According to the Forrester Opportunity Snapshot, 83% of decision-makers view customer service as a strategically important function. That’s why there is more emphasis on investing in the right help desk software. The easiest way to streamline customer support and manage tickets without breaking the bank is by deploying a free customer support software. This guide helps you explore:

Why do you need free customer support software?

An astounding 78% of consumers either bail on a transaction or do not make an intended purchase because of a poor service experience. The right customer support software enables businesses to manage customer requests effortlessly.

A customer support software lets you streamline customer interactions and deliver excellent customer experiences. A free customer service software is not only budget-friendly but offers advanced features that let you:

Key features of a free customer support software

Whether you are a start-up or a small business, managing budgets and cost-cutting might get chaotic. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a free support software with all the features of a helpdesk ticketing system without breaking the bank? A software that can scale as your business grows?

If you are looking for a free customer support software for your business, here are the five must-have features you should consider.

Ticket management

A free support ticket system allows your support teams to manage tickets effortlessly. Freshdesk’s free plan will offer functionalities that enable your agents to create, tag, and assign tickets to the right team member. Your support agents can filter and prioritize tickets based on keywords, communication channels, or queries. Respective tickets can then be assigned to a specific agent or group so there’s transparency around workflows and clarity on who should work on which ticket.

Self-service capabilities

Enabling self-service can help reduce ticket volume by 27%. With customers’ intent to resolve queries by themselves, your free customer support software can help you bring the collective experience of your support team into your customized self-service portal.

Social media support

A free customer support software like Freshdesk enables you to engage in social media interactions on Twitter and Facebook right from a single dashboard. Your free ticketing system should be able to integrate with your brand channels to automatically convert relevant brand mentions, likes, comments, and direct messages from Twitter and Facebook into tickets. This helps agents track and manage customer questions, complaints, or feedback that otherwise requires manual effort to find.

Reporting and analytics

Reports and metrics are integral to gauging the success of your customer support team. Most free support software do not offer an analytical dashboard to monitor your team’s performance, ticket trends, and customer happiness. Freshdesk’s free plan empowers agents with handcrafted reports and data visualization capabilities to save time and make data-driven decisions to improve the customer experience.

Security

Ensure that your free support software helps you encrypt customer communication across channels and comes with the necessary certifications to eliminate the stress of breaching any security protocols when handling customer data. Freshdesk’s free plan comes with an SSL certificate, helping businesses to set up their custom SSL URL up and running within 72 hours and follows GDPR recommended principles for privacy and security of personal data even if you operate outside the EU.

Do more with Freshdesk’s free support software

Freshdesk’s free forever plan gives you access to a feature-packed customer support software, absolutely free!

Streamline customer communication

Freshdesk’s free plan comes with an in-built ticketing system that lets your agents handle queries from multiple communication channels like email and social media from a single unified dashboard. Your agents don’t need to juggle multiple helpdesk tools anymore. Freshdesk helps your support team resolve customer issues efficiently by allowing them to:

  • Enable instant notifications for real-time updates

  • Track social mentions on Twitter and Facebook

  • Prioritize and categorize tickets to offer solutions at the earliest

  • Merge all related tickets to streamline communication

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Automate routine tasks

Freshdesk lets you set up workflow automation to improve your agents’ productivity. Freshdesk's free plan allows agents to maintain a to-do list within each ticket, ensuring they don't miss out on any task. Additionally, support reps can:

  • Route tickets to the right support agent to reduce response time

  • Set up canned responses for frequently asked questions (FAQs)

  • Add private notes to a ticket and share ticket progress for easy collaboration

  • Personalize automated email tickets and add links for greater context

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Monitor performance metrics

You can stay on top of your team’s performance with Freshdesk’s ticket volume reports. You can draw insights from the performance metrics to drive future decisions and increase agent accountability. Here are additional benefits of Freshdesk’s free plan.

  • Supervisors and Admins can track daily trends, agent availability, and current customer satisfaction ratings

  • Agents can keep tabs on their schedule, how many tickets they need to resolve and what customers think about their support

  • Access reports to understand the ticket workflow and allocate resources accordingly

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Provide self-service to customers

You can use the knowledge base feature in Freshdesk to provide customers with detailed solution articles and other resources to troubleshoot and resolve issues on their own. This will help keep ticket volumes down and improve customer satisfaction by enabling you to:

  • Customize your customer support portal to enhance the end-user experience

  • Embed solution articles and contact forms through chat widgets on your website

  • Build a knowledge base to document FAQs, guides, tutorials, and company policies

  • Convert ticket replies into solution articles using the email-to-KBase capability

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Answer customers wherever they are

Freshdesk enables integration with 1,000 pre-delivered Marketplace apps, making it easy for support agents to support customers wherever they are. Integrations can seamlessly bridge the gap between preferred communication channels and the ticketing software, empowering support teams to:

  • Collaborate with third-party vendors or members from other teams to solve the customer’s problem faster

  • Engage with customers on their preferred communication channels

  • Monitor, view, and respond to tickets from a single dashboard while providing an instant and personalized customer experience

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Deliver real-time assistance

Freshdesk offers 24x7 email support included with the free plan. You can reach out to us for assistance with any issue, and rest assured, someone from our support team will be with you right away. You can leverage Freshdesk customer support for assistance around:

  • Account settings, portal customization, and helpdesk automation

  • Admin configuration for setting up SLAs, CSAT surveys, ticket forms, and other features

  • Self-service that includes creating and managing a knowledge base and community forums

  • Freshdesk API that integrates existing and custom functionalities

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Compare the top 5 free support software

We have compared the best free support software that offer a forever-free plan for businesses.

Note: We haven’t considered support software that offer a free trial only for a limited time and expect users to upgrade to a paid plan.

Support Software Shared Inbox Social Media Support Automated Ticket Assignment Real-Time Collaboration Public Knowledge Base Mobile App Reporting
Freshdesk
LiveAgent
Hubspot
Zoho Desk
Solarwinds

Read what our customers have to say

Frequently asked questions about free customer support software

 

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