Customer Support Software Checklist for Small Businesses
Use this checklist before choosing customer support software for email, live chat, tickets, messaging, help centers, or support automation.
Start with the comparison: Best Customer Support Software for Small Businesses →
1. List your customer support channels
- Website chat
- Social or messaging channels
- Phone or callback requests
- Contact forms
- Other channels important to your customers
2. Check ticket and inbox workflows
- Ticket creation and status
- Assignment and ownership
- Priority and tags
- Customer history
- Internal notes
- Templates or saved replies
3. Check self-service features
- Knowledge base
- Frequently asked questions
- Search
- Article organization
- Public and internal documentation options
4. Check automation
- Automatic acknowledgements
- Routing
- Tags and rules
- Follow-up reminders
- Escalation options
- Workflow integrations
5. Check reporting
- Response times
- Resolution times
- Request volume
- Agent workload
- Customer feedback
- Exports and reporting periods
6. Check integrations
- CRM
- Ecommerce
- Website
- Social or messaging channels
- Accounting or other operational systems where relevant
7. Check plan limits and total cost
- Users or agents
- Tickets or conversations
- Channels
- Automation limits
- Knowledge-base features
- Storage
- Advanced reporting
- Required add-ons
8. Test a real support scenario
Before committing, run a realistic customer question through the workflow. Test assignment, response, internal notes, follow-up, resolution, reporting, and any customer-facing notifications. The goal is a support process your team can maintain consistently.