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Especially as your business grows, you begin to understand the many benefits of help desk software. The right solution can help you keep customer service questions and issues organized, making it easier to respond to concerns and address problems on a timely basis.

Given that even a slight drop in customer loyalty and retention can cripple your revenue, achieving that goal is crucial.

At the same time, not every piece of help desk software is created equal. Choose the wrong solution, and you risk ending up with a program that hurts, rather than hinders your office. Put simply, you don’t want to make an investment into new software if you don’t have 100% confidence that it will actually help to improve your business.

That’s where cloud help desk software enters the equation. It’s built for 2017 and beyond, helping you grow your business and improve your revenue simply through better organization. More specifically, here are 6 reasons you should invest in a cloud-based help desk solution for your business.

1) Ubiquitous Access

Regardless of the type of software, the biggest benefit of going to the cloud is simple: you can access the solution from anywhere. That means you’re not tethered to your office or network in order to respond to complaints. Instead, you can access the software from any computer or through a mobile app, helping you respond to concerns more timely and accurately.

Especially in customer service, timeliness matters. Depending on your businesses, your customers might not always be willing to wait to hear back. 42% of your customers, in fact, expect you to respond in less than 60 minutes. If they don’t, they begin to complain, causing you to lose credibility and hurt your business. The easier you can access your help desk software, the more likely you’ll be to turn an unhappy customer into a brand loyalist once again.

2) Cross-Channel Communication

Your customers don’t always complain or seek help through the same avenue. Instead, they may opt to call, email, live chat, or even perform a web search on your behalf. Can your help desk software account for these multiple channels? The answer may make the difference between successful and problematic customer service.

Software that answers to and connects all of these channels, of course, cannot be based on a local network server. Instead, it needs to live in a spot where data can easily feed from multiple entry points, which tends to be the cloud. Your customers will thank you for the freedom to work with you on any issue through their preferred channels.

3) Collaboration on Complex Issues

Any experienced customer service rep knows that it’s impossible to gather the knowledge to answer all possible questions. Some tickets need to be escalated, others need to be transferred to a different functional area. A technical complaint may need IT involvement, while a packaging issue may need to be resolved by your shipping department.

This collaboration is made more difficult if access is limited to your local computer or server. The departments in questions need access regardless of their location and, as mentioned above, a cloud-based help desk solution can provide just that. Collaboration improves almost naturally, benefiting both your internal workflows and your customers.

4) Improved Reporting and Analysis

Any successful help desk software needs to have reporting capabilities. You need to know how many tickets are opened and closed in an average months, how long these tickets usually need to be closed, which types of tickets tend to be closed quickest, and a variety of other variables.

If all of that data is stored in the cloud, you can more easily run reports. In addition to the local-agnostic benefits mentioned above, you will also be able to collect your data more comprehensively. As a result, you can run better reports that improve your business and its customer service over time.

5) Multi-Brand Capabilities

Once your business grows, you won’t be limited to a single brand anymore. Instead, you may run multiple offices, product lines, services, or other distinct brands that will both attract different customers and lead to different customer service necessities.

As that happens, your help desk software needs to grow with you. Instead of being restricted to a single brand and set-up, it needs to be flexible enough to accommodate changing needs. On-premise software is often static, while cloud solutions tend to provide that increased flexibility.

6) Increased Server Stability

Finally, don’t underestimate the technical benefits of going with a cloud solution. If you install the help desk software on your own server, you will risk everything if that server crashes. In the best case scenario, you will not be able to communicate and interact with customers on open tickets, leading to frustration on their end. In the worst case scenario, you will lose historical data that would be vital to both close open tickets and improve your business over time.

Cloud solutions, on the other hand, tend to be more stable. Because this software is not installed on your end, you don’t have the liability issues you might have otherwise. Instead, the data is backed up frequently, meaning that even in the unlikely event of downtime, you will be up and running again soon.

Cloud help desk software, in other words, is a vital tool for any business looking to optimize and improve its customer service. In addition to the general benefits of organizing your customer service functions, it helps you stay ahead of the curve and make sure that regardless of location or complexity, all issues can easily be solved. In doing so, it ideally prepares your business for 2017 and beyond.