Help Scout

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What is Help Scout?

Help Scout is a cloud-based help desk platform, used by small businesses or small teams in bigger companies to manage customer relationships.

Help Scout features many functions typical for other help desk services, with an addition of personalized customer experience, just like any normal email.

Customers don't need to roam in a bulky ticket portal, or to bother with login credentials to get their issues resolved. Help Scout provides inbox, that each user shares with the team, enabling collaboration for support whenever a request arrives.

Simultaneously, it eliminates the complexities other help desk solutions usually bring, and makes responding to emails and team collaboration easy and plain. It smoothly integrates with other apps and business systems.



Help Scout currently scores 90/100 in the Support & Helpdesk category. This is based on user satisfaction (88/100), press buzz (54/100), and other relevant information on Help Scout gathered from around the web.

The score for this software has declined over the past month. What is this?
www.helpscout.net

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Help Scout Review

Editors' Review by the Support & Helpdesk Software Review Team

A review of Help Scout support and helpdesk software solution

Help Scout is a cloud-based support and helpdesk software solution designed for small- to medium-sized businesses and large enterprise companies from various industries. This is the type of solution you use if you want your clients to have the best customer service experience possible.

Help Scout allows businesses and support teams to manage their customer relationships more effectively while elevating user-experience and the satisfaction customers get from their experience with the company.

How Help Scout Support and Helpdesk Solution Works

When you use Help Scout as your primary helpdesk solution, your customers won’t have to deal with iffy ticket portals or go through account logins and other time-consuming process just to get the help they need. Customer service, help desks and tech support should be simple and convenient for the client/customer. It shouldn’t be time-consuming.

With that said, Help Scout provides a clutter-free solution that allows your company’s help desk team to be more effective and accessible when providing support for your customers. Its features are ideal for small businesses with limited manpower and resources for providing adequate customer service.

However, the features and capabilities that come with Help Scout are also great for medium-sized and large enterprises looking to improve the quality of their customer service or the efficiency of their tech support teams.

Help Scout features an interface similar to a personal email. It doesn’t employ tickets, case numbers or clunky templates users have to manage. What the support and helpdesk software solution does instead allows your customer support team to create multiple mailboxes for every shared email address. This enables them to work and manage help requests across departments from a single account.

The software solution also comes with a reporting feature, which provides users the ability to keep track of team performance, identify trends and monitor customer satisfaction. Some of the notable features that come with Help Scout include:

  • Help Desk function
  • Real-time reporting
  • Email integration
  • Platform security and reliability
  • Docs Knowledge Base

HelpScout Review

The benefits of Help Scout support and helpdesk software solution

One of the key advantages of using Help Scout is that it allows your customer support staff to communicate with clients in an easier, quicker and more personalized manner. By doing so, you are sending a message to your clientele about the value and the significance your company is putting into its customer service efforts.

No ticket numbers required

The software solution is designed specifically to eliminate the need for ticket numbers. Your customers shouldn’t have to wait for hours, if not days or even weeks, just to be able to find someone from your company to help them with their problem. Help Scout’s core value is to make customer service all about conversations and personalized support, not reducing customers to a set of numbers.

Easy to use

Help Scout has a very short learning curve. Users don’t have to be tech-savvy or need to undergo extensive training just to be able to take full advantage of the software solution. The system is designed so customers will have a more satisfying experience when trying to reach your support staff for help and it’s also designed so your support staff won’t have any trouble providing quality service.

From a support team’s perspective, this software solution provides the ideal platform where team members can collaborate and consult with each other when dealing with customer requests, concerns and issues.

Real-time reporting

Additionally, Help Scout also comes with real-time reporting, which helps managers and team leaders to get a better handle on the company’s support front. Reports can be view any time of day within Help Scout’s built-in dashboard. These reports are organized into four easy to understand metrics; Conversations, Productivity, Team and Happiness.

  • Conversation Metrics – Show reports of conversations answered, number of customers entertained and so on.
  • Productivity Metrics – Show the efficiency of the company’s help desk. Information about time spent on each customer, first response time and the length of time which issues are resolved are all found in this category.
  • Team/User Metrics – Provide high-level insights and analysis into the metrics of each individual team member like the number of customer requests they’ve handled, number of issues resolved and the resolution time.
  • Happiness Metrics – Show the level of customer satisfaction based on the feedback they provide after a request is handled or a problem is resolved.

Help Scout cost and pricing plans

Help Scout offers three subscription packages designed for small- to mid-sized businesses and enterprises. These packages are billed either monthly or annually. All subscriptions have a free 15-day trial.

Basic – $12 per user per month ($8/user/month when billed annually)

  • Up to 10 users
  • Unlimited messages and storage
  • One mailbox
  • One limited Docs knowledge base
  • Reports with history of up to 30 days
  • Saved replies
  • Beacon
  • Following
  • @mentions
  • 24 hours, six days a week support
  • No Help Scout branding
  • Android and iOS app

Standard – $20 per user per month ($15/user/month when billed annually)

  • Unlimited users
  • All Basic features
  • Five mailboxes
  • One Docs knowledge base
  • Reports with full history
  • Workflows
  • Satisfaction ratings
  • Office hours
  • 50+ integrations
  • API access

Plus – $35 per user per month ($27/user/month when billed annually)

  • All Standard features
  • Unlimited mailboxes
  • Three Docs knowledge base
  • Salesforce integration
  • JIRA integration
  • HubSpot integration
  • SAML single sign-on
  • Teams
  • Custom fields
  • HIPAA compliance

Help Scout – Is It a Worthy Choice?

Help Scout may look like your average help desk software solution, but it’s actually so much more. The cloud-based solution is packed with different features designed to make customer support more practical and efficient for the company and easier for the customer.

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Help Scout Product Overview

  • Create multiple mailboxes for each shared email address.

  • Help Scout’s collaboration features keep everyone on the same page.

  • Simple automation system based on if/then logic.

  • Measure team performance, spot trends to prevent issues, and monitor customer happiness.

  • Every customer has an auto-populated, editable profile.

  • Customer satisfaction ratings.

  • Phone calls and voicemails.

  • Collision detection.


Languages Supported: English

Support & Helpdesk Software Buyer Guide 2024

Product recommendations, vendor rankings, market overview and tips on how to select Support & Helpdesk software for business. Published in March 2024.

No matter the size and nature of a business, the right SaaS helpdesk solution helps improve customer service in many ways. For instance, some software products for support & helpdesk purposes enable you to escalate issues to the right person to provide ...

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Help Scout Features

  • Analytics
  • API
  • Batch Permissions & Access
  • Calendar Management
  • Chat
  • Contact Management
  • Contact Sharing
  • CRM Integration
  • Customer Management
  • Dashboard
  • Data Export
  • Data Import
  • Data Visualization
  • Email Integration
  • External Integrations
  • Google Apps Integration
  • Inventory Tracking
  • Lead Management
  • Lead Scoring
  • Marketing Automation
  • Multi-User
  • Notifications
  • Scheduling
  • Supplier Management
  • Third-Party Plugins/Add-Ons
  • Click-to-Dial
  • SAP Integration
  • Net Promoter Score
  • Real-time Alerts
  • Workflow Management
  • Self-service Portal
  • Ticket Management
  • Instant Chat Integration
  • Social Media Integration
  • Call Integration
  • Knowledge Base
  • Support Forum
Help Scout Pricing

Help Scout Pricing Plans

Basic

$12.00
1 user(s) / month
  • Up to 10 Users
  • 1 limited Docs knowledge base
  • Reports (30 days of history)
  • Saved Replies
  • Beacon
  • Following
  • @mentions
  • Outstanding 24x6 Support
  • No Help Scout branding
  • iOS & Android App

Standard

$20.00
1 user(s) / month
  • Unlimited Users
  • 5 Mailboxes
  • 1 Docs knowledge base
  • Reports (Full history)
  • Saved Replies
  • Beacon
  • Following
  • @mentions
  • Outstanding 24x6 Support
  • No Help Scout branding
  • iOS & Android App
  • Workflows
  • Satisfaction Ratings
  • Office Hours
  • 50+ integrations
  • API Access

Plus

$35.00
1 user(s) / month
  • Unlimited Users
  • Unlimited messages & storage
  • Unlimited Mailboxes
  • 3 Docs knowledge base
  • Reports (Full history)
  • Saved Replies
  • Beacon
  • Following
  • @mentions
  • Outstanding 24x6 Support
  • No Help Scout branding
  • iOS & Android App
  • Workflows
  • Satisfaction Ratings
  • Office Hours
  • 50+ integrations
  • API Access
  • Salesforce Integration
  • JIRA Integration
  • HubSpot Integration
  • SAML Single Sign-on
  • Teams
  • Custom fields
  • HIPAA Compliance

Plans starting from: $12.00/month Credit card required: No

Help Scout FAQs

What platforms does Help Scout support?

Help Scout supports web-based platforms in addition to Android and iOS.

Who are the main user groups of Help Scout?

Main users of this service are small businesses, medium-sized enterprises, and small teams within larger organizations.

Does Help Scout integrate with any other apps?

Help Scout integrates with more than 50 applications, including:

Wordpress, BigCommerce, Snap Engage, Hubspot, Salesforce, Jira, Slack, MailChimp, Shopify, Olark, Capsule, Webhooks, Pipedrive, Highrise, WooCommerce, and others.

Does Help Scout offer an API?

Yes, it offers API.

Does Help Scout offer multi-user capability (e.g. teams)?

Yes.

What are some applications Help Scout is commonly used in tandem with?

Help Scout is frequently used in tandem with marketing and CRM platforms.

What is Help Scout generally used for?

It is used as a powerful help desk application with personalized customer experience.

Does Help Scout offer guides, tutorials and or customer support?

Yes, Help Scout offers:

Email Support, Knowledge Base, Phone Support, Video Tutorials, Help Desk, and Help Docs

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Help Scout User Reviews

Average User Rating:
4.4/5 based on 300 user ratings.
Your Rating:
User profile picture

"Excellent product!"


What do you like about Help Scout?

I’m not wading through a messy inbox anymore. My emails now feel more like a neat to-do list and I love the feeling of clearing all of them out. Help Scout has seriously made me into a more organized person and I feel like taking care of my clients is easy in a way it wasn't before.
My company explored other options last year and the resounding opinion of my entire team is that we did NOT want to lose Help Scout. I don't think this was an aversion to change, but rather an appreciation for the system Help Scout had let us create with each other. It's very easy to work together as a a team by using it and I would imagine it provides excellent oversight for our manager.
It's pretty motivating that anyone in my company can see my responses to my customer over Help Scout. If your'e great at customer service, you love this feature. If you want to fly under the radar and do a mediocre job, Help Scout would find you out pretty fast.

What do you dislike about Help Scout?

The only thing I dislike about HelpScout is ticket grouping tickets is a bit inflexible. I would like to create more specific groupings to drill down more minutely. There could also be some improvements in analytics all around.

What have you been using it for and what problems did Help Scout solve?

Being able to sync with our other systems (Shopify and MailChimp) has made it so much easier to pull up customers info and to reply to emails much faster. Seeing how many emails need to be assigned to specific employees helps us see who's covering how many emails, which employees typically cover what kinds of questions, and other patterns like that. I need to look more into the reports tab, I'm sure there's even more I can do, but I'm already really impressed with everything I have been using.

4/5
Usefulness
4/5
Ease of use
5/5
Value for money
4/5
Customer service
User profile picture

"Easy to use, great value for the price"

// Cofounder / Marketing, Growth, Technology, Experience at Sensacional Chile

What do you like about Help Scout?

The interface is very simple but at the same time powerful. You get used to it very fast.
You can create Workflows (triggered actions) which makes it easier and quicker to use.
Learning the shortcuts is intuitive. It took me a week to set everything up, migrate, create saved replies, auto replies, all the workflows, folders, etc. My team got used to it very quick and now we can track how we do CS.
The reports section is simple but to be honest, we don't need much more right now.
Support is extremely fast and accurate.
We haven't tried API integration but seems to be working fine.
Merging conversations is nice! And history of that customer is very useful.

What do you dislike about Help Scout?

There are tiny details that annoy. It could be great to have a chat integration (it's coming) or more customization for Beacon. People on my site believed it was a search for products, so we had to remove it.
The Docs section is good but editing articles is not that easy.
You can't save searches, only folders. It could be great to have "shortcuts" so you have a folder with 4 tags and everything's in there. It can only be done on Workflows.
Beside those details, it is a great software and will really help give better support for your customers.

What have you been using it for and what problems did Help Scout solve?

We were receiving lots of emails without a helpdesk. We signed up for HelpScout and started to prioritize our answers and started to measure everything.
This gave us: (1) visibility on our priorities (2) told us where we needed to focus on providing FAQs or info, and we use Docs by HelpScout (3) allowed us to measure how we were doing (by tag, member, reply, etc.).

5/5
Usefulness
5/5
Ease of use
5/5
Value for money
5/5
Customer service
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