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An Automated Support E-Mail System?
qm_37 asks: "I work for a small software company with a growing customer base. Our current support desk system has worked well for us in the past, but is going to become very unwieldy if it has to grow any more than it already has. We're looking for a more automated system that will do things like filter and direct incoming support e-mails to the support worker assigned to that task, assign and track support issue numbers, and give us a nice searchable database of previous customer issues. We've looked at various solutions ranging from commercial software packages to PHP/CGI-based server scripts, and nothing has really grabbed our attention. We have also considered writing our own system, but the trade-off is that we need to find the time to do it. Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this? Which route do you think we should take for our support system?"
We use E-Gain. http://www.egain.com (We're also a bank, so we're well funded.)
New emails get a ticket ID, and you log into a web interface to download new tickets. It keeps messages for the same ticket associated together.
It also supports autoreplies, template/scripted replies, and some non-email-related things like a knowledge base, quick-message-forwarding address book, etc.
The whole point for going with a system like this, of course, is for performance monitoring, tracking, and reporting.
--Michael Spencer
Have you considered using Kayako? It's not free, but it contains a knowledge base, and has a clean layout too. We currently use this where I work and we've never had problems.
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
I've used Ticketsmith for a few years now. Threaded replies, assign tickets to staff members, web based, auto-replies to the client.
Does everything you need, and nothing you don't.
You should outsource your support to another country so that everytime someone needs help, they can talk to a human being. Look, how amazing tech support is.
Just set up a simple auto-responder in your mail client. The message you need is very basic, and will provide your clients/users with enough information to trouble shoot their problem! Ohh, and it's only four characters. ;-)
"RTFM"
Bonus points if you actually include a link to the manual, but no need to go overboard...!
Okay, so that's just what I would do. Why, yes, I am still looking for a job.. why do you ask?
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
Good luck! Cheers, Joel
I have been using MySQL's eventum http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/other/eventum/featu res.html/ for the past few months and have found it very good.
It's PHP MySQL based. It supports multiple projects, email integration, supports public/private fields, custom categories, custom fields, project management (time tracking), issue listing, sorting, searching, reporting and graphical stats. It also supports SOAP (remote posting) and RSS for viewing
I have been using Request Tracker for a while now and I love it, and so does my support staff and customers. It is very robust and flexible. I use Apache with mod_perl, SSL and a MySQL database, and sendmail for the mail interface. You might hit a few bumps during setup, but you should be able to work through them. There are a lot of good docs out there which walk you through the entire setup. If you haven't looked at it you should. Everything is free except the hardware and time. They also have RTFM (RT FAQ Manager) which is an addon to RT and can help you manage company wide knowledge.
If you need a serious customer support email + web based issue/ticket tracking and management system then you need to check out Request Tracker.
I'd recommend RT from Best Practical. I use it with a Postgres backend and Apache/Sendmail on the front-end, and it works beautifully. It does everything we (and you, it sounds like) need it to do, with plenty of added flexibility if you need it. Check it out.
I can attest to RT being great ... worked for an ISP that used it. emails would automatically open tickets and assign them to queues based on keywords. when tickets were updated (either through the web interface or by email on our blackberrys) it could (at our choice) email the user back to let them know.
best of all, it's free.
We emerge from our mother's womb an unformatted diskette; our culture formats us. - Douglas Coupland
Ticket app: http://www.bestpractical.com/rt/
FAQ Manager: http://www.bestpractical.com/rtfm/
As a number of other people have mentioned, Request Tracker (RT) is probably just about a perfect fit for your needs. I use it for a similar (but internal) setup, and it works like a charm. I'm currently using it on a Debian/Woody box with Apache, PostgreSQL, and Qmail.
Especially considering it's free (GPL), I don't know many better solutions.
Topher
Speaking as someone who's used remedy, and tried to support a customized platform based around it.
STAY AWAY. STAY VERY FAR AWAY. Hire some college kids to code you a nice replacement in PHP or something.. You'll be happier.
Just my 2 cents.