Item: Freshdesk
Rating: 8
Author: Laura Marshall

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Freshdesk is our ticketing system - multiple operational teams utilize it for internal tasks, and external follow up. The program allows us to communicate seamlessly with our clients, and with our contracted photographers. I especially lean on the automations we can set up to add private notes to tickets to help guide our teams easily without consulting SOP. On my team specifically, we use Freshdesk for inbound email support, for recording calls, and for communication between our internal teams, and clients as we are the main point of contact for clients.

Pros and Cons

Automations - sorting tickets
Help and Support page
Reporting - Analytics

Ticket templates and canned responses should be able to be used interchangeably. We frequently have the same response in both fields.
The spam filter can be a little too aggressive. We have had issues with tickets being accidentally marked as spam then filtering incorrectly for weeks at a time.
Freshdesk doesn't quite have the right integrations with our other providers (Vonage, and Avochato, to name a few).

Return on Investment

Increased response times - Client Success maintains at 98% SLA for resolution
Categorization of feedback and issues - custom ticket fields make it easier for us to review why clients contact us on a high level
Standardization of internal procedures via templates, canned responses and automations

Implementation Rating

At the time Freshdesk was implemented, I was not in a leadership role so wasn't privy to all of the implementation steps. However, there were times we had difficulty right at the beginning in getting our email inbox synced so all emails became tickets. Overall, it was a night and day difference in efficiency from an individual contributor perspective though!

Customer Satisfaction

Freshdesk has absolutely increased customer satisfaction and retention. Having a robust ticketing system is essential to success when working with clients. Freshdesk provides the frontline team with a lot of great tools to help clients more efficiently, and the main need of any client is to have their issue resolved as quickly as possible. On a management level, the Analytics that Freshdesk provides are great for coaching team members, and gaining higher level insight into strengths and weaknesses. We use Ticket Fields to categorize the type of issue/contact for every single client who reaches out to our team, which has helped us be more proactive with resolving overarching issues.

Alternatives Considered

I was not privy to the decision making process when Freshdesk was implemented. However, I can tell you both from a frontline perspective and a management perspective that the product provides GREAT value. Their support team is also pretty amazing - super prompt, friendly, and knowledgeable. That is a really important factor for us.

Key Insights

Do you think Freshdesk delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Freshdesk's feature set?

Yes

Did Freshdesk live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Freshdesk go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Freshdesk again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Asana, Keap, Vonage Business Communications, Avochato

Likelihood to Recommend

Any call center or customer support team can really lean into Freshdesk - it's so much more efficient than manually managing an email inbox. Our other operational teams use it a lot too. We have automations set up, for instance for when a client orders an add-on product. A ticket is emailed to the appropriate team to create and deliver that product seamlessly.

I do think that Freshdesk might be better suited for medium or larger teams. With a very small team, I don't see it adding much value, unless it's a small team handling a lot of volume.

Success of Freshdesk

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Freshdesk