eSupport Pre-Purchase Feature Questions

[fiedler]

I'm looking at a Customer Support program for our small company. I've been looking at dozens of programs, ranging from excellent and hideously expensive, to downright baffling, to cheap and amateurish.

The web page for eSupport didn't give much info. Here are the features I'm looking for:

web-based, php, MySQL

Own, rather than lease, about 6 seats.

Allow custom ticket numbering.

Allow me to change field names to words the customer understands rather than geek terminology.

Intuitive enough so in-house training is minimal.

Allow custom form fields for input data instead of a stupid email interface. The input form response should determine routing and workflow.

A user sign-up that gets complete information such as company name and mailing address, phone number, etc.

Allow in-house people to set up a new user and create a ticket for a customer.

Custom templates for outgoing messages that allow info from the database in outgoing message header or body.

Good integration into my website design.

Well documented installation procedure.

Does Kayako offer any of these features?
I don't mind doing basic changes to php or MySQL.
Thanks for you help!

[Digital Mayhem]

web-based, php, mysql = dont really understand this question. But eSupport uses php, mysql and is web-based.

Own, rather than lease, about 6 seats. = Owned version is $299.95 for eSupport and $499.95 for SupportSuite and neither of them have Seats they all include Unlimited Staff/Admin/Clients.

Allow custom ticket numbering = You can change it to like SUPPORT QWX-29388 or BILLING SKDU-28574. You can also set random numbers or you can choose to go in sequence so 1, 2, 3, 4 and up... Now dont know if you can make the Ticket ID totally custom. If so might take some work in PHP and MySQL.

Allow me to change field names to words the customer understands rather than geek terminology = Anything is possible just may take some work editing some PHP, MySQL

Intuitive enough so in-house training is minimal = oh easy

Allow custom form fields for input data instead of a stupid email interface. The input form response should determine routing and workflow = you can create custom fields and staff can view the custom fields but they dont help in routing to the correct department... Could though if you edited it too.

A user sign-up that gets complete information such as company name and mailing address, phone number, etc. = You can collect anything if you use Custom Fields.

Allow in-house people to set up a new user and create a ticket for a customer. = Yup you can do this.

Custom templates for outgoing messages that allow info from the database in outgoing message header or body. = You can make Custom AutoResponse Templates but dont know about it pulling custom info unless you edit some stuff.

Good integration into my website design. = yup easy to do.

[fiedler]

Thank you for your quick reply!

web-based, php, mysql means I upload it to my web host running php 4 or 5 and MySQL. Some programs are for Windows servers only and a few are for intranets only, which is why I asked.

Allow custom ticket numbering = I need to have a scheme like yy-00000 which I suppose I can change in PHP and MySQL.

Intuitive enough so in-house training is minimal = oh easy
I asked because I found Cerberus to be very counter-intuitive. A prime example of overdesign or smoking something while programming.

Allow custom form fields for input data for routing ...
I don't think anyone has this feature, so no big deal.

You can collect anything if you use Custom Fields...As long as I can put them in the new user sign-up form. Not all programs allow this. Does yours?

Custom templates for outgoing messages using DB query...
I don't think anyone has this feature, but it should not be too hard to modify. It depends on how hard your program is to modify. I think I will install a trail version and find out.

[fiedler]

I see the 7-day trial doesn't give me much time to test modifications. Can the trail be extended after the 7 days?

[Digital Mayhem]

You can collect anything if you use Custom Fields...As long as I can put them in the new user sign-up form. Not all programs allow this. Does yours? Yup as you can see mine at https://www.xesupport.net/index.php?_m=core&_a=register has fields to collect Phone and Fax Number.

I see the 7-day trial doesn't give me much time to test modifications. Can the trail be extended after the 7 days? I don't think so thats something you would have to ask sales@kayako.com