What Is Freshdesk?
Freshdesk is a help desk solution from Freshworks, a well-known software provider. Such a platform lets you manage messages and see what your customers need – two essential functions for customer assistance.
Since Freshdesk uses tickets to communicate, it’s essentially a ticketing management software. This particular tool does the job better than most competitors in a lot of ways.
How Does Freshdesk Work?
With the Freshdesk software, team members can collaborate on tickets, convert calls into tickets, use live chats, and manage your company’s social media pages.
Think these are convenient? Freddy, Freshwork’s bot, knows how to understand customer experiences. Thus, you can avoid repetitive tasks, as the AI is able to:
- Notify customers and agents about changes in tickets
- Assign workload to agents
- Be a triage chatbot
It’s common knowledge that receiving top-of-the-line support is a must. Not only that, but providing excellent customer service is therapeutic for your team, too.
That’s where Freshdesk shines: it sorts all concerns into neat tickets so nothing gets lost in the chaos. Your team can easily track who needs what and answer quickly, making sure every customer feels heard and valued.
When Should You Use Freshdesk Ticketing Management?
You ended up in this Freshdesk review because you’re likely running a very busy business. By “busy,” we mean you’re either getting a good number of sales inquiries, too many customers with concerns, or both.
This is where you begin wondering whether a solution like the Freshdesk’s ticketing system could really make a difference.
Imagine your team dealing with dozens, maybe hundreds, of customer emails and calls every day – overwhelming, right? That’s the first among the following major signs you need to better manage your tickets:
- You believe your customer service helpdesk needs rebranding.
- Tickets end up in the wrong department or have resolution delays due to human error.
- There’s workplace burnout, a common cause of job dissatisfaction.
- Data and reports take too long to create because of manual methods.
If you’re a customer-facing business, odds are these points hit home. If even one of these scenarios rings true for you and your team, it might be time to consider Freshdesk customer service software.
Freshdesk Pricing – How Much Does It Cost?
Probably one of the best things we loved in our Freshdesk review is the availability of a free plan. As a result, more users were able to test the product and give feedback.
Note that, for you to use the app to its full potential, it’s best to choose a paid option according to your familiarity with how to use it.
That generosity is quite rare, given that Ooma, one of the best VoIP services providers, is the only other platform that starts at $0. It’s cheaper than RingCentral’s $19.99 and Nextiva’s $18.95 – the respective starting plans for their call features.
However, our Freshdesk review participants found that Freshwork’s VoIP feature is an add-on to its CRM suite. This means you can’t access it via the ticketing management system.
Nonetheless, it’s still optimal to learn about Freshdesk’s offerings.
Free
Dive into Freshdesk’s free plan and discover the core features you’d expect from a ticketing system without spending a dime. It seamlessly brings together email and social channels, ensuring no customer query slips through the cracks.
The Ticket Dispatch function sorts concerns efficiently, while the plan gives you a knowledge base that empowers users with self-service options. Other features include trend reports and analytics.
Growth
This plan lets you have automation and tailor your ticketing experience. The package allows for a custom email server and personalized views of tickets. You can even create unique ticket fields and statuses that fit your workflow.
With a custom SSL, your customer interactions stay secure. The cherry on top? An advanced helpdesk report that tracks every minute agents spend resolving tickets, offering insights into productivity.
Pro
Optimal for businesses are outsourcing customer support, allowing up to 5,000 collaborators to join forces. There are features for managing complex operations like multiple SLA policies and varied business hours.
Round-robin routing ensures tickets get evenly distributed among agents. If you need more control, this tier offers custom roles to fine-tune access permissions, and the ability to craft bespoke reports and dashboards tailored to your needs.
You can even build a community forum where customers help each other, enriching your support ecosystem.
Enterprise
The highest price comes with the best benefits, which include Sandbox. It’s a platform to try new Freshdesk features without affecting your agents and customers. Meanwhile, non-stakeholders can also contribute to your knowledge base, subject to approval.
You can handle unlimited products while managing agent shifts across different time zones – a global feature set for round-the-clock support.
Enterprise’s skill-based routing ensures customers always reach the most qualified agent for their needs, boosting satisfaction and efficiency.
While all these plans present clear benefits based on your needs, one question still remains: Is it hard to cancel? The answer depends since you can cancel anytime before your term ends. Note that you can opt for either annual or monthly payment terms.
Freshdesk Features — What Do You Get?
No Freshdesk review is worth your attention if it doesn’t offer a rundown of its core features, which we easily loved. Get a view as well of what small downsides you might encounter and how to alleviate each.
Ticketing System
Omnichannel marketing and retailing are tried and tested, and you can apply the same principle when it comes to customer support. With Freshdesk, you can turn any type of customer concern or inquiry into a ticket.
Our Freshdesk review team reported the following types of major channels available as ticket sources:
- Emails (including outbound ones)
- Customer service portals
- Phone
- Forums
- Twitter and Facebook
- Website chat and feedback widgets
- E-commerce channels
- Internal chats
- Other chatbots
The main view of your tickets include source they came from. Switch anytime to the table view, in which you can add/edit columns, such as the deadline for the resolution, the skill needed, and even how long a customer has waited.
Whoever the stakeholder is can assign agents to these tickets and edit their categories. Meanwhile, agents can also filter their searches to see tickets according to priority, product, company, contact, and status.
But this ticketing system is powered by other features from Freshdesk.
Scenario Automations and Rules
This is, by far, our favorite, with our team reporting it would be a perfect feature for businesses with many repetitive tasks. We let them put it to the test.
We tried creating an automation process for inviting stakeholders and influencers to collaborate in writing forum topics. Let’s say that in exchange for it, we’ll give them a discount.
After setting the triggers for Twitter follower count and Enterprise account holders, we saw that the tool could perform many types of actions, like:
- Change the priority, ticket, or status types
- Add notes, CCs, or watchers
- Assign a group, agent, or a specific product
- Send emails
- Create threads to forward emails to other stakeholders
In our testing, we chose to add CCs, notes, and watchers, then proceeded to assign the ticket to a group and an agent. They would be the ones to prepare the invitation materials.
This also required us to create a thread for the billing department, as they will be the ones in charge of applying the discounts once the conditions of the deal.
We found out that it is possible to invite companies at risk of being dissatisfied with the service. This allows them to speak their mind about your product or service, helping you foster even more transparency and open communication with your customers.
You’ll also see basic automation templates ready for you to try or edit. However, it would’ve been better if automation actions were available for the other channels, like Facebook and calls. This would boost engagement, one of the key areas to automate in a business.
But not to worry; these actions can still be assigned as agent tasks for the specific tickets that need it.
Knowledge Base and Forums
It’s handy to be able to resolve issues on your own without additional interactions. It saves a lot of time and brain power on both sides of the phone.
That’s the main purpose of self-help options. With Freshdesk, you can post a knowledge base and forums where your team and customers can talk.
We’re happy to see our team’s attempt to create a knowledge base – one of the must-haves in robust help desk systems – but probably the best thing we’ve observed is Freshdesk’s editor interface.
Ever wanted to easily build a big library of self-help info, but were scared of the coding skills required? Freshdesk lets you say goodbye to those blocks of unfamiliar characters.
Speaking on behalf of marketing teams, we think that the SEO optimization is an excellent addition to the knowledge base builder, given that this is a no-code page builder.
Perhaps your users need a little more interaction online with your agents. While you can achieve this with Freshdesk, you can elevate forums even more with categories like feature requests, announcements, tips, and reports. Similar to the knowledge base, the editor function is a must-try.
You can add more forums aside from the mentioned categories, and your agents can even resolve customer problems via the same platform.
Freddy AI
Our Freshdesk review isn’t complete without mentioning the robotic features. Let’s begin with its chatbot builder.
As you can see, the new flows can go on as long as you need. While a sample dialog might seem tedious to create, the time savings are well worth the setup.
You won’t have to rely on long dialogs to help your bot respond to inquiries – even the ones typed by customers themselves. Freshdesk has NLP features that let the bot take answers and info directly from your FAQs.
In our tests, we found that once you add new info or a whole new FAQ section, this can be fed into Freddy’s NLP. This means whatever you add to your knowledge base is also applied to the bot’s responses.
The chatbot can assist your agents, too. With the co-pilot functions, agents can receive help from Freddy with ticket comprehension, email creation, generating articles for your knowledge base, and even triage for customer concerns before live chat is enabled
Businesses are able to build an agent-assist bot, too, for those instances where your agents need to troubleshoot or ask questions.
Dashboard and Analytics
Aside from offering templates for automation, Freshdesk has also curated some for analytics, built within the app to capture different types of data. These include reports for the following:
- First response time
- Average handling time
- Knowledge base engagement rates
- Group-based performance views
- Results of tickets resolved/unresolved by Freddy AI
- Performance distribution
The visual tools in Freshdesk paint a clear picture of performance distribution, letting you see who’s excelling and where there’s room for improvement.
And if you’re looking for the big picture, the dashboard offers a bird’s-eye view of resolved versus outstanding tickets across your organization, keeping everyone aligned on progress and priorities.
We tested the feature that allows you to compare daily trends, and you can plan agent activities much better when you can see peak days and hours through the dashboard.
Once you can identify such periods of time for higher requests, you can let your agents focus on other priorities whenever request volumes are low.
This means you can also know when they might feel overworked, helping you promptly prepare by employing third-party agents or having more people work during peak times.
Is Freshdesk Easy to Use – A Closer Look at the Interface
According to our testers, people with little experience in customer service will find it relatively easy to use Freshdesk. Most of its components are self-explanatory, with most of them having guides and descriptions.
However, they still noted that it might pose a little learning curve for those who haven’t experienced working as a support.
Freshdesk on Desktop
Since Freshdesk is entirely cloud-based, the tool has no desktop app. You can access it via your favorite browser, whether it’s Firefox, Chrome, Edge, or Safari.
The webpage interface is easy to navigate, but it took our team quite a little time to locate where the other features can be accessed. Just note that you have to click on the gear sign, which will show “Admin” as you hover over it.
All of the automation actions, Freddy AI, the forums, and basically every single additional feature can be accessed with the web version of Freshdesk.
Mobile
You can do every single thing the tool has to offer via the web version, although it’s not as straightforward as you think.
The interface is slightly different on mobile. You can basically manage tickets and respond to customers while you’re on the go, but you need to add the necessary widget functions first.
Widget functions compensate for the difference in screen real-estate, as they let you access different types of dashboards and analytics. Don’t forget you have to first set these up on the desktop version in order to view them on mobile.
What Integrations Does Freshdesk Support?
You might begin wondering what services you link to Freshdesk and if they’re available on basic plans. The good news is that yes, Freshdesk supports 1,000+ integrations and they are accessible on the free plan.
Although it’s one to boast its number of integrations, however, Freshdesk isn’t the only one to offer Zapier. This means it’s quite a standard feature to let apps maximize communication with other apps.
But here’s the catch: you can easily do more with Freshdesk since it offers direct integrations with Google apps, Mailchimp, Zoho CRM, Office 365, Harvest, Zoom, Stripe, and GitLab.
Whether for phone, chat, file sharing, content management, social media, or e-commerce, you won’t have to rely on Zapier, as Freshdesk can integrate with most of the apps you already use.
How Does Freshdesk Compare Against Other Leading VoIP Services?
The best way to find out how to choose a VoIP provider is to compare the top options on the market. Here’s a quick table for you to do just that:
| Best VoIP Solutions | Top Choice For | Starting Price | Countries Supported | Standout Features |
| Freshdesk | Simple ticket management | $15/month | 70 countries; 17 languages | a. Freddy AI b. Self-help tools c. Ticketing automation |
| Netsuite | Large enterprises | Custom | 245 countries; 26 languages | a. Case management features b. Analytics and reporting c. Website activity monitoring |
| Zendesk | Ease of use for CRM tools | $25 | 23 countries; 32 languages | a. Dashboard for sales b. Wide range of email templates c. Built-in call feature |
| Salesforce | All-around sales processes | $25 | 239 countries; 18 fully-supported languages | a. Smart-filtering for leads b. Personalized support c. Sales tracking |
| Pipedrive | Businesses in need of a sales-specialized CRM | $19.90 | 170 countries; 22 languages | a. User-friendly platform b. Easy access to the tool’s knowledge base c. Simple dashboard |
| Zoho CRM | Small businesses | $14 | 160+ countries; 28 languages | a. Custom portals for customers b. Reputation as one of the best CRM apps c. Easy layout |
While Freshdesk is probably the best tool for ticketing management, we think it would be even better if it had the call features of Freshcaller. That’s an approach other CRM tools have taken to make their offers more feature-filled.
If you’re keen to know more about how Freshdesk compares to other products, make sure to visit our article on the best VoIP services in the market.
Freshdesk vs Zendesk – Which One Is Better?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. To make it simpler, you’ll have to weigh in your needs. If your problem is ticketing management alone, Freshdesk is an amazing choice.
However, unlike Freshdesk, Zendesk has a built-in call feature. Note that while Zendesk – one of the top AI tools for customer support – offers email templates, Freshdesk uses Freddy to assist agents in creating responses to emails, drafting forum articles, and even understanding tickets.
What Do Other Freshdesk Reviews Say?
Beyond testing it ourselves, we found the reviews on sites like G2 and Trustpilot fitting our experience. Let’s see what other people have to say about this tool.
On Trustpilot
Although we didn’t need to contact Freshdesk support, we can agree with what users on Trustpilot say about it, with one claiming that on-boarding even included free training sessions.
It’s relatively easy as upon signing up, there’d also be plenty of guides around the page.
This is one we can attest to. Although our testing team mentioned that people with zero customer support experience may find it difficult to navigate Freshdesk, having our hands on the tool seemed a little less difficult.
Just note that you can always visit Freshdesk’s knowledge base or contact their support if you have any clarifications.
On G2
Freshdesk allows you to gamify the experience for your employees via a point system. This lets you have better user adoption rates, which is essential to your business’ success in using the app.
Again, you’ll have to watch over users who are unfamiliar with customer support/ticketing apps so that they can better adjust to changes should you add Freshdesk as a new tool to your systems.
Our Reviews of Freshdesk Alternatives
Whether you’re serious about subscribing to a Freshdesk plan or just curious about other tools out there, we’ve got you covered. It’s smart to look around and compare features to find the perfect fit for your team. Here are some reviews you can check out:
Why You Can Trust Our Review of Freshdesk
It’s easy to lose trust in blogs where writers just read other reviews or just visit the website to check some features that readers may love or need. That’s why we assigned a small team with the project of testing Freshdesk (which included some of our writers, too) to test the app themselves.
In doing so, we tested the features most relevant to customer support, including the tool’s AI capabilities, ticketing system, and self-help options.
Adding to that is scouring the Internet for what other users have to say about Freshdesk and what lacks. The said search includes websites like Trustpilot, G2, and Reddit.
If you’re wondering how we are able to compare them with other solutions, know that we’ve tested other leading customer support tools – all of which we’ve reviewed as well.
How to Use Freshdesk — A Step-By-Step Guide
The signup process for the free version and free trial was super simple. Here’s how:
1. Choose a Primary Email That Would Serve as the Primary Support Address
Hop onto the Freshdesk website and sign up using a primary email address. Once in, give life to your account by picking an email that will be your main line for support queries and adding company details and branding elements.
In our testing, we used the company name “Not Your Normal Dummies.”
2. Add Support Agents to Your Tool
Next up, you’ll invite your team to join the platform. This is where collaboration kicks in.
You can add each support agent’s details and define their roles within the system. It helps keep things organized and ensures everyone knows what they’re responsible for.
3. Organize Your Support Channels
Now, it’s time to set up how you’ll receive customer queries — through email, chat, social media, or calls. Freshdesk lets you integrate these channels so that every message lands right into your ticketing system.
4. Upload Your Contacts
Once your team’s on board, it’s time to bring in your customers. You can upload a list of contacts, so you have all the info you need right at your fingertips.
This step is super important because it means when someone reaches out for help, you’ll know who they are and can provide top-notch service right away.
5. Create, Integrate, Automate, Customize
Set up your integrations first so that you get to process all requests as tickets. Then, you can assign people to create content for the forums and FAQs, with another team handling automation triggers and customization.
Should You Use Freshdesk? Review Takeaways
While we noted the absence of a call feature on Freshdesk, we highly recommend it to those looking to step up their ticketing management game. What makes this better is that you’ll have the opportunity to build communities and make customer support easier for your agents.
We understand that you might still be in the consideration phase, but the good news is that tools like Freshdesk offer free trials for you to have a feel of them before spending anything.
Try Freshdesk today and see for yourself how you can take those tickets down without difficulty.
FAQs
Is Freshdesk a good ticketing system?
Why should I use Freshdesk?
Why Freshdesk is better than Zendesk?
Is Freshdesk still free?
References
https://techreport.com/business-software/freshdesk-review/
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