Freshdesk

Introduction

Freshdesk, from Freshworks, is a help desk platform known for being affordable and easy to use. It turns customer emails and messages into trackable tickets, so a small team can manage support without letting requests slip through the cracks.

Who it suits

Freshdesk fits a small business that wants organised customer support without the price or complexity of the heaviest platforms, and likes the idea of starting on a free plan.

What you get

  • Ticketing across email, chat and social in one inbox.
  • A free tier for small teams to get started.
  • Automations, canned replies and a self-service knowledge base.
  • Reporting on response times and workload.

How the cost works

Freshdesk offers a free plan for small teams, then paid monthly tiers priced per agent, in US dollars, unlocking automation and reporting. Check current per-agent pricing for your team size.

Our take

Freshdesk hits a sweet spot of ease and value, and the free tier makes it low-risk to try. It is a strong first help desk for a growing SME. Compare it with Zoho Desk if you already use other Zoho tools, and keep the focus on customer success.

See Freshdesk plans

Related: Customer success  ·  More business tools  ·  Zoho Desk compared

Main Features

Feature-rich ticket management – Easily search, assign, reply, and resolve tickets. You can also set deadlines for ticket response and resolutions based on different business hours or categories. The canned responses feature provides quick, consistent responses to common questions.

Multi-channel support – Respond to queries from phone, SMS, live chat, email, social media (Facebook Messenger, Instagram, etc.).

Real-time dashboard and reporting – Access metrics such as response time, resolution time, tickets created, tickets closed, and more.

Support channels – Enable chat in customer portal by integrating Freshdesk with Freshchat. You can then convert conversations into tickets.

Helpdesk management – View private notes, ticket activities and easily collaborate across teams using the functionalities such as team inbox and to-dos which allows you to add to-do tasks within the ticket or add it to your dashboard.

Analytics and reporting – Default dashboard: View ticket trends, recent activities, arcade, gamification, community forums, customer satisfaction, and other metrics. Freshdesk analytics (beta): View performance distribution, group performance, agent performance, ticket volume trends, ticket lifecycle.

Integration – Build and integrate custom apps to carry out workflows that are unique to your business

Self service – Create a self service experience for customers with a knowledge base and forums.

Customisation – Customise the look and layout of your support portal with full CSS customization and ready-made themes.

Pricing

Freshdesk offers four packages to choose from.

Free (Up to 10 agents)
Basic features

  • Integrated ticketing across email and social
  • Ticket dispatch
  • Knowledge base
  • Ticket trend report
  • Out-of-the-box analytics and reporting
  • Choose your data center location
  • Team collaboration
  • 24/7 Email support

Growth – $15/month (billed annually)
All features in the Free plan, plus:

  • Automation
  • Collision Detection
  • 1000+ marketplace apps
  • In-depth helpdesk report
  • SLA management & business hours
  • Custom Email Server
  • Custom Ticket Views
  • Custom ticket fields & status
  • Custom SSL
  • Easily track time spent by agents on tickets

Pro – $49/month (billed annually)
All features in the Growth plan, plus:

  • Multiple products
  • Includes up to 5000 collaborators
  • Round-robin routing
  • Custom roles
  • Custom objects
  • Custom reports and dashboards
  • Segment customers for personalised support
  • Customer journey
  • Canned forms
  • Manage versions in knowledge base
  • Community forums
  • Extendable API limits
  • CSAT surveys & reports
  • Multiple SLA policies & business hours
  • SLA reminder & escalation
  • Multilingual knowledge base
  • Custom apps
  • Average handling time (AHT)
  • Custom metrics
  • Report sharing

Enterprise – $79/month (billed annually)
All features in the Pro plan, plus:

  • Assist bot
  • Email bot
  • Auto-triage
  • Article suggester
  • Canned response suggester
  • Unlimited products
  • Sandbox
  • Easily manage agent shifts across time zones
  • Audit log
  • Skill-based routing
  • Knowledge base approval workflow
  • Flexible knowledge base hierarchy
  • IP range restriction
Pros and Cons

Pros

User-friendly design
Affordable
Scalable

Cons

Custom Reports are only available at the Pro and Enterprise plans.
Not an all-in-one solution
Limited reporting
FAQs

Freshdesk offers a variety of customization options. You can personalize agent dashboards, create custom fields for tickets, and develop workflows to automate repetitive tasks.

Freshdesk includes a comprehensive knowledge base feature where you can create detailed articles, FAQs, and how-to guides for your customers. You can also leverage canned responses to equip your agents with pre-written replies to common questions, saving time and ensuring consistency.

Freshdesk provides built-in reporting tools that allow you to track key metrics like agent performance, ticket resolution times, and customer satisfaction. These insights empower you to identify areas for improvement and optimize your support operations.

Freshdesk offers mobile apps for agents and customers, enabling them to access the platform and manage tickets on the go. This ensures your support team remains responsive and customers can get help anytime, anywhere.

Freshdesk provides migration tools and support to help you seamlessly transfer your tickets, customer data, and past conversations from your previous helpdesk platform. This ensures a smooth transition and minimizes disruption.

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