Help Desk Software for Small Business: Costs, Features, and Best Tools

Use our tool to easily shortlist the best affordable small business help desk systems that meet your internal and external customer support needs.

What Is Help Desk Software for Small Business?

Help Desk Software equips small businesses with the tools necessary to deliver responsive, quality, and professional-level support without incurring prohibitive costs.

It unifies internal and external support tickets into a single platform, whether from email, phone, live chat, or social media.

Small business help desk tools deliver features aimed at tracking and resolving customer issues as efficiently as possible. Such as automated ticket routing, canned responses, self-service options, knowledge bases, and AI-powered chatbots.

There is a myth that small businesses can’t afford to invest in help desk technology. But the cost of not investing is higher – poor customer service costs global organisations $3.7 trillion annually. SMB-focused software comes with flexible pricing models, allowing businesses to choose plans that fit their needs and budget, with the option to upgrade as they grow.

At its core, Help Desk Software centralises communications, automates routine tasks, and provides actionable insights. This allows small businesses to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction with a minimal number of support agents.

What Are the Best Help Desk Systems for Small Businesses?

How Much Does a Small Business Help Desk System Cost?

Considering the number of support agents a small business will employ, the average cost of a help desk system ranges between £45 and £300 per month. This price range is based on multiple factors and can be broken down into stages:

• Teams with 1-2 support agents managing under 50 tickets per day will pay, on average, £20 per agent per month
• A team of 2-5 support agents managing up to 100 requests per day can pay up to £50 per agent per month
• Larger teams of 5-10 customer support staff handling up to 500 daily queries can pay up to £100 per agent per month

These prices also fluctuate depending on requirements. The lower-priced packages will have basic features like automated ticketing and email integration. Whereas higher-priced packages provide omnichannel support, CRM integrations, and AI-powered chatbots.

5 Help Desk Features Benefit Small Businesses the Most

1. Automated ticketing: Automate how tickets are prioritised and classified as soon as they are raised.
2. Omnichannel/multichannel workspace: Track and manage requests from all channels in one dashboard.
3. Shared inbox: One email inbox shared by support agents eliminates duplicate replies.
4. AI agents/chatbots: 24/7 automated customer service used to answer more generic queries like “where’s my order?” and “how do I reset my password?”.
5. Self-service help centres: The use of knowledge bases, FAQs, video tutorials, and manuals allows customers to find answers on their own.

How Small Businesses Can Implement a Help Desk In 13 Steps

1. Assign a team to research your options and create a project plan
2. Conduct a survey or poll to gather feedback from internal staff and external customers
3. Identify the channels you want to monitor for user feedback (e.g. email, live chat, social media, web forms)
4. List the features you need (e.g. live chat, knowledge base, chatbot, documentation tools)
5. Review necessary integrations based on current software usage (e.g. Slack, Shopify, Salesforce)
6. Assign team members to trial software solutions offering free trials
7. Define user roles and access privileges (i.e. admins, support agents, and contributors)
8. Create a shared inbox and add customer service representatives
9. Prepare initial (canned) responses to common queries
10. Compile and update knowledge base content (e.g. guides, FAQs, and troubleshooting articles)
11. Define the reports and metrics you’ll use to evaluate help desk performance (e.g. ticket resolution time, customer retention, customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), or first response time)
12. Train your agents on the system
13. Test your help desk setup

How Small Businesses Benefit From Implementing Help Desk Software

Enhances the Overall Customer Experience (CX)

For small businesses as well as enterprises, good customer service reduces customer frustrations when they have a problem.

Contributing to a positive customer experience creates a good employee vibe that is passed on to the consumer. The result is brand loyalty from customers and staff.

Improves a Company’s Financial Bottom Line

A recent Forbes Advisor poll conducted by market research company OnePoll found that customer service was the top factor affecting customer loyalty (74% of respondents).

Forty-eight per cent of respondents said they would pay more for quality customer service, and 44% said they would buy more if given a more personalised experience.

These factors have a significant impact on an organisation’s return on investment (ROI).

Streamlines Ticketing Processes

A streamlined ticketing system ensures support queries don’t fall through the net. Some systems can convert support queries from multiple channels, like email, phone, chatbots, live chat, social networks, and web page forms, into formal tickets and keep them organised.

Centralises Customer Support Issues Raised on All Channels

Arguably, one of the toughest challenges small businesses have is addressing issues raised on the internet. Monitoring and addressing negative company mentions can be a full-time task.

Help desk software for small businesses helps to scrape digital channels for customer feedback and conversations about their company. AI feedback analytics is a process used to collect and analyse customer feedback, brand mentions, and reviews from various sources.

Speeds up the Execution of Routine Tasks

Ease the workload of internal customer support teams. The automation of mundane processes and self-service frees staff up for more challenging tasks and gives them the time to add the much-vaunted personal touch.

Enhances Business Reputation and User Trust

According to a PWC survey, 90% of business executives think customers trust their companies, but only 30% of consumers say they do.

86% of business executives think employees trust their company, but only 67% of employees say they do.

Consumers say quickly responding to and resolving their concerns is their second concern (74%) after protecting their data (79%).

Monitor Service Performance

Dashboards give small businesses support teams fast and easy access to standard help desk metrics, like ticket volumes, response and resolution times, and customer satisfaction and agent performance ratings.