How IT Consultants Use a Hosted Helpdesk to Manage Client Requests

Mark Gallagher, founder of MoonRivers Media, and Mojo Helpdesk user since Jan 2012. (Photo Credit: Zoe Isaac)

Mark and Melissa Gallagher are co-owners of Moon Rivers Media, an IT solutions company based in New Hampshire. 

Married in 2003 when MoonRivers Media was in its early stages they worked tirelessly to build a client base and launch the business in 2004. Now nine years later, they're thriving entrepreneurs who serve a clientele of small to mid sized companies in the New England area and nationwide.

When not providing IT expertise to their clients, Mark and Melissa are also avid outdoors people who enjoy skiing and spending time with their two kids.

They were kind of enough to take some time out of their schedule to chat with us about their business and how it integrates with our hosted helpdesk software. 

ENTER MARK AND MELISSA:

Tell us about MoonRivers Media.

From web hosting, to email marketing, to Google Apps integration, MoonRivers Media offers an array of technology solutions for clients in the New England area and nationwide. The nature of our company is very mobile/on the road and the majority of hours are spent on site at client's offices, not our own. MoonRivers Media experienced a big growth once we settled at our home in New Hampshire and built a client base of local small to mid size companies with IT support needs.

What challenges you were facing prior to using Mojo?

Our diverse client base is spread around the country and our clients come to us for support 24/7. We needed to centralize the management of the requests and we needed a help desk to be bullet proof and accessible from EVERYWHERE.

How do you use Mojo day to day?

Tickets come in via email to help@moonrivers.com and our techs can grab them and get to work. It also integrates with our existing site and Google Apps both of which were great for us. 

Tell us about the results.

We can search the tickets for answers to questions people submit again and again. We can show them how to self-help and login to their own custom profile with all their tickets.

We also get the original requests via email and then the help@moonriver address sends the tickets to a few email boxes and to the helpdesk so we can see them every which way and respond as appropriate. 

We combined the helpdesk with our remote software support and now we have a GREAT helpdesk.

Melissa Gallagher, co-owner, MoonRivers Media. (Photo credit: Zoe Isaac)

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If you're a IT consultant or tech consulting firm looking for a help desk or ticket tracking software, you can visit our website: Mojo Helpdesk or send me an email at ryan @metadot (dot) com .

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How to Turn Tweets into Helpdesk Tickets

Turn customer Tweets into helpdesk tickets with our latest mash up.
(Photo credit: @daskeyboard)

You may not have asked for it, but it's happening.

Your clients are using Twitter to reach out to you when they need customer support.

Their question, requests, and complaints are in the public eye; your responsiveness and service quality are out in the open for anyone to see.

It's the perfect time to start getting systematic about how you address support via social media channels.

Having your customer's Tweets automatically turn into helpdesk tickets is a great place to start so we've setup a little hack to make it happen.

You'll need a Gmail account and a Mojo Helpdesk account for this to work.

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Step 1 (Optional). Create a Helpdesk Queue for Tweets

If you haven't done so yet, sign up for a trial of Mojo Helpdesk.

From your Mojo Helpdesk navigation bar, click 'manage' >> 'Queues and email addresses' and click the 'New' button. Enter a queue name and an email address and then click the 'create queue' button. You now have a place for all your customer's Tweets to be stored as tickets that you can follow up on.

Make note of the email address you created because you'll need it for Step 3.

For this example, I created a new helpdesk queue called Twitter and set my queue email address as twitter@ryanluedecke.mojohelpdesk.com:

If you already have a Mojo Helpdesk account, you may prefer to use an existing queue that you've already setup. To use an existing queue, click 'manage' >> 'Queues and email addresses'and find the email address associated with the queue you plan to use. Take note of this email address because you'll need it for Step 3.

Step 2. Link Twitter to a Gmail address.

Log in to Twitter. Click the gear icon in the upper right hand corner of the navigation bar, then click Settings. In the Account view enter a valid Gmail address in the email field.

Check Gmail to confirm your account is receiving Twitter notifications. You should have a verification message from Twitter.

Step 3. Tell Twitter which Tweets to send to Gmail.

Click the gear icon in Twitter and select Settings. In the Email Notifications screen you need to tell Twitter which Tweets to send as email notifications to your Gmail inbox. 

For my helpdesk I selected "My Tweets get a reply or I'm mentioned in a Tweet - By anyone" and "I'm sent a direct message" as these are the types of Tweets that are most likely to contain a customer inquiry, a new feature request, or a complaint.

Step 3. Tell Gmail where to forward Tweets.

Open Gmail. Click the gear icon in the upper right, then select Settings. Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.

Enter the queue email address from Step 1. Gmail sends a confirmation code that you need to grab from your 'Unassigned' tickets view (or 'Unassigned' >> 'Guest Requests' view if you have special filters or automations set up).

After verifying your code, click the 'Disable' forwarding button and scroll down and click the'Save Changes' button. When you finish this step, your settings will look like this:

Step 4. Tell Gmail which Tweets to Forward.

Log into Gmail. Click the gear icon in the upper right, then select Settings. Click the Filter tab. Click the 'Create a new filter' link and fill in the filter pop up form as follows:

From: *@postmaster.twitter.com

(this is the email domain Twitter uses to deliver every email notification as of 5/15/13. The asterisk tells Gmail to include any email with a domain of postmaster.twitter.com)

Has the words: "mentioned" OR "direct message"

Leave the other field blanks. When finished, click the 'Create filter with this search' link.

Here's how it will look on screen:

Now you need to check the 'Forward it to:' box and select the forwarding address you set up in Step 1. Click 'Create filter' (or 'update filter' as shown below) and you're finished.

Note 1: Filter fields in Gmail work just like Google Search by giving you more control with search operators like the asterisk (*). The asterisk (*) serves as a placeholder for any unknown or "wildcard" terms. Here it protects our filter if Twitter changes the local part, or first part, of the email which looks like something this for notifications:"n-elna=zrgnqbg.pbz-ab31d".

Note 2: There are probably several ways to set this Gmail filter, but unless you are an expert and willing to troubleshoot, I'd recommend using the filters as shown in the screen shot above. The filter example is especially useful if you've having Twitter send you notifications for new followers and retweets as you probably don't want those flowing into your helpdesk as tickets.

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Once these steps are complete, you'll get notices when people Tweet you, reply to a Tweet, or send you a direct message on Twitter.

Questions about this Twitter mash up or about our hosted helpdesk software in general? Send them to me at ryan (at) metadot

All the best,

Ryan

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How To Save $1,500 to $21,300 A Year on a Helpdesk...

What could you buy with the money you save by using Mojo Helpdesk? How about a 3-story office slide. (Photo credit: Ben Terrett)

How much does web hosted help desk software really cost?

What is the yearly investment required to run web hosted ticket tracking & request tracking software?

How much budget should I set aside to equip our customer service team with an online help desk support system?

If you've ever had one of these questions, take a look at the web hosted help desk pricing table below. It shows yearly costs for some of the most popular web hosted help desk and ticket tracking apps.

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Web Hosted Help Desk Pricing ($ per year)

Table Notes:

- Last updated 4-29-2013.
- Assumes month-to-month pricing with no long term contract.
- Competitors' most popular plan chosen for pricing comparison (where listed):

• Mojo Helpdesk - Business Plan
• Zendesk - Plus Plan
• Desk Dot Com - Full time Agent Plan
• Freshdesk - Garden Plan
• UserVoice - Enhanced Plan

- Competitor pricing rounded to the nearest hundred.
- Agents are individuals who responds to support ticket and/or can change settings. Most web hosted help desk software is billed per agent. Mojo Helpdesk charges one flat rate per month for unlimited agents.

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If you're looking for an affordable web hosted helpdesk solution that's easy to implement, then consider Mojo Helpdesk. It can save your organization an average of $1,500 to $21,300 a year on web hosted help desk software...

...and that assumes your organization has 50 agents or less. We have several users with 60+ agents who save their organizations $30K+ a year with our flat rate pricing.

Need to demonstrate your value to current or prospective employers? Imagine adding this to your list of accomplishments:

"Saved my company $XX,XXX per year and increased department productivity by researching and implementing a web-based ticket tracking system."

Switching over from old help desk software? What if you had this data point for key decision makers:

"By switching help desk systems we can save an estimated $XX,XXX per year on IT and customer service costs."

Running a small business? Imagine adding thousands of dollars to your income every year just by choosing Mojo over the other guys. At the end of the year you'll have this good news for employees and investors:

"We implemented a simple web-based helpdesk solution this year that helped us solve customer requests faster, reduced our online data storage needs, and saved us thousands relative to other technology investments we were considering."

This isn't fluff. The numbers in this post are the proof.

-Ryan

ryan (at) metadot dot com

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