With so many various applications available to help streamline a business, none seems to be more important than your path of communication with customers, clients, and fellow workers. Email has long fit the bill for this type of communication, but as many businesses look to streamline and manage their communications in a more effective way than standard email, many turn to an online chat and ticketing system. In this review, we look at the popular Kayako platform for ticketing, chatting, and customer support software that we have personally implemented for the past 4 years.
Think of the Kayako support software as email on steroids. It allows full conversations to be kept in a discussion formatted thread, allows staff members to all work on the same ticket or conversation, and can even forgo the emailing system and allow instant chatting and support from your website.
Kayako Desktop Software
Key Features We Liked:
The main reason Level Four moved away from traditional email was there was low quality conversations, lost discussion threads, complications of inter-agency discussions, and lack of general sorting. With Kayako support software, customers and clients can send emails to your various departments that you setup OR they can also use your website interface to submit tickets.
Customers receive emailed replies, just like traditional email, but they also can check status of tickets and messages via the support web interface. Taking the support to the next level, you have the ability to have incoming emails automatically sorted into departments, assign staff to specific departments, and streamline your incoming messages for faster response times.
Sounds a lot like email, but now you can use a full knowledgebase to answer questions; customers can search your knowledgebase before even submitting a ticket, often saving you considerable time. You can post news and updates via your support interface, and even collect specific information via your ticket submission process by building custom forms.
Another added benefit is you can assign tickets to various people in your organization and still keep track of the customer by chiming in when needed… a process that is often difficult when communicating within your agency and also the client.
Another great feature is you can now show your online/offline status with customers via your website. Customers can easily chat with you if you like, or leave a ticket if not available. See where your customers come from via the world map, see what they are looking at on your website, and even engage the customer without them even needing to launch a chat session.
The other great feature we like is that they offer a desktop software solution that runs on a PC, along with a web interface when away from the office. You can also get the new Android Beta app and some iOS apps expected in the future.
Key Problems We Dislike:
While the ticketing, chat, and emailing system sounds wonderful, and quite frankly we do love the software, it’s not perfect. After following Kayako through 2 releases, and this latest release of Version 4, the software has plenty of bugs and certainly requires some knowledge to get accustom to.
We have several tickets outstanding for support and one ticket of ours has yet to be fixed after 6 months of waiting. Kayako has a small team in the U.S., but most of their development and support staff work from overseas and often requires patience when working with to resolve issues.
Version 4 software has been in use here at Level Four since Beta release and we have continued issues with various aspects of the software and continue to get resolutions slowly but surely, but the software currently still feels like it is coming out of beta release. Our only hesitation on the product is that it requires someone who understands that software can have quirks, and that dealing with those quirks is worth the effort in efficiency.
We would like to see a little more time taken on the testing at Kayako’s side before beta releases and full releases are done, but there is a great push to get new software out there in the hands of users.
Information on Kayako:
Over the past few years, we have had a lot of experience using the Kayako system, and have even installed and utilized the support and chat system for many clients. Kayako offers various pricing methods, either a hosted solution starting at $29 a month going to $49 a month, or you can own your licenses for $999 per 10 seat licenses… allowing for 10 staff members to use the software and you host it on your own server.
Kayako has more information by visiting their website via www.kayako.com.
Conclusion:
In a world where every business should be looking at efficiencies in their business, Kayako does have its place in making business online communications streamlined and packed into one great location. Kayako does a wonderful job in making your email a thing of the past and making communications a well-organized, well-oiled machine.
Sort, filter, prioritize, assign, keep track of time and costs, and never lose another communication with a customer. Increase your customer communications with an integrated chat system to your website. Decrease your time spent on customer questions with a self-help knowledgebase and news section.
As a small organization at Level Four, we can pass tickets between staff, manage our full email and ticketing system in one centralized location, and we have room to grow and easily add staff members to our communications team with ease.
We personally have seen increased growth in online chatting and customer interactions and customer satisfaction ratings have been much higher with our quick support turn around and ease of accessibility to our staff. In conclusion, not only is Kayako a great solution, but it can mean real world dollars in efficiency and scalability to a business, both small and large.
For more information, be sure to check out their website, and notice the large list of clients that are utilizing the system.
