task automation saves precious time, allowing us to concentrate on problem-solving and customer satisfaction,
• the flexibility of ticket management means that there's no need for agents to get tangled up in each other's work, or in the status of tasks.

Customer testing via the support web portal

Let's take another viewpoint: that of the customer looking for answers to his questions. Our goal as customers: to find precise answers.

The knowledge base

As a customer, I can find answers in a knowledge base integrated into Freshdesk, which agents can enrich according to their experience and update on an ongoing basis:

• I don't know how to use my new ultra-modern TV, I'm not a geek but I want to create special connections with Internet services and applications, I'm the type of customer who's a bit of a pain in the ass, who won't give up until he's got all his questions answered.
• So I want more than a simple FAQ, which is the basics, I want practical, step-by-step information that will actually help me.
• my helpdesk directs me to educational articles and tutorials (I prefer the word "tutorial", but that's not the point).
• I stop pestering my customer support agents. They've been super-responsive, and I have all the information I need to master my new TV.
• I'm satisfied, I can't believe all the knowledge available online.

The community forum

As a customer, I have an opinion on everything, and I like to chat with others about my passion. So I'm joining the Freshdesk community, and the specific forum on the latest TV models, because :

• I've got lots of ideas to share, I've discovered lots of tips about my TV: I'm also informing newcomers (I'm so proud)! I'm also learning a few tricks, I must admit,
• I also have suggestions for improving TVs. Technology moves fast, so I know what I'm talking about,
• I'm already dreaming of the TV of the future (and I'm not the only one in the collaborative forum): if the brand could take that into account, it would be genius!

Estimating helpdesk security

Managing access rights and guaranteeing the security of all customer data is crucial to the smooth running of helpdesk operations.

On these points, Freshdesk makes arguments that trigger our favorable opinion:

• Provision of customized SSL certificates (Secure Sockets Layer protocol) for all your domain names and URLs,
• Define your own whitelist of secure IP addresses, so you can define which users are authorized to connect to your network, internally or externally,
• Simplify agent authentication with a single login for all communication channels, even via personal accounts such as Facebook, Twitter or Google.

How we feel about performance reports

Measuring the efficiency of your customer support means identifying good practices, but also areas for improvement. Your customers' satisfaction depends on it (and so do your sales).

To help you in your evaluations, Freshdesk provides the following performance reports:

• number of tickets opened and closed,
• customer satisfaction rate,
• overall processing time or by ticket type,
• average resolution time versus estimated response time,
• workload per employee,
• comparative performance reports between agents,
• overall team performance,
• performance per user,
• trends in customer requests,
• comparative reports based on key indicators,
• detection of high-influence locations, communication channels and times,
• evaluation of the accuracy and quality of responses, etc.

You can also integrate your satisfaction surveys, so you can compare the work carried out by your agents with your customers' perceptions... and improve your knowledge of your customers.

Our verdict: Freshdesk's well thought-out dashboards and reports make it a powerful information retrieval tool. Next question.

Stimulate employees in a fun way? We love it!

Our opinion on integration capabilities

Is your team accustomed to using certain business applications? Does your organization need to integrate a CRM to communicate with your helpdesk tool? Let's see if Freshdesk can provide you with concrete solutions.

Native integrations

More than 190 "plug & play" native integrations are available for :

• CRM tools such as Salesforce's Sales Cloud and Blue Note CRM systems,
• billing, accounting and management software such as QuickBooks,
• e-commerce solutions such as Shopify, PrestaShop or WooCommerce,
• CMS such as WordPress or Magento (e-commerce CMS),
• Google tools such as analytics, calendar, contacts, hangouts and Drive,
• file storage and sharing systems like DropBox or OneDrive,
• Slack, Zapier, Mailchimp, Skype, Paypal, we're not going to do them all, don't worry.

Create your own integration with a FreshPlug

Are you using a third-party application and don't have a native integration to import the information you need?

Create it yourself: CSS, JavaScript and HTML style sheets let you customize your FreshPlug.

If you want to go even further and push specific, customized development via the RESTful API, you can. However, it's advisable to enlist the help of a professional who's well-versed in this area: more on this below, along with other similar points.

You're also looking for the little beast without finding it. But no, there's nothing to say about interoperability. The devil's advocate can take a hike.

Let's take a look at the solution's international suitability

Let's take a look at the elements of Freshdesk likely to answer the question:

• 26 languages available on each workstation,
• scheduling of working hours according to a country's local time,
• support relays directed to the site that is open (while another is closed),
• unique support services for an unlimited number of products,
• knowledge base and community forum for each product.

With a single account capable of managing multiple support centers, you can set up a single support center deployed worldwide.

Freshdesk, what our customers say

What do customers think of Freshdesk? It's he who says it's there: an overview.

More responsive and efficient, we can measure the extent to which our commitments are being met. Thanks to Freshdesk, all requests related to our activities are now centralized, enabling us to process them and have global visibility of our services and their quality.

Julien Allegret, Customer Service Manager, PagesJaunes REst

Our resolution times have never been faster. Our referral rate increased from 3 to 9.6 after implementing Freshdesk. We have seen a 25% increase in sales to the same customers.

Paul Miller, DoctorBase

This means we can keep track of all our customers' e-mails, tweets and comments on Facebook.

Zuzana Bednarikova, Codilit

We were able to install Freshdesk in just a few hours to meet the needs of our 22 shopping centers in Brazil. I've never seen a tool as intuitive as Freshdesk.

Fernando WanderleyAncar Ivanhoe, Brazil

It's very easy to implement Freshdesk with all our third-party software suppliers. It's made our job a lot easier.

Mitch Greenwald, Cloudbakers

Our recommendation: get support

A word of warning: using Freshdesk customer service software requires careful thought beforehand, to ensure effective, long-term deployment.

Before taking the plunge, consider all the aspects that will contribute to the success of your customer support service:

• assess your current situation,
• determine your objectives,
• your choice of features, advanced or otherwise,
• your choice of package,
• train your staff,
• make sure the solution is available, - etc.

8 questions to ask yourself before deploying your customer service software :

1. What are your customer support objectives?
2. Who is in contact with your customers?
3. What are their tasks?
4. Do you need to provide help to professionals?
5. How should you respond to your customers, depending on the communication channel?
6. What methods should be used?
7. How can the software help my business, and to what extent?
8. How do I train agents?

Tailor-made advice is essential

In France, the most logical approach is to opt for an official Freshworks (formerly Freshdesk) partner , such as Blue note systems: this type of specialist guides you from the analysis of your needs and expectations, right through to deployment, and apprehension of the tool, via an approved training center. For example, if you want to use Freshdesk in French, Blue note systems can provide unlimited assistance and support for your users.

It's essential to rely on this type of specialist who masters the management of the customer journey: a well-informed outside view ensures that nothing is forgotten and technical errors avoided right from the start, that you can import your data with complete peace of mind and, above all, that you can configure your helpdesk to suit your needs.

And last but not least: as mentioned above, if you're looking to launch a specific development to better meet your business needs, it's best to call on a player who has mastered the RESTful API to integrate your expectations for a fluid, functional result on the user side.

Our view on pricing

Let's take a look at the table below, which contains the main elements to help you appreciate the different Freshdesk packages and associated services.

Specialists in chafing can note in their notebooks that e-mail support is available 24/7, and that telephone support is also available 24/7 for all packages.

Our verdict on Freshdesk rates: given the features on offer, the rates defy the competition on the French market.

The logic is always the same: the more features you want, and the higher the level of technicality you require, the higher the rates - but reasonably so.

See all software Customer Service

Freshdesk, appvizer's opinion

Whatever the communication channel, Freshdesk has you covered: armed with time-saving features, your agents are ready to draw answers faster than their shadows.

We're really impressed by all the ways in which Freshdesk can anticipate expected problems: task automation, collaborative aspects, online support facilities, fun user experience (motivation), intelligent ticket management.

As a supervisor, performance reports enable you to monitor your agents' activity, but also to identify areas for improvement: Freshdesk has succeeded in marrying proactivity and customer satisfaction.

It's surely for all these reasons that the Freshdesk platform is included for the 2nd year running in the Magic Quadrant Helpdesk 2017 ranking by the renowned IT research institute Gartner.