Let me level with you. I was all set to not talk about queue management software, because frankly there’s nothing terribly useful to say about this. Now, it’s not that management of this is unimportant or not supported in the software world, it’s that it’s a feature in any given customer support system. It pretty much works the same basic way for everyone except for call centers as well.
So this queue management software topic is kind of pointless by itself. But, I’m of course, as is any writer, slave to trends and topical discussion, and everyone and their grandma thinks this is something that warrants its own analysis.
But:
This is an important part of handling customers, and it extends well beyond the customer service and support field. But, of course, that’s where it’s the most severe. There are often levels of severity with issues, some inconvenient others needing solved immediately lest severe ramifications for everyone be brought about.
Along with that, well, people who have problems … the wait to have the problem solved is insult added to injury on the grandest scale. What’s the worst part of call centers? Well, arguably, the phone trees or menus are the worst part, but the hold times and waiting is a close second at least.
What Can I Say:
We’ve talked about the technicalities of managing already, and as I said, there’s no dedicated software for this – support and service software has this as part of it, and you don’t want it to be any other way, believe me.
All I can do is point out to you software I’ve told you about a thousand times, with the aspect of which ones handle this aspect the best, I suppose.
Well Here You Go Then:
Zoho got their name as an alternative to big costly behemoths such as Netsuite, Dynamics or Salesforce. Being perfect for small and medium business sizes, with a price to match it, they took off rather expectedly.
They’ve since branched out into more specialism than those with whom they compete, such as this dedicated support system. Where other companies like Force.com have moved to provide support functionality through augmenting their CRM solutions, these guys built a comprehensive system, offering ticket management contracts, reports, self service, social media support and a billion other things you already know it has.
Zendesk is another helpdesk system, and you’re going to find that all three of these are, as queue management is just what it is in most other applications. The only way it can be selectively handled outside first come first serve, and be practical with handling variation of severity in with it, is in the case of a system like these.
Zendesk is pretty much just like Zoho in features and power, but it can grow past medium businesses more easily.
Parature is an alternative that actually has smart management for this sort of thing, which you can easily configure in a number of ways, though in all honesty, the default configuration is probably going to be the one that works the best for you.
So, queue management software isn’t a thing in and of itself, as it’s part of the support software, and you should be glad of that.
