I’ve just switched WillTan.com official ticketing support system from Zendesk to … drumroll …. Hesk … again.

For anyone who is selling product(s)/service(s) online or you have a corporate site, chances are, you need to provide support to your (existing) customers and prospects. To some, maybe less IT savvy, providing support via emailing is adequate. But providing support via email is definite NOT a good and productive way. For example, check out the number of unread emails in my Gmail :

With truckload of emails literally flooding my mailbox, chances for me to miss out important support emails are high. Plus, those that I had managed to catch, some of the support email’s content goes like this :

“Hi, I can’t get my contact form to work. Pls help!”

But how can I help as I’ve no idea who you are, which website/URL, cPanel/WordPress admin login details or more elaboration of the issue. And with email, some reply with history, some don’t.  Hence, email is never the best mode to provide online support.

That is why we’ll need a Ticketing Support System.

I started off with osTicket. It’s free (opensource) and fully featured. It’s easy to install if you have a good cPanel hosting with one-click installer like Softaculous. But it’s not exactly the easiest to configure and customise. Notwithstanding the fact that osTicket is feature rich, it is technically out for those who just want a simple straight forward ticketing system.

Having used osTicket for some time, I’d wanted to try out something simpler for a change. After much online research, I switched to Hesk. At that time, Hesk was like in its early 0.9 version. Main reason for trying out Hesk? It was a standalone helpdesk script, independent of WordPress, which I fathomed to be a good way to offer continual support even though my main WordPress site could be down. I was a happy Hesk camper for more than a year then.

Along the way, I’ve witnessed many internet marketers using Zendesk for their ticketing support, I also jumped into the hosted Zendesk ticketing support solution. The package that I opted was the $20/year subscription one. Subsequently for the next 2 years, I’m using Zendesk as my primary ticketing support system. Frankly, I like Zendesk and for a hosted ticketing solution at a mere $20 per year is a good deal. But late last year, I had a pertinent issue with spam tickets. Took me some time and configuration, with tickets to Zendesk, to reduce/eliminate those annoying spam ticket from flooding my Zendesk. My dislike is its UI (user interface). Since I’m using it literally everyday and, unfortunately, my is its UI, I started my search for my next ticketing system with a SSS criteria – it must be Simple, Streamlined and Swift.

I’ve considered using WordPress plugins ie. WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System … but what if my main WordPress site is down? That would means the support is down too. With diversification mentality, I’ve ruled out using WP plugin as my ticketing solution.

The ideal method is still the hosted solution – preferably free. And there is – Trellis Desk by Accord 5. I like its UI, at least from the screenshots. And there’s a live demo which you can have a hang of what exactly Trellis Desk is. But the little footer texts kept bugging me – © 2011. It worries me to use a script, even though it might be free, that the owner don’t even update their site. It let me wonder if the owner(s) is/are still supporting their product(s).

That’s when I take another glimpse at Hesk, now at version 2.6.2 (June 2015). Frankly, its interface didn’t change much. Just clean and straight forward – just the way that I’d always like it to be. So that’s it, if you head over to WillTan.com’s Support tab, you’ll realised that I’ve finally switched (back) to Hesk as my official ticketing support system.