

Ask YC: Good application for support emails and tickets? - mattculbreth

Hello Friends,<p>We've gone live with some actual users now and we're starting to get support requests.  What are you guys using to handle the tracking of these emails?  I'd love to get recommendations for some hosted systems out there.  I don't mind paying a bit either, although open source is always cool.<p>Thanks,<p>Matt
======
matthewsimon
RT is very full-featured and customizable, although it has a few rough edges
and can take some time to learn. It's open source and is also available in as
a hosted service. <http://bestpractical.com/services/hosting.html>

FogBugz is decent -- not as flexible as RT, but may be a bit easier for non-
techies to get started with. It's also available in both hosted and
installable versions. <http://fogcreek.com/fogbugz/>

~~~
drusenko
RT and FogBugz both suck. You have to click 3-5 times to get a request filed.
That gets annoying real fast. Check out my comment below about Helpspot (and
no I don't work for them either :)

~~~
bayareaguy
I've been using RT for a while now. If you have to click that much it's
because of the way you've set things up. You can even do most all the single-
ticket operations (opening, updating, resolving) through email. I know a few
admins that regularly manage dozens of tickets at a time without ever using
the web interface.

------
drusenko
Surprised no one has mentioned this yet. We use HelpSpot by UserScape
(www.userscape.com) and it's been really, really great. Almost support ticket
2.0 (don't shoot me!). It costs money but it's pretty affordable -- the
founder also frequents news.yc, I think.

Also, you will eventually outgrow using Gmail or Excel/Google Apps -- there's
just a ton more features you're going to eventually need. Switch now, or
switch later, eventually.

Things that hugely complex systems like RT completely miss: You really, really
want to optimize on the bare-minimum path, IE what it takes to respond to a
support request. Helpspot does this very well -- you can select pre-made
answers that automatically file the request into a category and set any number
of flags on the ticket (such as change who it's assigned to, etc) and that is
really nice -- 1 click and you've answered a request.

------
dustineichler
To support Ticket Tracking, I love and use Trac all the time. For Emails,
Bugzilla I think has an outward facing submission form/ bug tracking system
that users can report through. Trac does not, but is great for developers b/c
it's simple although somewhat hard to setup at first.

These services aren't hosted though, fyi.

<http://www.bugzilla.org/>

<http://trac.edgewall.org/>

~~~
xenoterracide
There is also Mantis <http://www.mantisbt.org/>

Stay away from Trac, it must be confusing or something because there is almost
always some problem on trac runs sites, you are better off running
wikimedia/bugzilla.

Trac bad example: Yesterday the pkgcore people asked me to file a bug, I went
to file but couldn't open a ticket. The dev's were surprised that it hadn't
been set up right they thought it was working. I've seen many open source
projects that use trac that don't allow me to file bugs, or find what I'm
looking for. I usually just leave and ignore the issue. Not exactly
appropriate, but how does one file a bug when the bug tracker doesn't work? I
know email a dev, mail the list.

~~~
dustineichler
Yeah that's really the catch-22 about it. If you don't set it up right
initially, then you'll pay later.

------
chaostheory
<http://getsatisfaction.com> \- support requests + social networking website

beats having to setup and maintain one yourself; or paying for a service...

------
hooande
Matt, are you asking for software to handle actual emails or the
issues/tickets mentioned in them?

I don't know of any software to handle emails themselves. We use a shared
squirrelmail account for everything (though we should probably switch to
gmail). We've just developed a system of putting things into folders, leading
items that haven't been dealt with as unread, etc. There has to be a better
solution, but I haven't heard about it yet.

Hmm...maybe someone should make it and apply to the winter YC session

------
epi0Bauqu
If you want something really simple and lightweight: Gmail. Put the ticket
number in the subject, and it will automatically be grouped together with the
replies.

------
modoc
I can't believe no one has mentioned Jira. It beats the tar out of bugzilla,
trac, and mantis. It's not free, but it's by far the best product I've used,
with the largest plugin development community, and a great list of sibling
applications you may want to try later on. It's not open source, but you do
get the source code when you buy an enterprise license.

Jira is also great for managing project work internally.

------
nradov
We use Salesforce.com. <http://www.salesforce.com/> The main value is that it
integrates support with CRM, so salespeople and account managers can have some
visibility into support cases for their customers. It also has a web services
API available to get data in and out but you have to pay extra for that.

------
noodle
there's a lot of software out there. it depends on what features you need,
what language you want it written in, etc..

here's a partially complete list of open source solutions for you:
<http://www.opensourcehelpdesklist.com/>

------
dimitry
Garrett Dimon and the crew is building one at <http://nextupdate.com/>

Unfortunately, it won't be out until later 2008, but looking to be a great
product. Can't wait.

------
aneesh
Don't use whatever Xobni just used :) I heard they're switching.

~~~
plusbryan
true that. we were using SupportTrio, which sucked beyond belief. We recently
switched to Kayako SupportSuite, which is definitely better but not without
its own problems.

~~~
mattculbreth
I think Kayako is winning in my evaluation. Any specific gotchas I should look
out for?

~~~
nanijoe
I used kayako before, and would definitely recommend it... I do have to add
that I did not have nearly as many tickets as the Xobnis probably do

------
ericb
I share out a Google spreadsheet with these columns:

Issue Number Issue Type Version Fixed in Version Issue Description Status
Priority Date Recorded Creator

~~~
mattculbreth
I love the Google Apps and we use them. Just started using the Sites app with
our customer.

However, what I'm really looking for is one of those systems where you send an
email to support@ and you get back the automated response with a ticket. Then
we (the developers) can track and prioritize.

I basically want Remedy but I want it nice and Web 2.0 and hosted.

------
lunatech
Bugzilla.

\- clean interface

\- allows you to customize the look and feel

\- super sweet email interface

\- documented database structure
<[http://www.ravenbrook.com/project/p4dti/tool/cgi/bugzilla-
sc...](http://www.ravenbrook.com/project/p4dti/tool/cgi/bugzilla-schema/>);

\- can interface with subversion/cvs

\- free (as in speech) software

------
thorax
If you're trying to track feature requests from the users, you can use
something like: <http://featurelist.org> (our site)

We also just launched the ability to have a feedback widget for capturing
quick feedback from users and tracking them until you decide to treat them as
a feature or ignore them.

------
amobilebiz
<http://www.kayako.com>

Been using them for years. Excellent solution with several add-ons,
customizable (if you pay a little extra you can customize even further. i.e.
take their copyright info out of the user interface), and reasonable pricing.

------
blender
I've heard good things about Cerberus Helpdesk:

<http://www.cerberusweb.com/>

Very reasonable pricing.

We used RT before and while it met our business need and allowed us to add
custom fields etc. the interface was just hideous.

Cheers

~~~
davidw
I used that for a while at a previous job. It's ok, looks nice... nothing
fantastic, but it got the job done.

------
patrickg-zill
What do you need to track?

I have seen simple interfaces with basically description field and then a
textarea for info, and I have seen ones with 50 different fields so that all
kinds of different data can be tracked.

------
pibefision
Try KayakoSuite. It's one of the best. Blogger used it when is was from Pyra.

------
staunch
RT doesn't dazzle and amaze me, but it gets the job done quite well.

------
r7000
There is lighthouse..

lighthouseapp.com

It has e-mail support for ticketing

------
mindcrime
Bugzilla is pretty nice.

~~~
dsherman
Has anybody tried Supportcenter from manageengine. (
<http://manageengine.adventnet.com/products/support-center> ) . From their
website, they seem to have a customer support solution with Email to ticket
conversation, Account & Contact Management, Service Contracts, SLAs, Business
Rules etc. Has anybody evaluated their software ? Any comments ?

Regards,

Daniel Sherman

------
brianm
RT

