Gmail Helpdesk Ticketing: Here’s why it doesn’t work

Gmail works as a Helpdesk ticketing system, but it may not be the best option for you and your team. Thankfully, the Helpdesk market has adapted, evolved and so many possibilities exist nowadays. For some people, they might make the decision even harder, but because no tool is the same, all you need to know is what your company really needs, and then find a matching software. Simple, huh?

But back to Gmail, in order to set it up by itself, there are some steps and arrangements you should make in your inbox.

Although it is quite out of date nowadays, I wanted to take some time and show you how it works. Maybe it can help your company out to take the next steps. Let’s check it out:

Create a labeling organization

One useful tip is to transform categories in your email into actual labels. It can be done in many different ways, like so:

• Divide emails into an assigned person: the responsible for that email will be tagged in the label, so they know exactly what they need to work with;
• You can divide into your workflow: you can label your emails according to the stage that message is currently, so it helps understand what is more urgent to solve;
• Divide into clients: if you work with multiple companies, you can organize them in different colors, so they become more easily identifiable.

Although label systems work very well, there’s so much more you can do with it. All by itself, in the long term, Gmail labels aren’t enough to keep work easy to handle as a Gmail Helpdesk.

Organize replies into canned responses

Canned responses are a feature from Gmail Labs. To set them up, just follow these steps:

• Open your Gmail account;
• Click the Gear icon (Settings button);
• Click Labs;
• Enable the option Canned Responses;
• Click in Compose and start writing your canned response;
• And you’re done!

Regardless of how you’re using your Gmail inbox, this feature is quite useful for Helpdesk. But again, there’s so much more you can do from it, so don’t settle in it and check for what else you can achieve.

Share your account with your team

One traditional way people use to share emails with a team is by sharing the same account and password, which sounds simple.

If your team has 2 or 3 people, this might work well for you. However, in a bigger company, no assistant could bear to organize everything inside email without a daily stress breakdown.

I personally have used this format of Gmail Helpdesk some years ago. I remember clearly how chaotic work was. And it happened for some reasons:

• Some people started replying to the same emails;
• It was really hard to track who was working on what;
• Some people reduced their productivity by knowing that if they didn’t do their work, someone else would do it;
• The office became very loud for everyone else because we needed to work fast and always check with someone around whether we were doing the right thing or not.

The Helpdesk ticketing alternative

However, there are many other ways you can use to do the same thing — and go even further with simpler solutions, to be honest — so don’t worry, we know exactly what you need.

Getting Gmail extensions might be the best way for you and your company to gain time, money while making the most of your other resources as well.

Shared email accounts were invented after the recurrent necessity of many people accessing the same email. Fair enough, huh?

One login. One password.

So then everyone could receive the same emails, respond to them, and keep business organized. Right?

Well, not exactly. After some time using this method — in case you’ve ever used it — you start realizing how things can get messy. Maybe you and someone else replied to the same email or another issue. But the main concern is also security. If there are 10 people using the same password, so your email is 10x more likely to be hacked.

Gmail Helpdesk is a past technology

Just in case it hasn’t been stated clearly yet, here is a summary of the above-mentioned reasons why Google Gmail Helpdesk ticketing system doesn’t work:

• It lacks security with bigger risks of hacking and informational leaks;
• Lack of control because you don’t know exactly who’s working on what;
• It lacks efficiency because it isn’t clear how to delegate and track;
• Lack of deliverables because your clients will have to wait longer for their problems to be solved.

But on the other hand, making it up to date with what’s new technology is quite simple. Helpdesk systems have been around for ages, and now you can even access all the great features from inside your inbox, so no need for new logins and passwords.

With not many clicks — and not much time — you can go from messy to tidy. So, your team productivity will take this leap of organization in order to improve the whole workflow.

Conclusion

Adapting into a Gmail Helpdesk ticketing system helps out as a temporary solution, but for the long term your team will need something more functional and productive, so don’t take this technology or granted and check out for the best tool — which is the one your team is more capable of adapting to.

Simplicity and centralization are key points when it comes to choosing this tool, so pay attention and don’t get the first one you see. Talk to your team and gather their opinion as well.

I hope this article was useful, let me know about other tips you have from your own experiences down in the comments below. Thanks for reading.

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