5 Ways to Use WordPress to Provide Exceptional Customer Support

Enhance customer support: WordPress Plugin Guide

Core points

• WordPress provides a variety of plug-ins to enhance customer support, such as live chat plug-ins, customer service plug-ins to manage customer queries, and tools to create comprehensive FAQ sections.
• Some of the most popular WordPress customer support plugins include Awesome Support, WP Live Chat Support, and WSDesk, which offer features such as ticketing systems, online chat and email support.
• Forums can serve as an important addition to the customer support system, allowing users to ask questions and answer questions, and provide reference for previously asked questions. Plugins such as DW Question & Answer can help create a comprehensive forum system.
• WordPress can also track customer service performance by providing plugins that enable detailed reporting and analysis of activities, enabling businesses to identify areas of improvement and make informed decisions.

This article is part of a series of articles created in collaboration with SiteGround. Thank you for supporting the partners who made SitePoint possible.

Whether you are developing web applications, selling WordPress plugins and themes, or running an online store, providing excellent customer support is essential to success. Do this well and you will have satisfied customers and differentiate yourself from your competitors. If you don't do it well, it will backfire.

Simplified support. Develop a comprehensive system that provides your users with multiple contact information and responds to support requests within an acceptable time frame. Strive to exceed their expectations. This is a proven formula for success. For example, our partner SiteGround sticks with this and they are more than 96% satisfied each year.

How do you do this?

WordPress is an excellent platform for you to support your system. There are over 10,000 support-related plugins that enable you to set up a ticket system, online chat, support forums, FAQs and more. Some plugins do almost everything.

But 10,000 plugins need to be carefully filtered. In this article, we will provide you with the best plugins in five categories – the ones we recommend, which are widely used and widely praised by users.

You may not want to implement all five categories in your support system. As you read this article, consider which ones are best for your business.

1. Integrated support plug-in

The following is a way to simplify your support system. Instead of choosing a different plugin for each strategy, install a plugin that covers all aspects.

### Awesome Support – WordPress Help Desk and Support Plugins

• Cost: The basic plugin is free, the extension can be purchased separately or in bundled (starting from $199)
• Active installation: 5,000
• Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5 stars) (81 comments)

This comprehensive plugin can meet almost all your needs for support, except for chat. The basic features are free, but you may have to pay for some features.

Awesome Support is the most versatile and feature-rich plug-in for WordPress. It is the result of more than three years of work, research and improvement. These features are responses to users requesting a reliable WordPress-based help desk, which is what makes it the best choice!

Free plug-in features include:

• Tickets: Users can submit tickets from the front end, and your agent can reply to them from the WordPress backend.
• Email Notification: Parties will receive notifications for certain actions through customizable emails.
• File Upload: You can control when, how many files can be uploaded, and file size.
• Multiple products: Provide support for any number of products.
• Multiple departments: Provide support to multiple departments.
• Terms and Conditions: Users are required to agree to your terms and conditions before opening a ticket.
• Old Tickets: Use tags to quickly identify old tickets.
• Sorting and Filtering: Includes an amazingly flexible sorting, filtering and marking system for your tickets.
• Set priority the way you do: Create your own priority plan – you don’t have to be locked in a priority plan of 1-5!
• Time tracking: Includes basic time tracking! Administrators can even adjust the time, and all time changes will be recorded directly in the ticket.

Popular advanced extensions:

• Email Pipeline: Use email only to reply to tickets and collaboration.
• WooCommerce: The bridge between your WooCommerce store and Awesome Support.
• Preset reply: Preconfigured reply to FAQ.
• Gravity Forms: Create a custom ticket form.
• Satisfaction Survey: Automatically collect survey responses that rate your agent’s performance on work orders.
• FAQ: Powerful FAQ management can improve the efficiency of your agent.
• Notification: Get notifications for important events through Slack and Pushbullet. Notify third parties of important work ticket events via email.

Other popular support plugins include Zendesk Support for WordPress and WP MUDEV Support System Plugin.

2. Support through work orders

The ticket system may be the core of your support system. This is the best way to deal with complex problems – it allows you to track progress and articulate problems, prioritize work and process them systematically. It keeps everyone informed and provides resources for how to deal with problems in the past. One plugin can bring so much value!

### WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System

• Cost: Free, professional add-ons available for purchase individually or in bundled (starting from $99.99)
• Active installation: 9,000
• Rating: 4.7 stars (out of 5 stars) (149 comments)

This plugin adds the functionality of a full ticketing system to WordPress, with 100% responsiveness and 100% Ajax capabilities. This allows users to submit work orders to report problems or get any support you want. Users can set the status, priority, and category of each ticket.

Function:

• Unlimited work order submission.
• Priority, status, and category selection for each work order.
• Multiple file attachments for each ticket.
• Assign the ticket to the agent.
• Agent-based work order statistics.
• Seamless integration with all WordPress themes.
• FAQ feature.
• Add sticky notes for support staff to keep private sticky notes (hidden from customers) in the support team.
• Preset reply for agents to answer frequently asked questions.
• Email template for editing email content.

Professional add-ons:

• Email pipeline for work orders.
• WooCommerce integration.
• Easy digital download integration.
• CSV export of work orders.
• Company or User Group.
• Timer (calculate the time spent on a work order).
• Google Calendar Events.
• Advanced preset reply.

Other popular ticket plugins include WSDesk and WPHelpDesk.

3. Support through online chat

We live in a time of chat, and many people prefer texting rather than answering phone calls. It is also a great medium for customer support, especially when the problem is not too complicated, or when you want to assist the user with the work done by themselves.

### LiveChat – WordPress Online Chat Software

• Cost: Free with professional add-ons (starting from $39.95)
• Active installation: 30,000
• Rating: 4.6 stars (out of 5 stars) (341 comments)

The most affordable online chat plugin. Chat with your visitors for free! WP Live Chat Support is perfect for small businesses. No third-party connection is required. Get to know your visitors better without paying a monthly online chat fee. This is a fully featured online chat plugin. Use WP Live Chat Support to communicate directly with your visitors and communicate with them when they are ready to improve your conversion rate.

Free plug-in features include:

• Unlimited number of synchronous online chats.
• Chad directly online with your visitors.
• Users can drag the online chat box around their page.
• Change the color of the online chat box.
• Full Responsive Admin Chat Panel.
• Offline message has been stored.
• Access historical online chat history.
• Compatible with translation plug-in.
• Google Analytics integration.
• Create a custom offline message form when you are not online.
• Add surveys or votes to your chat box before or after a chat session.
• Protect the anonymity of your visitors.
• No need to pay a monthly online chat fee.
• Allows the online chat box to pop up automatically.
• See any online chats you may have missed.
• Enable/disable the chat box on your mobile device.
• Add to chat with you based on an IP address.

Professional features include:

• Unlimited number of online chat agents.
• Start an online chat with online visitors.
• Quick Reply (insert predefined replies into your online chat box).
• Data triggers (time triggers, scroll triggers, page triggers, page exit triggers).
• Reports (chat statistics, popular pages, ROI tracking and reporting, customer satisfaction rating).
• Customer satisfaction rating for each chat session.
• Round of Investment Tracking.
• Encrypt your online chat conversation.
• Full Responsive Admin Chat Panel.
• Transfer the chat to another agent.
• Department.
• Set your user profile.
• Support.

You can now choose to host your online chat on your own website (using your own resources) or LiveChat’s server (using their resources). The latter will increase your chat performance by up to 300% and reduce the load on your host.

Other popular online chat plugins include Zendesk Chat, Tidio Live Chat and Chat – Live Chat Support Sales.

4. Supported with comprehensive FAQs

Provide your users with the information and resources they need to resolve their own problems before they need to contact you. The more problems they can solve themselves, the less stress your support system will be. This starts with the detailed FAQ section.

### Ultimate FAQ

• Cost: Starting from $30 (single-site lifelong license, including 6 months of support)
• Active installation: 10,000
• Rating: 4.4 stars (out of 5 stars) (54 comments)

FAQ plug-in that allows you to create FAQs, organize FAQs, and promote your FAQs now in the WordPress admin panel. Choose from a variety of FAQ styles and FAQ layouts. You can use the Toggle FAQ and/or Accordion FAQ style to display a FAQ answer that expands when clicked, or choose to display all FAQs when the page loads, as well as provide a more traditional FAQ layout Select the list FAQ style.

Features of free plug-in:

• Unlimited FAQs, Unlimited FAQs tabs and Unlimited FAQ categories support.
• Create FAQ categories.
• Create FAQ posts and assign categories to them.
• AJAX FAQ Search Form.
• Export all FAQs to PDF to create a user manual.
• Insert custom CSS to style FAQ posts.

Other popular FAQ plugins include FAQ Manager, HTML5 Responsive FAQ, and FAQ.

5. Extend your support with the forum

Forum will allow your users to not only ask questions, but also help answer questions. It also provides a useful reference where users can find answers to questions, assuming that these questions have been asked before.

The forum is very flexible. They can handle product issues (as you see on Amazon or eBay) and support issues as well. The "Top Question" feature can act as a sufficient FAQ. In fact, depending on your business, forums may be the only support solution you need.

### DW Question & Answer

• Cost: Free
• Active installation: 10,000
• Rating: 4.1 stars (out of 5 stars) (97 comments)

This forum plugin is designed to provide support from start to finish. While it's not as popular or ranked as some other alternatives (listed below), it's a great option to support forums.

DW Question and Answer is a WordPress plugin that builds a complete question and answer system for your WordPress website, such as Quora or Stackoverflow. The plug-in supports multiple languages, shortcodes, reCAPTCHA, email notification system, and more.

Function:

• Submit/Filter/Sort/Edit/Delete Questions.
• Answers and comments on questions.
• Vote and select the best answer.
• Email Notification System.
• Search instantly by keyword.
• Support verification code.
• Private/public of questions and answers.
• Question/Answer Focus on the function.
• Top problem.

Other popular live forum plugins include Forums – wpForo, bbPress, and Asgaros Forum.

FAQs about providing excellent customer support with WordPress (FAQ)

How to use WordPress to improve my customer support?

WordPress offers a variety of plug-ins and tools that can significantly enhance your customer support. For example, you can use the online chat plugin to provide real-time help to your customers. You can also use customer service plugins to effectively manage and track customer queries. Additionally, WordPress allows you to create a comprehensive FAQ section on your website where customers can find answers to FAQs.

What are some of the best WordPress customer support plugins?

There are several WordPress plugins that are specifically for customer support. Some of the most popular ones include Awesome Support, WP Live Chat Support, and WSDesk. These plugins provide features such as ticketing systems, online chat and email support to help you provide a seamless customer service experience.

Can I use WordPress to provide online chat support?

Yes, WordPress offers multiple online chat plugins that allow you to interact with customers in real time. These plugins are easy to install and configure and they can significantly improve your customer service by providing instant help to your customers.

How to create a FAQ section on my website using WordPress?

WordPress allows you to easily create FAQ sections on your website using plugins such as FAQ Builder, Quick and Easy FAQs, and Ultimate FAQ. These plugins allow you to create, organize, and customize your FAQs to match the design of your website and the style of your brand.

Can I use WordPress to manage customer queries?

Yes, WordPress provides multiple customer service plugins that can help you manage customer queries effectively. These plugins allow you to create a ticket system where customers can submit their queries, and you can systematically track and resolve them.

How to use WordPress to provide email support?

WordPress offers multiple plugins that allow you to provide email support for your customers. These plugins allow you to create a dedicated email support system where customers can send their queries, and you can reply to them directly from your WordPress dashboard.

Can I create a knowledge base on my website using WordPress?

Yes, WordPress offers multiple plugins that allow you to create a comprehensive knowledge base on your website. These plugins allow you to create and organize articles, guides, and tutorials to help your customers find the information they need without contacting your support team.

How to use WordPress to reduce my customer service response time?

WordPress offers a variety of tools and plug-ins to help you reduce customer service response time. For example, online chat plugins allow you to provide real-time assistance to your customers, while customer service plugins allow you to effectively manage and track customer queries.

Can I use WordPress to provide multilingual customer support?

Yes, WordPress offers multiple plugins that allow you to provide multilingual customer support. These plugins allow you to translate your support content into multiple languages ​​to help you serve your global customer base.

How to use WordPress to track my customer service performance?

WordPress offers multiple plugins that allow you to track your customer service performance. These plugins provide detailed reports and analysis of your support activities to help you identify areas of improvement and make informed decisions.

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