In the dynamic landscape of modern business, efficiency is paramount. Customer success teams need to be agile and responsive, utilizing diverse communication channels—such as phone calls, emails, and chatbots—to provide exceptional support and address challenges swiftly. However, as organizations adopt a digital-first approach, outdated processes can hinder productivity and contribute to employee burnout.
Support solutions have become essential for maintaining a balanced and efficient workforce. While Halp has been a popular choice, its migration to Jira Service Management has left some organizations searching for alternatives that better suit their unique needs. Fortunately, there are a variety of options designed to enhance customer success workflows and streamline support operations.
In this blog, we briefly discussed Halp's evolution and its current state. We also present the 7 best Halp alternatives, highlighting their unique strengths and weaknesses to help you find the perfect fit for your organization.
Ready to discover the best option for your needs? Let's get started.
What is Halp (Atlassian Assist)?
Halp was a tool designed to help support teams track and automate responses while reporting key metrics directly within Slack and Microsoft Teams. Halp is used for creating and managing support tickets directly in Slack and MS Teams. It has now evolved into the chat feature of Jira Service Management, transforming these platforms into lightweight help desks.
Halp’s main capabilities
- Streamline Requests: Convert messages into tickets to handle any request efficiently, avoiding context switching and organizing cluttered channels.
- Enhanced Service Frontline: Utilize Jira Service Management’s AI-powered virtual agent technology to boost service efficiency.
- Visibility and Recognition: Track the number of tickets created and resolved, making the team’s efforts visible and measurable.
In Slack, users can convert messages into tickets with emoji reactions, add followers to tickets, and resolve requests using simple emoji reactions.
In Microsoft Teams, users can generate tickets directly from messages, organize and route questions efficiently, and receive updates about ticket statuses.
What happened to Halp?
Halp has integrated its conversational ticketing capabilities into all Jira Service Management plans under its chat feature.
Jira Service Management Chat allows users to convert messages into trackable requests using emoji reactions, slash commands, or message actions, streamlining the process and reducing manual effort. It automates request routing with emoji shortcuts and powerful workflow engines, and custom request types can be developed to capture necessary context and minimize back-and-forth communication. The platform offers reporting on metrics such as volume, resolution times, and SLAs, making team efforts visible and resource needs quantifiable. Agents can directly reply to, update, prioritize, and resolve issues within Slack or Microsoft Teams, enhancing overall efficiency.
As a result, Halp (now Atlassian Assist) users began seeking new methods and solutions to continue utilizing Zendesk and other Jira services within Slack and Microsoft Teams, just as they had before the integration changes.
As mentioned earlier, this blog will cover the seven best Halp alternatives. Let's dive in and explore these tools:
Top 7 Halp alternatives
- Jira Support by Actioner
- Zendesk Support by Actioner
- Freshdesk
- Zoho Desk
- SolarWinds Service Desk
- ProProfs Help Desk
- Kayako
Jira Support by Actioner
Jira Support by Actioner offers a seamless integration with Jira Software, Jira Work Management, and Jira Service Management projects, allowing teams to manage and track tickets directly within Slack.
Key Features
- Integrated with Jira Software, Jira Work Management, and Jira Service Management projects, providing comprehensive support across various project types.
- Manage tickets from multiple channels within Slack, enabling efficient tracking and resolution of customer inquiries.
- Tailor issue types and forms for different request channels, ensuring that only relevant information is collected and reducing friction in the ticket creation process.
- Customize workflows, notifications, and automations to align with your team's unique processes and requirements, enhancing efficiency and collaboration.
Jira Support by Actioner streamlines ticket management and enhances collaboration, empowering teams to deliver timely and effective support directly within Slack.
Pricing
Actioner's pricing model is designed to be cost-effective and flexible. With a generous Free plan and a usage-based pricing structure, you only pay for what you use. Our pricing scales with your organization's needs, ensuring you get the best value for your investment.
Zendesk Support by Actioner
Zendesk Support by Actioner ensures your support team stays on top of customer inquiries by actively managing and staying updated on new tickets and their progress directly within Slack.
Key Features
- Create Zendesk tickets in Slack: Instantly convert messages from dedicated Slack channels into Zendesk tickets, streamlining the ticket creation process.
- Triage from Slack: Receive real-time notifications about new tickets in dedicated triage channels, allowing your team to track and manage tickets efficiently.
- Take Zendesk actions on Slack: Perform various Zendesk actions directly within Slack, including ticket creation, viewing, assigning, and updating ticket statuses.
- Private tickets: Facilitate private conversations between your support team and requesters by transitioning discussions from public channels to direct messages in Slack.
- Automated CSAT surveys: Automatically send customer satisfaction surveys via DMs to gather feedback and improve service quality.
With Zendesk Support by Actioner, your support team can streamline ticket management, enhance collaboration, and deliver exceptional support directly within Slack, empowering your organization to provide timely and effective assistance to customers.
Pricing
As mentioned before, Actioner's pricing model is designed to be cost-effective and flexible. With a generous Free plan and a usage-based pricing structure, you only pay for what you use. Our pricing scales with your organization's needs, ensuring you get the best value for your investment.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a widely used helpdesk and customer support software that helps businesses manage customer inquiries, requests, and support-related activities effectively.
Key Features
Omnichannel Support: Freshdesk provides a seamless support experience by offering a unified platform to handle customer interactions through various channels including phone, email, live chat, and social media. It integrates with various platforms such as Hubspot, Zendesk, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Slack, and Microsoft Teams to streamline customer interactions.
Proactive Analytics: Freshdesk utilizes AI-driven analytics to identify potential issues, allowing you to generate detailed reports, customer satisfaction ratings, and dashboards. This helps in optimizing support workflows by continuously monitoring interactions and maintaining high service quality.
Unified Bots, Ticketing, and Conversations: The Freshworks Customer Service Suite combines essential components such as AI-powered bots, ticket management, and conversation tools into one comprehensive platform designed to meet and exceed customer expectations.
Freshdesk Slack Connector
Halp users who prefer working within Slack can benefit from Freshdesk’s native Slack connector, which supports various actions including:
- Creating Freshdesk tickets using Slack commands (/), Slack Actions, and the global search bar.
- Receiving notifications about ticket updates in the relevant Slack thread.
- Editing Freshdesk ticket details like status, priority, and assignee group directly from Slack.
- Collaborating on tickets with team members on Slack who may not be agents in Freshdesk.
However, the Freshdesk Slack app has several limitations, such as the inability to connect more than 20 Slack channels, restricting ticket responses to agents, and the inability to automatically create tickets for every customer request. Actioner also provides a Slack app for Freshdesk, with additional details and limitations available in Actioner’s Freshdesk Slack Integration.
Pricing
Freshdesk by Freshworks offers a variety of pricing plans designed to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes.Up to 10 agents, Freshdesk is totally free, enabling small teams to utilize essential support features.
Beyond the free tier, Freshdesk offers advanced plans with enhanced features and capabilities. These plans are priced from $15 to $79 per agent per month (billed annually). As the pricing tiers increase, additional features and customization options become available to meet the specific requirements of different businesses.
G2 Reviews: 4.4 out of 5
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a cloud-based helpdesk and customer support software developed by Zoho Corporation. Zoho Desk helps businesses in managing and improving their customer service operations across multiple channels, including email, phone, live chat, and social media.
Key Features
AI-driven Assistance (Zia): Zoho Desk features Zia, an AI-powered assistant that helps agents provide faster and more efficient customer service through machine learning and automated response suggestions.
Customizable Reports and Dashboards: The platform includes built-in reporting tools that enable businesses to monitor agent performance metrics and derive insights from customer interactions. Customizable dashboards help visualize key data for informed decision-making.
Help Center (Knowledge Base): Zoho Desk provides a customer self-service portal for companies to host articles, FAQs, and other knowledge resources, allowing customers to independently find answers to common issues.
Zoho Slack Connector
Zoho Desk’s Slack connector allows:
- Notifications for different ticket creation and update events to specific channels based on department.
- Agents to retrieve ticket details directly from Slack.
However, the connector does not support agents and customers replying from Slack or the easy creation of tickets from Slack, either automatically or manually.
Pricing
Zoho Desk offers various pricing plans to meet different business needs and agent capacities. Beginning with a free trial, the platform progresses to three paid tiers: Standard, Professional, and Enterprise.
Annual pricing varies from $10 to $29 per agent per month, based on the selected features and capabilities.
G2 Reviews: 4.4 out of 5
SolarWinds Service Desk
SolarWinds delivers IT management software solutions tailored to diverse industries and organization sizes. Their products empower support teams to efficiently manage and monitor IT infrastructure, optimize databases, ensure smooth network performance, and maintain security and compliance.
Key Features
Automated Service Management: SolarWinds’ AI-powered auto-routing feature directs requests to appropriate teams and alerts them about critical issues. It uses predefined rules to automate standard service protocols and manage recurring processes, enhancing efficiency and minimizing errors.
Analytics and Reporting: The platform’s advanced reporting interface provides detailed analyses of IT team performance. By monitoring system performance, identifying trends, and anticipating potential issues, it enables support teams to make data-driven decisions that enhance efficiency.
Unified Asset Management: SolarWinds offers a comprehensive asset management platform to oversee various resources, including hardware, software, and cloud assets. This enhances visibility, reduces procurement costs, and optimizes resource utilization.
IT Integration: The platform integrates seamlessly with hundreds of applications, enabling support teams to link service desk tickets with their IT operations management system. With real-time updates and two-way synchronization, IT teams can streamline processes, minimize downtime, and boost overall productivity.
Pricing
SolarWinds Service Desk provides three pricing tiers to accommodate different business needs and sizes: Essentials, Advanced, and Premier. The Essentials plan, ideal for growing teams, costs $39 per technician per month. The Advanced plan, suited for mature IT organizations, is priced at $79 per technician per month. The Premier plan, which offers maximum customization and advanced features, is available for $99 per technician per month.
G2 Reviews: 4.3 out of 5
ProProfs Help Desk
ProProfs Help Desk is another customer support solution designed to manage all customer-facing communications efficiently. It serves as a central hub for organizing and providing both internal and external support related to company inquiries.
ProProfs Key Features
Shared Inboxes: ProProfs Help Desk offers a unified space for all customer-facing inboxes, consolidating customer emails in one location.
Automated Ticket Assignment: The system supports Round-Robin and advanced ticket assignments to ensure even distribution of tickets and prevent backlog. It also features canned responses to FAQs, saving valuable time.
Multi-Channel Support: ProProfs Help Desk collects customer requests from multiple channels, including email, live chat, and the help center. This allows support teams to engage with customers on their preferred platforms, providing a comprehensive and seamless support experience.
Customization Capabilities: The platform offers extensive customization options, for teams to adjust it to their specific workflow. Users can configure custom fields, priority settings, and alerts to align with their service level agreements (SLAs).
ProProfs Pricing
ProProfs Help Desk has a simple pricing model, charging $20 per user per month, billed annually at $240. There is a 30% discount for annual billing. For teams with more than three users, customized pricing options are available upon consultation.
G2 Reviews: 4.7 out of 5 stars
Kayako
Kayako is a helpdesk software solution designed to help businesses provide exceptional customer service across various platforms. It ensures unified customer support, regardless of the communication method used.
Key Features
Convenient Live Support with Integrated Chat Software: Kayako includes live chat in its helpdesk solution, enabling 24/7 personalized, multi-channel support through an intuitive dashboard. It allows easy customization, seamless integration into websites and apps, and quick adaptation to different platforms.
Comprehensive Customer Insights for Better Service: Kayako's SingleView™ feature offers a complete perspective of the customer journey by aggregating all customer interactions. This allows teams to deliver personalized experiences by having vital information readily accessible.
Collaborative Customer Conversations with Shared Inbox: Kayako's shared inbox feature enhances productivity by simplifying conversation management. It offers customizable views, tagging, and conversation allocation to streamline collaboration, efficiently track issues, and automatically assign conversations to the appropriate team members.
Pricing
While specific pricing details are not explicitly provided, Kayako offers a 14-day free trial for any of their plans. Pricing is likely customized based on the customer's needs and the features they choose to utilize.
G2 Reviews: 4.7 out of 5 stars
Empower your customer support with the perfect solution
Thank you for exploring the seven best alternatives to Halp with us. Choosing the right support tool is crucial for maintaining efficiency and delivering exceptional customer service. We highly recommend checking out Jira Support by Actioner and Zendesk Support by Actioner for its seamless integration features and robust capabilities.
Looking for more Slack solutions?
Our team is constantly developing new Slack apps and integrations to help streamline collaboration. Don't forget to join the Actioner Slack Community to stay updated and be the first to know about our latest innovations!
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