When it comes to choosing help desk software, there’s many different options with varying benefits.

Here are three key things to keep in mind when doing research.

1. Technology

What’s the difficulty level of your software for both employees and customers? Who are your customer service agents? Higher paid IT help desk agents will have a different skill set than an overseas assistant. It doesn’t mean you can’t hire an overseas assistant, it only means the help desk software needs to accommodate their skill level.

2. Price

How important is the cost of the software to you? There are help desk options that have a free price, others with a monthly per user license fee. Typically, the more you pay for software, the more features you get. You’ll need to determine which features are most important and take into account your budget when making this decision.

3. Integrations

How do you want your solution to fit together? What other software do you use and how dependable is it? For example, do you need chat support which syncs up with your website? Think about the system as a whole–including time-intensive maintenance.

Before choosing your software

Asking yourself a few questions before you start researching your help desk options can save you time and help potentially give you clarity.

How often do you get customer service requests?

Does your company have a help desk? If so, does it offer mobile access as well?

How many customer service agents will be needed in the software? How technologically savvy are your customer service agents?

Are you looking for ticketing management software or do you need a more comprehensive system?

Will your IT team set up the help desk or will you handle this?

How many of your customers do not speak English? What is your budget for the new system?

So we’ve determined you need a tool to manage your customer support.

Which one do you choose?

There are so many options, and plenty of services come with a free trial – but that doesn’t mean it comes without any risk. It takes a substantial amount of time to train employees or migrate data, so the last thing you want to do is switch help desk software in a few months.

Before signing up for any business software, evaluate your own needs to ensure you choose the right features.

You should also use help desk software to work with customers, as well as other services such as chat software, business voicemail and faxing.