

SupportBee launches web tool for headache-free email support - gnufied
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/26/supportbee-launches-web-tool-for-headache-free-email-support-exclusive/

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100k
I'm evaluating support software right now, so this is well timed. I've tried
Zendesk, Desk.com, and just tried out SupportBee.

So far, SupportBee is winning on HTML email integration. Zendesk doesn't
support it at all (and it's a long standing issue:
[https://support.zendesk.com/entries/80698-creating-
tickets-f...](https://support.zendesk.com/entries/80698-creating-tickets-from-
html-emails)). Desk.com does, but you have to view it in an overlay and inline
images don't work. SupportBee supports displaying HTML email pretty much like
GMail would. The only thing that doesn't work is inline images quoted in the
reply message.

Zendesk and SupportBee both have very responsive UIs, but SupportBee's is
simpler and maybe a little faster.

Desk.com is the only one that was able to ingest our existing support inbox,
but it did a bad job of collecting threads into a single support request and
did not include our replies in the tickets.

Zendesk is the worst for whole-company support due to its pricing model.
Desk.com has flexible agents ($1/hour, billed in 5 minute increments) which is
nice, but SupportBee's model of charging by ticket is probably the best of all
for us.

~~~
prateekdayal
Thanks for the checking us out! We have worked very hard on rendering HTML
emails because we want to cater to designers and companies that need HTML
emails (think newsletter companies).

We handle inline images but we don't load some images by default. There is a
small picture icon that loads the images when clicked. More info here
-[https://supportbee.com/blog/2012/08/07/more-languages-for-
th...](https://supportbee.com/blog/2012/08/07/more-languages-for-the-widget-
new-keyboard-shortcuts-and-other-improvements/)

If that's not working, it's a bug and we can fix it. We would just need a
little more info from you. Can we email you? Or you can email us at
support@supportbee.com.

Also, we thread emails as well as Gmail and we have a very robust importing
infrastructure (maildir + inotify + resque == lightning fast). Please let us
know if you see any issues in threading or importing. We think that's our USP
and we want to fix any issues there. No matter how edge case(y) they are.

~~~
100k
Prateek, I've emailed some details to your suppport email.

I would definitely love to import our existing support emails. As I mentioned,
only Desk.com supports this, and not particularly well.

~~~
prateekdayal
Oh my bad! I thought you were referring to having a high everyday email
volume. We'll work on the importer at some point. Just focusing on other stuff
right now. The idea is to make an importing API and let the community build
the actual importers (after the reference one). Btw, have you looked at our
API - <http://developer.supportbee.com>? Thanks again for spending the time to
give us such detailed feedback. This is why we love HN :)

------
prateekdayal
Thanks to Hacker News for all the inspiration and feedback along the way.
Starting with this thread 637 days ago -
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2048588>

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peterjancelis
I use SupportBee for my email support at judge.me. It's a great service, just
what you need and nothing more.

Congrats Prateek, Avinasha and Nithya!

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twakefield
Well done Prateek!

After watching the video, this looks like a very simple and effective way to
handle email support. I think there are a lot of small businesses that will
find a focused tool like this more effective than the typical, feature bloated
solutions out there. Also, kudos for not charging by seat.

I'll definitely be trying it out.

~~~
prateekdayal
Thanks Taylor. Mailgun has certainly been a very important part of our stack.
Thanks for such a reliable and useful service.

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thisischris
This looks fantastic! Looking forward to checking this out.

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apinstein
We currently use zendesk but our reseller model and everyone-does-support
culture makes zd stupidly expensive for our company as we scale. We will
definitely be checking you guys out!

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bryanh
SupportBee looks great, we've been using HelpScout.net for a while and love
the shared inbox method of support. It is perfect for small teams. I do wonder
how it scales up with dozens of people handling support, it seems like it
might result in some clashes.

~~~
ashastry
We show everyone who else is viewing a Ticket. This helps to decide who will
answer the ticket.

