10 Factors Google Workspace Users Must Consider Before Choosing a Help Desk

Does your team use Google Workspace for customer service? We assume you are not happy. 

Google Workspace is a great platform for managing internal communication and collaboration. But, many support heroes and industry experts feel it isn’t designed for growing customer service teams. Hence, the search for Google apps help desk makes great sense. 

Here is the moment of truth – Gmail alone isn’t enough for customer service. Google Workspace and delightful customer service don’t always go hand in hand. 

While basic queries can be handled using Gmail, you need sophisticated help desk software to interact with customers on multiple channels and automate time-consuming tasks. With the help of ticket organization, prioritization, self-service, and many other functions, help desk tools ensure that every issue is dealt with in time. 

If you have outgrown Google Workspace, this blog is for you. We will discuss the top features and benefits you would want your help desk to offer. 

Let’s go! 

What Is Google Workspace? 

Google Workspace (formerly known as G-Suite) offers multiple communication, productivity, and collaboration tools to help your team work more efficiently from any part of the world. You can get a custom email for your business and expect collaboration tools like Gmail, Google Meet, Chat, Calendar, Drive, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Docs, Sites, and more.

Now you might be wondering why Google Workspace was introduced. The world as we know it has changed tremendously during and after the 2019 pandemic. Google wanted to create a digital office space for its users so that team members could collaborate easily from anywhere. Google Workspace has been designed to bring teams closer together and encourage real-time communication. 

Why Google Workspace Users Are Looking for a Help Desk Solution

Millions of brands across the globe use Gmail for business communications. Gmail has over 1.8 billion users in the world – this is almost four times the number of its 400 million users just a decade ago. 

But sadly, Gmail or Google Workspace isn’t designed for customer service. Here are some of the top reasons why G-Suite users are looking for the best help desk solution: 

• To convert email messages into support tickets: A help desk solution can help you automatically convert email messages into support tickets. Every ticket will have a unique identification number and store all subsequent conversations related to it. 

• To keep shared inbox organized: Help desk software can help you rise above a cluttered inbox. You can use labels, statuses, and filters to keep your shared inbox well-organized. Moreover, you get multiple features, such as internal notes, agent collision detection, etc., that allow for real-time collaboration. 

• To monitor ticket response time and SLAs: Email can never offer you the metrics you need to measure and improve your customer service. As an alternative, help desk reports and analytics can help you monitor ticket response and resolution times and avoid SLA violations. 

• To meet customer expectations: Modern customers expect top-notch service that they can rely upon no matter what time of day. Integrating Google Workspace with help desk software allows your team to share faster responses, deliver personalized experiences, and monitor customer satisfaction. 

10 Factors Google Workspace Users Must Consider Before Choosing a Help Desk

If you feel Gmail lacks depth and power, you must place your bet on help desk software. Here are 10 factors to consider while choosing the best G-suite help desk for your team: 

1. It Should Offer the Shared Inbox Feature

If you use multiple Gmail team accounts such as support@company, info@company, returns@company, etc., you need the shared inbox feature. 

There is no point in sharing the same account credentials (user ID and password) among team members. The shared inbox feature allows multiple agents to access multiple shared inboxes simultaneously. 

If you let customer emails sit in your inbox for a long time, you may lose their trust. A shared inbox gives your team better visibility into important emails so they can easily prioritize urgent issues and plan their work. 

Another great benefit of the shared inbox is facilitating greater accountability in your team. Just a single glance and agents can see the work assigned to them. This ensures there is no confusion between team members about what they need to work on. 

Read More: 10 Shared Inbox Best Practices For Email Success

2. It Should Help You Track Conversations on Multiple Channels

Go for a G-suite help desk that allows you to manage all communication channels in one place. This will help you meet customers on their favorite channels. 

According to a Statista study, 64% of customers stated that email was their go-to channel to contact brands. On the other hand, 36% of respondents said they prefer social media. 

The ideal help desk tool should be able to help you capture customer issues from channels such as email, live chat, phone, help center, and more. When agents can track all issues and requests in one place, they do not have to waste time switching between different tools. 

3. It Should Help Your Team Members Collaborate Effortlessly

Long internal email threads are a thing of the past. Modern customer service agents need better collaboration features to work like a well-oiled machine. 

Delightful customer service requires a collaborative effort. A good help desk software must offer internal collaboration features such as internal notes, agent collision detection, and parent-child ticketing. 

Internal notes are comments inside tickets that are only visible to internal team members. This enables agents to discuss crucial aspects of an issue before replying to the email they received.

The agent collision detection feature allows agents to keep track of who’s viewing the thread to avoid duplicate responses. Moreover, parent-child ticketing will help you break a ticket into multiple child tickets and share them with the respective departments. 

Read More: 8 Ways to Excel at Customer Service Team Collaboration

4. It Should Offer Powerful Automation 

To automate your customer service, you do not need to make heavy investments in AI or supercomputers. All you need to do is find a Google help desk software that comes with advanced automation tools. 

Help desk automation can help you rise above mundane and repetitive tasks. Your team can handle more customers in less time and reduce the ticket response time drastically.

Here are some automation features you can look forward to 

• Chatbots (to assist customers 24×7)
• Canned responses (to share faster replies with customers)
• Automated ticket assignments (to ensure agent accountability) 
• Automated email notifications (to update agents & customers about ticket progress)
• Customer feedback surveys (to automatically measure customer satisfaction)

While all these features are great, it is dangerous to adopt automation with a set-it and forget-it mentality. You must look to add a human touch and a healthy dose of personalization in all your interactions. 

Read More: 10 Service Desk Automation Ideas that Boost Performance and Quality

5. It Should Allow You to Track Team Performance

In order to monitor your team performance, you need reports that give you a bird’s eye view of your process. Right from the time it takes for agents to respond to customers to how happy customers are with your service, there is a lot you can dig into. 

You will find help desk tools in the market that offer complicated reports and more data than your probably need. This can overwhelm your team and the support managers. 

It’s best to avoid such tools and go for the one that simplifies reporting for your team. Ideally, you should be able to tap into important help desk metrics such as the average first response time, ticket resolution time, agent ratings, open tickets, and more. 

Also, the tool should give you the option to download reports into different file formats and share them with key stakeholders. 

Read More: 15 Help Desk Metrics to Improve Customer Support

6. It Should Allow You to Monitor Customer Satisfaction

For any support team, it is important to know what customers think about your service and how well you are able to meet their unique expectations. Customer satisfaction surveys can be the best option for understanding customer sentiments. 

Google apps helpdesk should allow you to share automated CSAT surveys with your audience. These surveys are typically shared via email right after a support interaction. 

Here are some questions you can use in your survey: 

• On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your recent customer service experience?
• Kindly rate your satisfaction with our agent in resolving your issue.
• Are you happy with the solution provided to you today?
• What can we do to improve your experience with our company? 

As a best practice, it is important to keep your customer feedback surveys small and simple. You can make things interesting by sharing surveys with images, themes, or emojis. This will tremendously increase your chances of getting a high-response rate. 

Read More: 10 Templates to Write the Best Apology Emails to Customers

7. It Should Help You Build a Knowledge Base

Many customers are looking for answers online, even before they reach out to your business for assistance. Don’t believe us? Here is a stat to change your mind. 

According to a Forbes report, around 40 percent of customers say they will choose self-service over human contact. 

With Google apps help desk software, you can create an online knowledge base in no time. It can include self-service content such as  FAQ pages, video tutorials, technical troubleshooting guides, documentation, forms, and more. 

A knowledge base or online help center has become a must-have component for any customer service team. It can not only encourage self-service among your audience but also help your service team access articles and offer the best solution. 

Read More: 10 Best Practices for Creating Knowledge Base Articles

8. It Should Offer a Mobile App 

Whether you wish to chat with a loved one or offer support to a customer – mobile apps are quite convenient. 

A help desk mobile app (for Android and iOS) can make life easier for your support agents. They can work from anywhere in the world and delight customers with instant responses. 

With a mobile app, agents can receive push notifications even when they are on the move. This can prove to be quite beneficial, especially for field service agents who are out of the office most of the time. 

From creating a new ticket to attaching files to replying to a message, agents can perform multiple actions directly from the app. They can even check whether a support ticket is unassigned, pending, overdue, open, etc., so they can perform the necessary actions. 

9. It Should Come With Multiple Integration Options

Businesses are always looking for ways to improve communications – whether it is internally or with customers. To meet this goal and keep up with the fast-paced world, you need to connect your help desk with the tools you already use. 

Powerful integration options can help you connect your help desk with multiple project management, team communication, CRM, marketing, e-commerce, and other tools. 

These integrations will help different departments join hands to enhance the customer experience. For example, when you integrate Google help desk with a CRM tool, agents can view the complete customer information such as their contact details, order history, interests, past contacts, and more. 

Similarly, by integrating with a chatbot tool, you can design powerful bots for your website and assist visitors 24×7. Project management integrations will help your customer service team interact with different departments without any hassles. 

10. It Should Come With a Free Trial 

“Free trial” is no longer just a buzzword thrown around by software vendors. It has become one of the key considerations for anyone looking to invest in a software product. 

If you are wondering why businesses offer a free trial, the truth is that great products sell themselves. Once customers get a feel of the tool, they can make a reliable decision. 

Choose a help desk tool that offers a free trial for anywhere from 7-30 days. Make sure the free trial includes access to all the premium features. 

You can allow your agents to experiment with the tool and explore different features and functionalities during your trial period. Jot down the various aspects that your team likes or dislikes. You can even opt for trials for multiple help desk tools as it will make comparison easier and help you make a sound decision. 

Choose the Best Help Desk for Google Workspace 

Google Workspace has its own set of limitations when it comes to customer service. If you have a fast-growing team and an expanding customer base, finding the right Google help desk should be on your priority list. 

The right help desk tool can help you automate repetitive tasks, enhance team inter-departmental collaboration, and offer speedy responses to customers. It is also true that there is an abundance of help desk solutions available on the internet, but only a handful of them offer full integration with platforms like Google Workspace.

If you’re feeling frustrated with Gmail and Google Workspace, we have the right option for you. ProProfs Help Desk can be used to connect your Gmail account with a robust ticketing platform. In addition to solid email management, you can enjoy features such as live chat, a knowledge base, chatbots, powerful reports, etc., which are backed by awesome 24×7 human support.