Desk.com for the Remote Support Team

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Cliff Gray

For one of the online stores I manage, SmithCorona.com, we face the difficult situation of offering support from two geographic locations. We also provide multi-channel support by leveraging proactive live chat, email, and a 1-800 phone number. To say the least keeping track of customer support cases can be a challenge. I have found Desk.com (previously Assistly, acquired by Salesforce) an essential tool in the quest to conquer this beast.

For anyone who is trying to use a remote or outsourced support team, Desk.com provides some great features. The Saas platform provides an online portal where agents can login to keep track of support cases, assign cases to each other, and track progress. Our agent in Cleveland, OH can work cases in the morning hours and then pass time sensitive issues on in the afternoon. Our representative in Rocky Mountains can followup later in the day. On the other hand, our Colorado agents can pass technical cases back to our manufacturing facility in OH for resolution. This could easily extend across international borders (I’ll try it soon, I’m sure). The case platform is straightforward and takes a computer savvy new hire just a few hours to become a power user. These features are shared by Zen Desk and other competitors, so they aren’t a Desk.com competitive advantage. On to that…

What distinguishes Desk.com for me is its integration with SnapEngage chat software and the community support center it provides. When a customer chats with an agent, the chat transcript is logged as a new case inside Desk. If during the transcript the user gave the agent contact information, that information is also automatically logged into Desk. Integrations are key when it comes to case software because the software is only as good as the information put into it. The more that can be done automatically, the more powerful the tool. We also have a phone switch that sends our support email a audio file of all voice mails. Each voice mail automatically opens a new case in Desk.

For SmithCorona.com I felt it was key to have a robust engine for the external customer support pages. Desk.com allows you to tie your case agents directly into a platform where they can answer public questions and write articles on common issues. This is all available via a robust search engine. After only a couple weeks, our two agents have built the foundation of a knowledge base where customers can self service. Desk.com does allow you to customize the look and feel to some extent, with an additional upgrade you can have full control of the look.

Desk.com runs $49 per agent, per month. It seems pricey but Desk.com does give you one free agent and the option of paying $1 per hour for “flex agents”. I use this flex option for myself and one other manager. When it comes down to it our four person team can all use the service for less than $100 per month.

KeePass, Save Time and Lock It Down

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Cliff Gray

KeePass is a secure and free way to store passwords. I use it constantly.

For all the posts on lifestyle design, outsourcing, and generally just depending on others/software to help you live the life you want to live, there is little written about security. It may just be naivety. It is absolutely dangerous. I do try to practice The Art of Letting Bad Things Happen, popularized by Tim Ferris, for the sake of not letting the little things drive me nuts. However, one strict exception is security. Think about how you use your passwords. If someone figures out your Gmail password, what else can they control? I bet a lot of you use the same password for multiple logins (a huge no-no!). When that piece of shit hacker gets into your email, you are going to lose a couple days of life/productivity at a minimum. What is that worth, $2k, $3k, $20k?

This is a more salient issue for those of us who utilize lots of software and/or people to do our work. Anytime you sign-up for software and use an email/password, that data goes into a standard type of database. Today, it is certainly a SQL database where your email is stored in plain text and your password is encrypted (or sometimes also in plain text). Given the fast-paced nature of Saas start-ups, security is not a top priority and frequently these databases get ripped off without the start-up (and not-so-start-up) ever knowing. With a little magic, your password is decrypted and is being sold with its email counterpart on the black market. It’s pretty much unavoidable if you are using a lot of cutting-edge Saas software to automate your life. So, the best line of defense is to reduce the value each email/password combination offers a hacker. The best way to do this is to always use strong and unique passwords for all your logins.

When it comes to giving outsourced contractors WordPress logins, server credentials, Amazon credentials, etc… always make sure to use unique user/passwords that are easy to change later. So the obvious issue is how you are going to keep track of 100′s of passwords. KeePass!

First, KeePass has an internal password generator. This is cool because you don’t need to think up a strong password. With one click, you have a 30 character, hacker-ass-whipping password.

Second, KeePass lets you organize all your passwords, keep notes, and pull up login URLs with one click. It is a password lock-box and bookmark index in one.

You can throw KeePass on a thumb drive or cloud backup (SugarSync, DropBox…) so you always have it with you. If you are going to do this, I recommend looking into using key files to use with a password to encrypt your KeePass database. It is a basic procedure and KeePass will walk you through it.

SnapEngage Review

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Cliff Gray

I recently implemented SnapEngage on the thermal label site I run, SmithCorona.com. After a brief free trial, I went ahead with a year long business subscription that runs around $49 a month. The service provides the technology, analytics, and logging for proactive customer chatting on the site. My package allows for four separate chat agents with cool individual head shots. See an example here (I’m in the bottom corner annoying you about ribbons and labels!):

I find proactive chat annoying on websites. Well, it turns out I’m in the minority. Our customers have embraced it on this site. Roughly 15% of all customers engage with our agents and this looks to be improving conversion rates. The high usage is probably due to the site’s B2B nature. Our buyers are accustomed to ordering directly with inside sales reps over the phone. I think the chat bridges the gap to eCommerce.

I am a programmer myself but still found SnapEngage’s implementation process a huge selling point. To get SnapEngage up and running on your site all you have to do is paste four lines of code into your templates. There are cheaper solutions I could program myself, but I would never be able to get the logging and analytics. To boot, maintenance would be a nightmare.

We have had a couple small design issues with the chat window sliding behind different parts of our layout (even with proper z-index in the CSS), but overall we have been very happy with the software. I highly recommend it for businesses that have the resources to have an agent available most the day via chat and businesses that have customers who are used to talking to someone before making a purchase.

EDIT:
Chris over at SnapEngage followed up with some help on my display issues. Here are a couple links that solve the issue:

http://help.snapengage.com/faq/the-snapengage-button-or-chat-window-is-hidden-behind-a-youtube-video/

http://help.snapengage.com/faq/snapengage-is-hidden-behind-a-flash-video-or-application/

Pretty basic adjustment to how you embed YouTube vids.

My bad for not looking at the help forums! I don’t stop and ask for directions when I’m lost either. Wife hates it.