Looking to support your Shopify store customers with a help desk app? You have come to the right place. In this post, we'll cover the best practices for providing customer service, Shopify app options, pros and cons of each and tips on implementation.

The top options include:

• Richpanel
• Shopify Inbox
• Gorgias
• Zendesk
• Reamaze
  ‍

Related:

• Best Returns apps for Shopify
• Best Shopify apps for your store
  

Best Shopify Helpdesk Apps:

1. Richpanel 

Richpanel is Help Desk app for Shopify and Shopify Plus Stores. It's know for it's AI capabilities and self-service portal. It has an excellent helpdesk functionality that stands out due to the following features: 

Related Read: Top 11 Help Desk Softwares for 2024 - Ultimate Guide

Multichannel inbox

With Richpanel help desk software, you can manage customer communication from email, live chat, SMS, Instagram, Facebook, and phone calls all in one place. The inbox integrates with all popular apps to bring customer context such as ecommerce orders, CRM data, loyalty points, and more next to each ticket.

This multichannel capability and integrations eliminate the need for agents to switch between applications, making their work streamlined.

Other key features of the help desk include:

• Collision detection: to prevent duplicate work and see if the ticket is being worked on by another colleague
• Assignments: Assign chats and tickets based on skills, language, and availability
• Collaboration: Use private notes and mention colleagues in conversations to seek help and gather more context
• Snooze: Snooze tickets to get back to them at a later stage
• Canned responses: Respond quickly to routine queries without having to copy and paste the same response repeatedly.

Self-service widget

Enable your customers to resolve common issues immediately and in real-time 24/7. The self-service portal integrates with your cart platform, allowing you to automate common actions such as order tracking, editing orders, cancellations, and returns without the need for agents.

The self-service portal is similar to Amazon's "My Account" section, which has become the go-to tool for Amazon customers to resolve their issues.

Live chat

The live chat software enables customers to receive real-time assistance while browsing your website or mobile app. The appearance of the live chat widget can be customized to match your brand and make it your own.

With the campaigns feature, you can proactively connect customers with support agents based on specific conditions. During off-hours, the chat widget converts into a contact form and collects all necessary information to reach out to customers when agents resume work.

Reporting

The Richpanel helpdesk software also comes preloaded with default reports that measure all aspects of your support centre’s performance. The reporting goes beyond regular help desk software and enables you to analyze what topics customers contact you about, self-service rates, and customer retention, satisfaction, and revenue influenced by live chat.

Integrations

Richpanel help desk software integrates with several apps to simplify agent workflows. Integrations bring additional context inside the agent inbox, eliminating the need to switch between applications. Integrations play a crucial role in executing rules based on data from other applications and enabling workflows to take actions on external apps

Popular use cases include allowing customers to track order status in self-service, letting agents edit orders from the help desk, and asking customers to leave a review on Trustpilot after a positive customer sastisfaction survey rating.

Mobile app

Richpanel help desk software offers mobile iOS and Android apps users on the move. These apps are perfect for customer service teams who need push notifications to resolve customer issues while away from their desktops. With the mobile apps, you can easily manage your customer support workflow and provide excellent service, no matter where you are.

Review: 5.0 ⭐ (102 Reviews on Shopify Store)

2. Shopify Inbox

Shopify Inbox is a free app by Shopify and is an excellent choice for businesses wanting to provide basic customer support on their site via live chat. The Shopify inbox is not as fully features a a ticketing system and cannot handle all support channels but is a great choice for businesses just starting off.

The inbox app comes with an easy to use mobile app to manage incoming queries. Supports Facebook Messenger & Live chat as primary support channels.

One cool feature about the Shopify inbox is the ability to share coupons, products right inside the chat widget.

3. Gorgias

Gorgias is leading Shopify helpdesk software that has a host of integrations & multi channel capabilities. Apart from the basic help desk features, Gorgias has sentiment analysis, a dedicated help center page and built in live chat capabilities.

Related Read: Gorgias Customer Service Helpdesk Alternatives

4. Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer support tool that is industry agnostic. Which means it is not purpose built for ecommerce or Shopify but does have a Shopify integration that makes it a great help desk choice for customer support teams already familiar with Zendesk.

Related read: Zendesk Alternatives

5. ReAmaze

ReAmaze is a popular helpdesk tool that is feature-rich and affordable. It is now acquired by Godaddy and supported by their team. They have a per seat pricing which makes it a popular choice for many cost conscious Shopify merchants.

How to Choose the Right Helpdesk for your Shopify Store: 

There are an overwhelming number of ticketing systems to choose from. A simple keyword search on the Shopify app store returns 53 results!

We recommend using these methods to select the right one:

1. Check reviews

Seems like an obvious one, check reviews of each app you are considering on the app store. I like Shopify app store reviews because app providers are not allowed to incentivize merchants for reviews. In addition, Shopify has very strict guidelines on collecting reviews which makes it an authentic and verified source of reviews.

Consider apps with at least 50-100 reviews as that means the app is battle tested with a few hundred merchants.

2. Take the trial

Most apps offer a free trial or a free plan. Start by testing the trial experience and see if it matches your requirements. Some things to check for:

• Is it easy to integrate all my channels - email, chat, social, sms, etc
• Is the user interface easy to use?
• Do they offer mobile app for agents to manage support on the go?
• Do they integrate well with Shopify? What about other app integrations?
• Optionally depending on your use case, you want to check for multi brand and multi lingual capabilities

3. Go on a demo with your shortlisted apps

Most serious players will have a sales and customer success team that will help you with the setup and onborading. Take advantage of that. If you are stuck somewhere, reach out to them. They'll also offer best practices and tips on making the most from your subscription.

4. Check their support docs and responsiveness

Check their support resources and see how easy it is to understand, if the support docs are up to date and well maintained. This will come in handy during setup and ongoing support.

5. Compare pricing

Some help desk apps charge based on seats and some on tickets. See which one you are most comfortable with. Ticket-based pricing can quickly add up to your costs and make the budgetting unpredictable. Evaluate what's best for you.

Essential Features that Shopify Helpdesk Should Have:

Here are some of the most popular and beneficial helpdesk software features you should be looking out for:

1. Multiple channels

Your shoppers will use Instagram, Facebook, Email, Chat, SMS to contact you. It's essential to pick a ticketing system that has support for all these channels.

2. Live chat

Live chat is a great way to convert visitors on the fence. Look for a Shopify app that can support live chat. An ideal solution will allow you to proactively engage visitors on certain pages or when shoppers exhibit a high intent.

3. Shopify Integration

Since you are specifically looking for help desk for Shopify. You'd want a help desk that offers a deep integration with Shopify. An app that lets agents see and edit orders from the interface. Supports two sync of customer profiles, tags and notes. This way the help desk and Shopify data are always in sync.

4. Automation Flows

Whether routing a conversation to the right person, triggering a canned response, or performing an order action based on the customer’s message, automation is a critical feature that helps improve the customer experience and the internal processes. 

5. Self-Service Options 

Most customers prefer to get issues resolved themselves rather than staying on hold. Look for a help desk that can automate most of the support workload by allowing customers to resolve issues with self-service.

Self-service portals enable customers to get access their account in a secured manner. The self-service portal lets customer interact with their data like orders, subscription and deliveries. Access help resources and track status of previous tickets.

6. Customer satisfaction surveys

If you cant measure it, you can't improve it. Look for a Shopify app that can provide satisfaction surveys so you can measure the effectiveness of your support teams.

7. Reporting

Consider apps that provide robust reporting capabilities where you can track response times, team performance and also how customer service is influencing revenues.

8. Integration with other Shopify apps

You may require agents to access certain apps like Recharge, Yotpo, Okendo, Smile while doing customer service. It's essential the ticketing system you select offers these integrations and makes it easy for agents to access all this data inside the inbox.

Summary

There are a dozens of help desk (ticketing systems) available to choose for your Shopify store. These are the top 5 choices we have personally reviewed and we'll keep updating the list as we come across more noteworthy options. We recommend starting with Shopify inbox if your store has low ticket volumes and then upgrading to one of the options given above based on your use case.

The best way is to trial all apps, shortlist the ones you like and go through the demo. Take advantage of the customer support offered by these players to get implementation help and make the most of your purchase.

‍