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We are finding that our users just aren't taking the time to look at help documents.  We have a nice library of solutions and our agents largely reference them when replying to tickets.  As much as I love the type-ahead search capablities, it's not reducing ticket creation.


We are pretty confident that we have to deliver the solutions at the point they are needed.  In other words, the solutions need to be available when the user is using a given feature in our website.  To provide context-sensitive help, we realize that we have to have a much more robust means of isolating/categorizing a given solution.


Here's what we think will work (using existing features in FreshDesk) and we'd love to hear feedback from others that have attempted similar implementations.


In a nutshell, we are going to build a local store of the solutions and utilize unique keywords (tied to specific features in our site) as a means to query certain solutions.  We'll use the API to extract the solutions from FD and build them in our local store.  Having them stored locally will allow us to use the keywords to build a one-to-many relationship between solutions (articles) and keywords.  


With a local store, we'll build some context sensitive help in our site, such that the user will hover over a feature and we'll query our local store based on the keywords that are tied to that feature.  In some cases, we'll query one keyword and get a list of matching items.  In other cases, we'll query multiple keywords to isolate a very specific type of solution.  We'll just place an <i> tag that looks like:


<i class='help-lookup admin-registration-waitlist-iswebinar'></i>


An event will take the keywords (admin-registration-waitlist-iswebinar) and split them up and then issue the equivalent of 


SELECT * FROM LocalSolutions WHERE Keywords IN ('admin','registration','waitlist','iswebinar') 



We've learned that the normal keywords aren't accessible via the API, but that the 'meta_keywords' are.  This is actually somewhat helpful, in our case, because we don't want our end-users seeing these odd keywords (and our solutions are hidden, anyway).


We are currently working on this and should be done in a couple of weeks.


Now. . . if we could influence the FreshDesk Development environment . . . . we would prefer it if we could do a few things this way:

1) Define a sessoin object in FreshDesk that we could use throughout FreshDesk.  In this manner, if a given use is an "admin" in our site, we can filter the help, appropriately.  Similarly, if we know that the lastPageViewed was a certain page, we could deliver help for that page.


2) Add sub-categories to the solutions such that we could add any number of sub-categories to a given solution  (and then include those sub-categories in the API).  If this were available, I don't think we would have to re-build a local store of solutions.  Base on our current thinking we would add 'sub-cateogries' for:

- TabNameContext (relates it to a major area of our site)

- LeftNavContext (relates it to a major sub-area of our site)

- FeatureContext (relates it to a specific feature)

- PageName (relates it to a specific page in our site)


 We could just create our own widget and it would pass the sub-queries (and roles from wish #1) to freshDesk and render a list of matching and appropriate solutions.


Anyone else doing anything like this?  Does it work like you had hoped?  Any upgrades in our thinking?












Hi Michael


Our sincere apologies in keeping this Forum post open, with no replies.


I would actually recommend using our own API with search_key parameters, which can pull up info from Subject/Description/TAGs on these solution article and showing them up in your Portal or App.E.g.search/home/solutions.xml?search_key=spf&page=1 will bring all the Solution articles which have the keywords "SPF" and so on.


Using this method, one of our customers pulled up and showed the data on their portal but we asked them to be a little restricted on that, since it involves continuous API calls, so they removed this. Main reason for heavy API calls was because, they were a domain service provider, so it was a bit heavy


Do check my suggestion and see if it helps, else we can wait for other users to comment on this too


regards
Vijay

Hello Michael,


Recently, we've launched a new feature on Freshdesk - the help widget. It's an update to the existing popup feedback widget. The help widget will show the most viewed solution articles and a contact form to your customers when they visit your website.


From what you've mentioned in your post, here are a few features of the help widget that I think you'll find useful:

  • You can pick specific articles to show up on the widget and provide contextual help for customers, based on the web page (URL) they're currently viewing. Click here to learn more. 
  • The widget can also be optimized for ticket deflection. Your customers will be shown a contact form only if they mark a solution article as "not helpful". Your customers will now search through your solution articles using the help widget, read them, and reach out for help only when they're not helpful.
  • You can also show a specific solution article on the help widget when customers click on a certain button. Click here to learn more


If you're interested in the help widget, you can check these solution articles or watch the recording of a webinar about setting up the help widget.


Hope this helps,

Karthik

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