Hello all, I am currently working on a remotely hosted help desk for. Before I release it into Beta, I want to get several standard features rolling with it first. One of the biggest things that this help desk is going to feature is an unlimited number of forms for staff and trouble tickets alike. This includes radio, checkboxes, selection, and of course inputs with complete validation. When the helpdesk goes live in beta, it will be completely free of course. I am also going to offer a nice referral program. The referal program will consist of earning 7% of every single transaction a referee will make for the lifetime of his or her account. So that means that every single month that is paid for by a user, if he or she was referred the person that lead them into the site will earn 7% for lifetime, on every single transaction that is made. I think that is pretty fair. What are some of the things you would look for / require in the help desk? (remember it is remotely hosted) Thank you for your input, Drew
Yeah, sorry I typed that in a hurry. Here is a better description as well as what the system will already support. As such, aside from the general things that are in a help desk, the unique features/functions of the system itself. Currently I am going to be implementing: Unlimited addition of staff members Unlimited Form Controls for Staff Information (textbox, radio, checkbox, selection) Unlimited Categories/Subject Fields Subject Fields can be preappended with 2 charecters (ie General category can be GE so tickets would be GEXXXXXX) When new tickets are submited, they can be auto-assigned to staff by subject Unlimited set of unique/different submission forms (for specific or different areas of needed assistance, and of course as with the staff the fields can be added as textboxes, radios, checkboxes, or selections Personalized auto-reply set up for new ticket additions and/or modifications Users can access the submitted tickets by a generated string to view and/or reply to the ongoing ticket without logging in, but just by clicking a link in the email. Staff member will have a special "notes" section for each ticket. Each staff member may leave notes for another staff member to read as well, it is unique to the ticket id. Reply templates. The Admin can create special reply templates that the staff can use to quickly insert a reply instead of having to re-type the same answer over and over. This will help with efficiency. Some type of spell checker (havn't decided yet) which will be available to staff and users Message Board - a very simple message board that the staff members can post too... This will include a very basic system. Private messages (between staff members) Tickets are archived and always searchable. While the staff and administration will use my main host to administer and work with the help desk, the users will be completely working from your websites template(on your server) to view, edit, and reply to tickets. The average computer internet user (and the ones who dont care) will more then likely be oblivious to the outsourced help desk system and hosting. Private messages (between staff members) Automatic ticket creation from emails Staff Created tickets (when a user is communicating in phone, chat etc)
You may want to consider a knowledge base to capture all the solutions. Also, to come up with a comprehensive helpdesk system, do learn up ITIL's Incident Management best practices. A lot of organizations are now benchmarking helpdesk systems against ITIL...