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If your clients send email requests to you, setup your mail box parameters in WebAsyst Help Desk settings and all incoming messages will appear in the list. It is not necessary to refresh the browser window in order to view newly received requests. WebAsyst Help Desk will automatically update the request list every minute.
You can create as many incoming mail boxes as you need. For instance, you may want to create support@your_company.com for tech messages and biling@your_company.com for your accounting division.
Another way to receive requests is using web form. WebAsyst Help Desk allows you to quickly create a form and using couple of html code lines embed it into your website. A message which visitors of your site will send via this form will be added to the list of requests in the same way as requests received by email.
To find out more about which method of receiving customer inquiries is better (email, web form, or personal online account), read a comprehensive article in our blog.
If a customer requests require attention from several persons (e.g., store advisors, accountants, etc.) in your company, support operators can forward the request to a qualified specialist before responding directly the customer. After a response has been received from the specialist, the primary support operator can reply directly to the customer. The customer will not see the internal correspondence of support team members and will only receive the reply from the operator. A request can be forwarded to a specialist as many times as needed to provide a complete response to the customer.
If a customer has requested additional information regarding your previous reply, you will not need to look for the original message to understand the whole picture. WebAsyst Help Desk keeps track of such repeated requests by similar subjects and combines them into easily viewable message chains, as shown in the sample above.
After a customer sends a request, he/she receives a link to his/her personal online account — a specially designed personal web page. Using an online account, a customer can view all his/her requests and their current status, add a new request or browse received replies to previously sent requests, as well as cancel any currently open request.
WebAsyst Help Desk knows all about clients' orders in your online store. If you have Shop-Script installed in your WebAsyst account, a sidebar appears on request page with information about the client orders made in Shop-Script store. It allows you to have all necessary information on hand, without leaving request page.
For every mail box you can customize a signature which will be automatically added to the text of reply. In signature you can add special variables that will be replaces with their corresponding values. For instance MY_NAME variable will be replaced with the name of user sending reply, and REQUEST_LIST_URL will appear as a link to client's online account.
It is a good practice to add signature links to permanent resources where your clients will be able to find useful information and possibly answers to their potential questions. It may allow you to significantly reduce number of future requests to your Help Desk Team.
When a new request is received from a client, it is automatically assigned a unique identification number, and a receipt message is promptly emailed to the customer. Receipt message is optional, but recommended, if your typical response time counts in hours or even days. Otherwise your client may consider his request lost and will probably send recurring requests.
Receipt text is editable so you can specify an estimated response time and add links to permanent resources where your clients will be able to find useful information.
As a return address for receipt messages, it is better to specify an unmonitored email box (e.g. noreply@your_company.com); this will minimize redundant requests.
Every time you receive a message from an unknown email address which does not exist in your Contacts database, an automatic confirmation request will be sent to this email address. This request can contain a special link for sender to confirm his/her original message as well as additional confirmation instructions you provide.
Confirmation request feature can be disabled if you already have efficiently anti-spam methods in place, or if you have published your email address on a private page where only authorized users have access.
Depending on your job responsibilities, you may need to view the list of all newly received messages or only those requests which are being discussed with a specialist. If you are a specialist in your company, you will find it convenient to see only the list of relevant requests. If you are a manager, you may want to analyze the quality of your support team work. Choose the most appropriate folder such as "New", "Discussion", "Reopened", "My requests", "Closed requests". With WebAsyst Help Desk, you can work only with those requests which are important for your current task.
When writing a reply to a customer request, you have rich text formatting tools: bold or italic font, insertion of numbered or simple lists and images, etc. Similarly, the messages received from customers are displayed just as they have been drawn up by their senders. Plain text messages are displayed without extra formatting.
Fast search allows you to quickly find request by it's number or client's name. Search box is located at the top of request list and is always available.
More complex criteria can be used with Advanced search. This tool is useful if Help Desk operator does not know an answer to a new request. You can easily find replies to previous similar requests.
Advanced search allows you to search requests by customer name or email address, by request number, request body or subject, or by a phrase containing in forwards or comments. You may even filter requests by user who replied or performed other actions.
