Understanding Cloud-Based Software-as-a-Service Models

Examples of software as a service

The SaaS market is growing and expanding into new territories. It gathers a huge variety of software products and vendors. From small providers with a single product to dominant forces in the cloud landscape such as Google and AWS. One of the best things about SaaS products is that they are so diverse.

They range from IT business analytics tools and helpdesk software solutions to video streaming services. There are also SaaS solutions for monumental business applications such as billing, customer relationship management, sales management, email, etc.

Some of the most notable examples of SaaS products include:

• Salesforce
• LiveAgent
• Google Workspace apps
• Microsoft 365
• HubSpot
• Trello
• Netflix
• Zoom
• Zendesk
• DocuSign
• Slack
• Adobe Creative Cloud
• Shopify
• Mailchimp

How does software as a service work?

SaaS services work through cloud delivery. A cloud service provider will host the application and related data using its own resources, networking, databases, servers, and infrastructure services. The independent software vendor (ISV) may also use a cloud application service provider to host the application in its own data center.

Watch a video about SaaS

LiveAgent helpdesk software is a great example of how SaaS (Software as a Service) can help businesses manage their customer service operations. The LiveAgent platform offers a powerful, cloud-based helpdesk solution that makes it easy to connect with customers and provide best-in-class customer service. Whether it be through a live chat system, ticketing system, or a knowledge base, SaaS gives you the power to create an optimal customer experience and always be up-to-date with the latest technology.

Eye on TechMarch 15, 2020

Topics

• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Cloud computing
• Benefits and drawbacks of using SaaS

Video summary

This video explains what Software as a Service (SaaS) is and how it is one of the three main categories of cloud computing. SaaS is a third-party application available over the internet with no physical connection to any one device. It provides productivity apps over the internet for businesses such as sales management, customer relationship management, financial management, human resource management, billing, and collaboration. SaaS eliminates the expense of hardware maintenance, licensing, and installation. It operates on a pay-as-you-go model that offers businesses flexibility and high scalability for any range of projects and needs. However, a notable disadvantage is that organizations must rely on outside vendors for the software and have little control for instance providers might experience service disruptions impose unwanted service changes or fall victim to a security breach.

The future of SaaS

Market experts agree that the future of SaaS is strong. According to a 2017 Gartner report, sales of SaaS solutions will continue to grow at over 23 percent per year, from US$270billion in 2020 to over US$332 billion by 2021.

Innovation in the SaaS solutions themselves is expected to help drive that growth, including:

• With the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions on the rise, it is expected to become an increasingly baked-in part of the enterprise of all cloud applications. AI will drive adaptive intelligence solutions, which allows back-office and front-office applications to learn and adapt to user data and behavior.
• Autonomous IT management, AI, and machine learning will also play vital roles in driving more autonomous, less human-reliant management across cloud applications and cloud infrastructure.
• Beyond AI and machine learning, there are an additional set of adaptive intelligent technologies that are driving change to all SaaS applications. These included chatbots, digital assistants IoT, blockchain, virtual reality, augmented reality. Each of these technologies is increasingly vital to digital innovation and forward-thinking providers in how they extend their SaaS offerings.
• Industry SaaS solutions or vertical cloud applications continue to drive depth and horizontal connectedness for organizations. While SaaS began as a way to quickly provide vertical solutions to a single department, businesses increasingly need and expect cross-business visibility. As applications continue to evolve, look for more vertical depth from providers offering cross-business suites as well as more APIs and turnkey integrations for hybrid cloud solutions.

SaaS advantages

Some SaaS providers simply move their on-premises software to the cloud and call it SaaS. This model has its drawbacks and does not take full advantage of the cloud delivery model. In fact, you may end up with many of the same limitations as with on-premises solutions, including significant support bills, high IT-related overhead costs due to the same slow upgrade process, and disconnected systems—all of which reduce innovation and agility in your business.

However, a SaaS suite engineered from the ground-up for the cloud can provide:

Rapid application development and access to innovations

Because innovation is so critical in the digital age, businesses want to take advantage of the latest capabilities. SaaS engineered for the cloud speeds innovation cycles and gives you faster access to the latest innovations and applications. By contrast, the on-premises in-the-cloud SaaS model requires you to wait for innovations because of the longer development cycles typical of on-premises solutions and applications.

Connected SaaS business processes

Asked questions

What is the definition of service software?

Service software is software used to create interaction between customers and customer service. Customer satisfaction depends on high-quality service software. It assists in solving problems and managing the business.

What features should every service software provide?

Service software should meet several criteria. First, it has to be intuitive and should ensure comfort of use. It should also ensure data protection and application security. Lastly, it should ensure process automation.

Why do you need service software?

Service software streamlines customer relationship management, tracks employee progress, and provides useful reports. It is essential for high-level customer service.

Customer service management

The TEXT explores the principles and benefits of good customer service, emphasizing the importance of speed, honesty, and accessibility. It recommends LiveAgent as a tool to improve customer service, with a focus on customer reviews and evaluation. The text also discusses the necessary skills for customer-facing employees and provides examples of companies investing in exceptional service. It concludes with a request for business proposals.

The text provides information on the importance of effective customer service and the benefits of using help desk software. It also promotes LiveAgent as a customer service software and provides information about its features and benefits. The text emphasizes the need for companies to prioritize customer service and understand customer needs to provide quality service. It also includes information on the common mistakes that negatively affect customer service. The text ends with a message about LiveAgent’s demo, pricing, features, and integrations, as well as its support portal, data migration, and system status updates.

Helpdesk software on premise

The TEXT promotes LiveAgent, a customer service software for startups, which offers personalized responses, self-service options, and helpdesk support. The software is customizable and has received company awards and certificates. The TEXT includes information on pricing, integrations, alternatives, and a free trial, as well as a support portal and customer reviews. The company can be contacted for sales inquiries and there is a blog with templates and webinars. Finally, the TEXT concludes with a message about the installation status of LiveAgent and a cookie policy.

Features of help desk software

The TEXT discusses LiveAgent, a customer service software for startups, including pricing, integrations, and alternatives, as well as support, awards, and a blog. The use and benefits of help desk software are also highlighted, including automation, tracking, and self-service options. It concludes with information on LiveAgent installation and a cookie policy. Detailed feature overview videos are available.

Customer service software FAQs

Choosing the right customer service software for your business can be a big decision. Here is some additional information to help you determine which solution is right for you.

What is customer service software?

Customer service software is a set of tools used to collect, organize, respond to, and report on customer support requests.

A customer support system may be used to manage one or many communication channels, including email, live chat, messaging, and self-service, and it may also integrate with external communications tools like social media or group chat systems.

Companies typically use cloud-based customer service software to enable faster, more efficient customer support delivered by multiple customer service agents all working within the same tool.

What are the benefits of using customer service software?

You can certainly deliver great customer support without using specialist software, and many online businesses start out with nothing more than a free email account. Soon though, growing companies tend to run into some limitations and rough edges.

Using a specialized customer service system helps you to create a better customer experience that improves customer loyalty. Here are the key ways you can use a specialized tool to enable those experiences:

• Give more responsive and more consistent support. Dedicated support software features like automated workflows, tagging, knowledge base integration, saved replies, and more help your team spend more time helping customers and less time fighting their tools.

• Gather customer insights. Identify, collect, and organize all the helpful feedback, feature requests, bug reports, and use cases so they can be used to improve customer satisfaction.

• Work better together. Customer service software enables you to reduce duplicated work, keep track of customer queries, coordinate a response across multiple teams, and deliver up-to-date answers.

• Analyze and report. Use the built-in reporting features of customer support software to understand changes in support volume, team productivity, type and size of customer, and much more.

• Scale up your service. Maintain high-quality service as you grow by using tools that can coordinate multiple teams of agents to support an enormous customer base, using organizational features, automations, and third-party integrations.

When you have more than a couple of people working together to support customers, using specialized customer service software is the right choice.

What are the different types of customer service software?

Building out a customer service program is similar to building a chair. You could — in theory — build either one with just two or three tools, but the overall quality and efficiency of your efforts would be greatly impacted.

Whether you’re building a chair or a support team, there’s a continuum of tools ranging from broad to specialized, and the tools you end up investing in will be a reflection of the stage you’re at in the craft and the resources available to you.

1. Help desk software

Help desk software is typically one of the first tools teams invest in. It helps centralize all your service-related customer interactions, and, depending on the tool, it can handle support requests from multiple channels like email, live chat, social media, and phone.

At its core, help desk software lets you manage and streamline customer conversations to create a better customer experience and agent experience.

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2. Shared inbox software

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3. Phone support software

These days phone support (also referred to as “voice”) may seem like a relic of the past, so it may surprise you to know that over 50% of customers use the phone to contact customer service.

Furthermore, it’s not limited to one demographic: People of every age, gender, and background opt for phone support. So no matter what industry you’re in, you probably have customers who would be happy to give you a call.

Phone support and contact center software is a more modern approach to handling those phone-based interactions.

4. Knowledge base software

It may be helpful to think of an internal knowledge base as geared toward your employees, while an external knowledge base is geared toward your customers.

Some tools focus more on one use case than another, but there are also some capable of doing both well.

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5. Live chat support software

Sometimes customers want to talk to a live person. Maybe they’re not finding what they need in your help documentation or they want to talk through an issue in real time and email simply won’t cut it.

In those instances, live chat is a great option since it offers the immediacy of phone support while being less resource-intensive. It also has a much higher average customer satisfaction rating when compared to phone — 82% satisfied for live chat vs. 44% for phone.

In order to offer live chat support, you first need access to live chat software. Similar to some other tools on this list, live chat software can be a stand-alone product, but it can also be included as part of a help desk’s larger suite of tools.

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6. Messaging tools

Messaging tools are a broad category referring to software that allow you to do some sort of proactive support. That could come in the form of chatbot software, proactive messaging software, or some combination of the two.

In any case, the core goal of a messaging tool is to reduce friction in some way or another for the customer. Data confirm people generally prefer tasks that require less effort.

7. CRM software

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a tool that lets businesses manage and track customer interactions. It’s most commonly associated with sales, but there are some customer success applications for it, too.

The primary way it can help with customer success is through personalization. With the data you’ve collected, you might be able to better anticipate needs and curate a specific experience for each customer based on where they’re at in their customer journey.

Research shows personalization pays off: One study found that 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that offers a personalized experience.

8. Social monitoring software

The common suggestion is to “meet your customers where they already are.” Though that sounds like good advice, every team has limitations on time and resources and can only realistically take on so many channels.

Each new channel either requires taking time and energy away from an already established channel or adding new resources to manage it. Our own Mat Patterson explored this topic in depth in a helpful post for those considering social media support.

Social monitoring software can be great for teams with high social support volumes, so be sure you’re tracking those numbers prior to making an investment.

9. Service desk software

Sometimes referred to as a ticketing system, service desk software is more IT-focused and used to manage internal requests for technical assistance — think tools like JIRA. It’s not software that your customer service team would use directly, but it can be important for managing certain customer issues.

For example, many teams use a ticketing system to manage bugs reported by customers. So even though your customer service team isn’t managing conversations directly in the tool, it’s very common for them to have some interaction with it.

What are the most common customer service software features?

The feature set of software platforms built for customer service covers a wide range, but it can be generally categorized into six major focus areas.

1. Collecting

Collecting features help you answer the question: “How do we get customer communications into this system so we can handle them?” They provide the first point of interaction between the customer and the customer service software.

Customer service software tools may include built-in interfaces for some channels and may integrate with external providers for others.

2. Organizing

Organizing features are for taking all that incoming communication and creating useful structures so customer service teams can manage high volumes, understand what needs to be done, and respond in a timely manner.

Organizational features in customer service software cover both tools for manually arranging things and tools for taking action automatically.

Common examples include:

3. Collaborating

Collaboration features allow multiple people to effectively work together on the incoming support volume, from frontline support folks to subject experts and business operations folks.

Common collaboration features in customer service software include:

4. Responding

These features encompass all the ways a reply can be sent to the customer in question. Responding features can include:

• Text editors for composing and sending responses to individual emails, live chats, and messages.

• Social messaging tools to respond publicly to incoming requests.

5. Integrating

Many customer service software tools offer direct integration with other systems as well as APIs for programmatic integration into even more places. Integrations allow a company to connect their customer service data with tools like:

• Slack or other communication systems for keeping your team up to date.

• CRM software for additional customer history and context.

• Shopify and other e-commerce services you use to serve customers.

• Social tools for other forms of customer contact.

• Internal systems that inform customer service decisions.

6. Analyzing and reporting

Features for reporting and analysis in customer service software allow companies to better understand things like who their customers are, what they are trying to get done, where their customers run into trouble, and what they need.

Common customer service software reporting features cover things like:

• Time to first response.

• Customer satisfaction levels.

• Time to resolution.

• Incoming request volume over time.

• Common request categories.

Some of the features above are common across nearly every customer support platform; others are less common or are implemented quite differently.

What are the latest customer service software trends?

Regardless of the type, software is always evolving. Sometimes the changes are due to shifts in customer or industry expectations. Other times, updates stem from technological advances that allow developers to offer features that weren’t previously possible.

Here are a few trends that are being discussed in the world of customer service software.

Personalized conversations over ticket numbers

While the focus of conversations over tickets has been a guiding principle for some customer service platforms since their start, the idea has become more mainstream in recent years.

Customers aren’t interested in stiffly written scripts or one-size-fits-all email templates that never quite fit the issue at hand. Instead, customers want to have conversations with businesses where their concerns and needs are listened to and met in a timely manner.

This push for personalized support makes it even more important to choose a tool that gives your team access to customer information like past conversations and order history. Having customer data on hand ensures that they don’t need to repeat themselves, always receive relevant information, and never feel like a number. 

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Customers are voting with their dollars

Harris Poll research shows that “82% of shoppers want a consumer brand’s values to align with their own, and they’ll vote with their wallet if they don’t feel a match.”

While you might think that this need for value alignment is isolated to topics of manufacturing or hiring practices, your brand’s values can be seen in every aspect of your business, including the customer support experience you provide.

When shopping for customer service software, look for tools that have features that put the customer experience first. This includes both customer-facing features (easy to navigate knowledge bases, seamless in-app messaging, etc.) and agent-facing features (saved replies, workflows, tagging, etc.) that help your team provide great support.

Omnichannel experiences are expected

While offering email is still a must for most brands, other channels such as live chat, social media, and async messaging are emerging as customer favorites. Consumer surveys have found that 40% of consumers believe that having “multiple options for communicating” is the most important aspect of a company’s customer service.

Your support tools should offer the ability to manage communications through all of the channels that are widely used by your customers. Even if you’re not ready to launch them all at the start, having support for your business’s high-demand channels available within your customer service platform will make it easier to add additional communication methods in the future. 

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Self-service continues to be a customer-favorite

A 2020 Zendesk report found that “69% of customers want to resolve as many issues as possible on their own and 63% of customers always or almost always start with a search on a company’s online resources when they have an issue.”

Customer service software that includes a knowledge base builder will allow you to create online resources that help customers find answers on their own while also relieving stress on your team. 

Another self-service feature found in support software is chatbots. Rule-based chatbot experiences can help customers get help more quickly. While not suited for complex issues, chatbots can often help with issues like providing tracking information and processing returns and exchanges.

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AI is improving, but it’s not quite there yet

With the recent updates to ChatGPT, it seems like every software offering now comes with AI-powered features, and customer service tools are no different. 

Though their introduction may make your support team concerned about the future of their employment, the fact is that we’re not quite there yet. Though the improvements to ChatGPT are quite impressive, their accuracy levels are still too low to be used without human supervision. 

Still, the technology offers a lot of opportunities to help your team behind the scenes. Look for AI features that can perform helpful tasks like summarizing long discussions or performing sentiment analysis to help with your quality assurance process. 

And yes, AI can also help your team come up with potential answers to customer issues — just make sure that a human reviews them for accuracy before hitting send!

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How to choose the right customer service software

So which customer service software is the best for your business needs? To answer that, you should first start with another question:

“What is the experience I want my customers to have when they need my help?”

By answering that question, you give yourself some tools for selecting the right product or, more often, the right combination of products.

We have a full article on how to pick the right help desk tool — despite the title, it’s a handy guide for how to approach most customer service software decisions.

Here’s the short version:

• Understand the job you are trying to do. Are you building a high-touch, hand-holding service experience for a select group or a mass-volume, fast-turnover retail service? Different software solutions suit different environments.

• Assess your resources. If you’re a team of one or two, you can’t cover every support channel all day. And if you have a limited budget, there’s no point in looking at the more expensive systems.

• Understand the “must have” features. Does this system absolutely have to integrate with an existing tool? Or is having a messaging system essential? That will help you narrow down your options.

• Create a shortlist. Using those must-have features, reviews, recommendations, and other sources of insight, pick your top few options.

• Evaluate your favorites. Now you can deep dive into your top few options, perhaps trying out their customer service and talking to existing customers.

• Trial time! Using customer service software is the best way to know if it will work for you. All the feature checklists and marketing copy in the world won’t replace the experience of using the software in your setup to deliver service.

Help Scout’s free trial gives you and your team 15 days to try out everything that our platform has to offer, with our team supporting you every step of the way. 

Check out our extensive knowledge base, take a live class, or even get a one-on-one demo with one of our customer champions to learn how your team can get the most out of Help Scout.

Whatever you need, we’re here to help!

How does customer service software work?

Customer service software connects with your everyday customer communication channels, including email, phone, live chat, social media integration, messaging apps, and even customer service portals.

When a customer contacts your business on any of these channels, the system automatically creates a ticket. For example, if the customer uses a real-time channel, such as the phone or live chat, the system automatically starts ringing to alert online support agents. Once an agent picks up the call or chat, the agent and customer can begin communicating in real-time.

However, suppose a customer uses a channel like email, social media, or a messaging app to contact your company. In that case, the system will simply create a ticket and assign it to a specific department/agent based on predefined criteria.

Businesses and organizations that don’t utilize this technology often experience customer dissatisfaction and churn because many customer messages slip through the cracks or don’t get answered fast enough.

Having a system like this allows any business or organization to improve their customer communication processes as it eliminates device and account monitoring by keeping all messages in one place. As a result, it saves time and enhances productivity and response times which contribute to greater customer satisfaction.

Asked questions

How to manage customers data securely through customer service software?

How to provide a customized experience (for both agents and customers)?

Creating personalized experiences for customers is easy if you have access to behavior tracking software and customer management software. By monitoring your customer’s behavior on your site and consulting existing CRM data, you can create high converting, personalized messaging.

Is customer service software customizable to your business needs?

Most customer service software is flexible and fully customizable, allowing businesses to scale up with the software as needed. Make sure to prioritize this aspect when choosing your customer communications software.

Does customer service software come with analytics and reporting?

Most customer service software offers analytics and reporting. Some tools offer more in-depth analysis, while others provide more basic reporting.

Will customer service software allow you to scale seamlessly?

Yes, customer service software is generally flexible and adaptable to your business and its growth.

What’s the best customer service software?

LiveAgent is the best customer service software because it offers the most advanced features for the lowest price.

How to choose the best customer service software for your business?

To choose the best customer support software for your business, you need to write down what you want to achieve and decide what you need the software to do to accomplish it. Then, with your budget in mind, research options on software review sites like G2, Capterra, or SoftwareAdvice.

LiveAgent Webinar 4: Multi Knowledgebase

Live agent offers the capability to manage multiple knowledge bases from a single location. Each additional knowledge base costs an extra $19 per month but is free with the all-inclusive plan. A good workflow is to create a ticket or task to assign an agent to create a new article or edit existing ones. There is no limit on the number of articles that can be added to the knowledge base. Unfortunately, there is no feature to convert chats or tickets into articles. The company will send out a link to access the recorded webinar on their YouTube channel.

Customer Service – Social Media Tips

LiveAgent offers a comprehensive customer service solution with social media integrations, CRM and automation features. Their aim is to improve agent productivity by streamlining all customer interactions into a single unified inbox. They offer a free 14-day trial and provide information on social media management. LiveAgent also has a demo, pricing and support options available, as well as partnerships and accolades.

What is service software?

Service software are tools used by businesses to solve a variety of issues. They are used to streamline customer relationship management processes, track employee progress, and provide useful reports, among other things. They are typically on-demand software (SaaS) and are used across many industries, from field service companies to retail.

Customer-Deployed Software

Customer-deployed software products are sold by ISVs to consumers of cloud-based IaaS and PaaS services. These products are installed by the customer, systems integrator (SI), or ISV into the customer’s cloud account. Customer-deployed products are reminiscent of traditional “boxed” software.

Figure 5 – Customer-deployed software.

Customers typically pay a reoccurring hourly, monthly, or annual subscription fee for the software, commonly referred to as pay-as-you-go (PAYG). This subscription fee is in addition to the fees the cloud service provider charges for the underlying compute resources on which the customer-deployed software runs.

Figure 6 shows plan types for customer-deployed products on AWS Marketplace, as of February 2020.

Figure 6 – Plan types for customer-deployed products.

Some customer-deployed products may also require a software license. Software licenses are often purchased separately through other channels. Applying a license you already own to a newly purchased product is commonly referred to as bring your own license (BYOL).

BYOL is common in larger enterprise customers, who may have entered into an Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) with the ISV.

Customer-deployed software products can take a variety of forms. The most common include some combination of virtual machines (VMs) such as Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), Docker images, Amazon SageMaker models, or Infrastructure-as-Code such as AWS CloudFormation, HashiCorp Terraform, or Helm Charts.

Customers usually pull these products from a vendor’s AWS account, or other public or private repositories for source code or binaries. Figure 7 shows a breakdown of customer-deployed products on AWS Marketplace by the method of delivery.

Figure 7 – Delivery methods for customer-deployed products.

Although historically, AMIs have been the predominant method of customer-deployed software delivery, newer technologies such as Docker images, serverless, Amazon SageMaker models, and AWS Data Exchange datasets will continue to grow in this segment.

Customer-deployed cloud-based software products may require a connection between the installed product and the ISV for product support, license verification, product upgrades, or security notifications.

Examples of customer-deployed software products include:

• Fortinet provides high-performance, integrated network security solutions for global enterprise businesses. Fortinet FortiGate (BYOL) Next-Generation Firewall is available on AWS Marketplace.
• Alluxio is a leader in data orchestration for big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. Alluxio Enterprise Edition – Caching for Data Analytics is available on AWS Marketplace.
• Kasten provides cloud-native data management for Amazon EKS. Kasten K10 offers backup and restore, disaster recovery, and mobility of Kubernetes applications, and is available on AWS Marketplace.
• Deep Vision AI specializes in visual recognition technology for images and videos. It offers several API products, including the Deep Vision context recognition API, Deep Vision brand recognition API, and Deep Vision face recognition API, all of which are sold on AWS Marketplace.

Deep Vision’s APIs work with Amazon SageMaker is priced on an hourly rate for real-time inference and batch transforms. Customer-deployed products designed for Amazon SageMaker are a growing category on AWS Marketplace.

About AWS SaaS Factory

AWS SaaS Factory helps organizations at any stage of the SaaS journey. Whether looking to build new products, migrate existing applications, or optimize SaaS solutions on AWS, we can help. Visit the AWS SaaS Factory Insights Hub to discover more technical and business content and best practices.

SaaS builders are encouraged to reach out to their account representative to inquire about engagement models and to work with the AWS SaaS Factory team.

Sign up to stay informed about the latest SaaS on AWS news, resources, and events.

Remember that serving customers is the goal

Figuring out what customer service tool best serves you — and your team — can be a tricky task. You need to find a tool that meets your immediate needs and is flexible enough to cover future needs, all while staying within budget.

Though making a choice may seem a bit daunting, ending up with the wrong tool, dissatisfied customers, and frustrated team members is far worse. So take your time, be thoughtful, consider your options, and make the most informed decision you can.

No matter which software you choose, it’s the service you deliver to your customers that matters. Don’t let the search for the “perfect customer service software” stop you from defining and delivering the service experience that will keep those customers coming back.

What are the main benefits of SaaS-based services?

SaaS has many benefits, but we’ll highlight the most important ones.

• SaaS allows you to access sophisticated applications – it doesn’t require the user to buy, install, maintain, or update any software, middleware, or hardware. Businesses with limited resources can afford even the most sophisticated enterprise software, such as CRM and ERP.
• Users can pay only for the features they use – Saas allows users to save resources by automatically scaling according to the level of usage.
• Access to free client software – users only need a web browser to run most SaaS apps.
• Easy workforce mobilization – SaaS apps only require an Internet connection and a device to run. Therefore, they are a perfect solution for companies that need to mobilize their workforce frequently without worrying about security issues.
• App data access anywhere – since SaaS apps store data in the cloud, you can access them from anywhere, any time.

Cloud-Based Software

Most cloud-based software is sold in one of two ways—customer-deployed, and software-as-a-service.

Figure 4 provides a breakdown by the method of product delivery on AWS Marketplace, as of February 2020. All items in the chart, except for SaaS, represent customer-deployed products.

Serverless applications are available elsewhere on AWS, and are not represented in the AWS Marketplace statistics.

Figure 4 – Delivery methods (except serverless) for AWS Marketplace products.

How to choose the best customer service software?

While one servicedesk software might be the best choice for one company, it may be inadequate for another. It’s important to realize that every business has different needs and wants to accomplish different goals. For example, while one company may be content with simple chat software, others may need a complex solution that supports multichannel communication with customer.

Before you choose or even research customer service software, you need to understand your goals and requirements. Think about what you want to accomplish with the software and consider your budget as well. It might be the case that the perfect all in one solution might be out of your reach financially. Once you’ve jotted down your expectations for the software and set a budget, you can start exploring your options.

Key features of customer service software

Streamlined ticketing system

Ensure that the channels you want to connect with your customer support software are supported. For example, if you want to make and receive phone calls from your customer service software, ensure that it contains a built-in blended call center.

Supported channels

Built-in CRM

Don’t settle for a type of customer service software that doesn’t offer a built-in CRM. You’ll want to have access to customer data within your help desk system, so you don’t have to waste time logging in and out of different applications to provide knowledgeable service.

Automated Distribution

Automated ticket distribution ensures that incoming tickets are always routed to the most appropriate department and agent. It also ensures that tickets are never stuck/waiting to be answered without anyone taking responsibility for them.

Automation & Rules

Integrations

Ensure that the support ticket system you choose has active integrations with the tools you like to use daily. The whole point of customer service software is to improve your productivity and minimize the number of external tools you use. By integrating your help desk with third-party apps like Shopify, for example, you can view your customer’s orders/refunds directly in your customer service software.

Reporting & Gamification

Having access to accurate data insights can help every business improve its sales, marketing, and support processes. For example, if reports from your system indicate that you have a high call abandonment rate during lunchtime, it could mean that you need to add more call support agents to that shift as it is one of your peak hours and customers are waiting on hold for too long.

On the other hand, gamification can promote healthy competitiveness amongst your customer service team and customer service agents. By being awarded reward badges and levels, your support agents can feel motivated to perform better. Improved productivity will affect how many tickets they resolve and how fast, which can save you money and improve customer satisfaction at the same time.

Design your own templates

LiveAgent gives you the power to design your own customer email templates, thus helping you to improve the customer service. Curious about all the opportunities?

Key factors when choosing customer service software toolkit

Price

Consider your budget and how much you’re willing to spend. Please note that the most popular customer service software solutions can be pretty pricey. Instead of paying a premium price for a mainstream brand or simply deciding that a customer service software is simply too expensive, why not consider alternative solutions? Many alternative customer support systems offer free plans and often even more features than their popular competitors.

Support

Research whether the software you’re opting for offers free, year-round, multilingual, 24/7 service. Moreover, check out the vendor’s self-service options, and if you want to go a step further, try contacting them on live chat or email to see how long it takes them to respond to your query. By testing their responsiveness first hand, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how their service will be like once you’re a paying customer.

Provided contact options

Consider the types of customer service each vendor offers. If you’re a fan of contacting support on live chat, make sure that the company you choose offers live chat support. If you’re more into talking it out, find out whether your preferred vendor offers toll-free numbers and offers support at an appropriate time for your time zone.

Ability to scale up/down

Many businesses experience seasonal changes that can affect how many support agents they need to employ. For example, travel and hospitality businesses boom in the summer months, so they may need to onboard additional support agents to answer the high volumes of incoming emails, chats, and calls.

Similarly, eCommerce businesses experience an influx of customer support tickets during certain times of the year when sales campaigns like Black Friday are live. Therefore, it’s crucial to have flexible customer support software that enables you to add on and remove support agents as needed.

Growing businesses can also benefit from flexible customer service software. It’s good to know that the system you choose can grow with you and won’t cause you any headaches in the future when it comes to supporting more and more agents and customers.

Software limitations

Consider the limitations of each software that you want to use. Are there features that you’d like to use, but the software doesn’t offer? Are there missing integrations? How’s the uptime? Asking hard questions like these is extremely important as software limitations can affect your work and your customer’s satisfaction with your service.

Collaboration options

Last but not least, research what kinds of collaboration options are available. Does the customer success software you’re eyeing offer internal chats and calls? What about internal ticketing, private notes, and agent collision detection? Remember that the customer service app you choose should elevate your support processes and make it easier to work with your colleagues.

When do you need service software?

Given the flexible aspect of service software and the amount of issues they can help solve, arguably every business could benefit from these platforms. Whether you run a small business looking to scale up or a massive enterprise in need of a streamlined solution to the influx of customer requests, service software is the way to go.

There are few things more important to today’s customers than customer service. It can make or break customer relationships, and it can be the most important factor in consolidating customer loyalty. This is particularly important for small businesses, since having a good reputation regarding your customer service can drive more customers your way.

It is also worth considering that with more customers come more requests. This is another reason why you want to invest in customer service solutions. Because they allow you to use the human resources of your call center more efficiently and scale up when needed.

A common misconception is to think of customer service as a post-sale satisfaction survey. In reality, customer relationships cover every aspect of a customer’s interaction with a company. From engaging with prospective customers, to assisting them on their purchase, to post-sale support. Service software can cover all of those aspects.

If you understand the value of customer support enough to make it a part of your business model, it is safe to say that you need a good service software solution. By providing your human resources with this invaluable tool, you can make sure to improve your customer relationships and employee satisfaction simultaneously.

Customer service software compared

1. LiveAgent

When comparing value for money, LiveAgent is the best support service software– it offers more features for less. It provides the most robust ticketing system, live chat, and call center software. The software also provides 24/7 personalized service across all channels.

2. Zendesk Support

3. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is another excellent customer engagement software to consider. It offers live chat, ticketing, calling, and social media support. It’s easy to use and set up and has the same core capabilities as LiveAgent provided for a higher price.

4. LiveChat

5. Intercom

We offer concierge migration services from most of the popular help desk solutions.

Cloud-Based Usage Models

To get started, let’s review three common ways that individuals, businesses, academic institutions, and the public sector consume services from cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS):

• Indirect users
• Direct users
• Hybrid users

Indirect Users

Many SaaS products can import and export data, as well as integrate with other SaaS products. Many successful companies run their entire business in the cloud using a combination of SaaS products from multiple vendors.

• Large automotive parts manufacturer that runs its business using the Workday cloud-based Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) suite.
• Software security company that uses Zendesk for customer support. They also use the Slack integration for Zendesk to view, create, and take action on support tickets, using Slack channels.
• Recruiting firm that uses Zoom Meetings & Chat to interview remote candidates. They also use the Zoom integration with Lever recruiting software to schedule interviews.

Direct Users

• Advanced hobbyist that uses AWS IoT Core and Amazon QuickSight as part of a custom Smart Home automation application.
• Private equity firm that maintains its own proprietary artificial intelligence-based investment recommendation engine using a combination of cloud-based services, like AWS Lambda and Amazon SageMaker.
• Mobile payment company that uses Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) and Amazon DynamoDB to run its own high-volume credit card processing application. To help ensure PCI compliance, they also use Aqua’s customer-deployed product, Aqua Cloud Native Security Platform for ELS (BYOL).

Hybrid Users

• Payroll company that hosts its proprietary payroll software product, using IaaS products like Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Elastic Load Balancing. In addition, they use an integrated SaaS-based fraud detection product, like Cequence Security CQ botDefense, to ensure the safety and security of payroll customers.
• Online gaming company that operates its applications using the fully-managed container-based PaaS service, Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS). To promote their gaming products, they use a SaaS-based marketing product like Mailchimp Marketing CRM.

Cloud vs SaaS—What’s the difference?

While cost reduction and IT efficiency drove the development of first-generation cloud apps, modern SaaS applications have become platforms for innovation to meet the competitive challenges of the digital age, such as:

• Extending the functionality of your SaaS applications to support collaboration apps like Slack and Zoom.
• The power of small. Cloud, mobile, and social are enabling small and startup enterprises to create innovative products and reach markets with unprecedented speed.
• The age of consumer discontent. Armed with mobile and social, consumers have more choices and more information than ever before.

In response to these competitive challenges, a modern SaaS suite can drive innovation across the business by supporting faster innovation, providing superior customer experiences, and enabling better business decisions with built-in analytics and a holistic view of the entire business.

Can I create and customize software as a service?

Saas is needed for achieving steady business growth, here is how to create your own SaaS in 4 steps.

1. Research the market

The global SaaS market is swarming with solution providers, which only increases your need to develop out-of-the-box solutions. Start by researching the market to understand your target audience, their main requests, the essential features, as well as your competitors. Also, understand the business models they adopt.

2. Create a plan for your product

Planning your product should include the functionalities and features of your SaaS solution and the customer base that will use it. In addition, you need to understand the recurring need for such a solution.

If you can understand what motivates your target audience to use your product, you’ll be able to create a solution that will address their specific pain points. You also need to plan the pricing strategy and the marketing campaign to properly advertise your product.

3. Determine your SaaS requirements

These are the features your SaaS product must have:

• multi-tenant architecture
• application and data security
• frontend UI/UX design
• backend data management
• third-party integrations
• user analytics and monitoring

4. Choose a technology stack

Every SaaS solution has two vital aspects – frontend (client-facing) and backend (server-side). For the frontend, you’ll need tools such as CSS, HTML, as well as JavaScript (Vue.js, Angular, and React).

For the backend, you need secure, scalable, and fast frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, .Net, Laravel, or Python. You should also think about the servers. Choose from:

• external servers
• physical servers
• remote servers

Improve your customer service

Create memorable customer experiences with LiveAgent that boost revenue.

AWS Data Exchange SaaS Product

There is a new category of products on AWS Marketplace. Released in November 2019, AWS Data Exchange makes it easy to find, subscribe to, and use third-party data in the cloud. AWS Data Exchange vendors can publish new data, as well as automatically publish revisions to existing data, and notify subscribers.

Once subscribed to a data product, customers can use the AWS Data Exchange API to load data into Amazon S3 and then analyze it with a wide variety of AWS analytics and machine learning services.

Figure 14 – AWS Data Exchange SaaS products.

AWS Data Exchange products are available on AWS Marketplace. The list of qualified data providers is growing and includes Reuters, Foursquare, TransUnion, Pitney Bowes, IMDb, Epsilon, ADP, Dun & Bradstreet, and others.

As illustrated in Figure 15, data sets are available in the categories of financial services, public sector, healthcare, media, telecommunications, and more.

Figure 15 – Data exchange SaaS product categories in AWS Marketplace.

Examples of AWS Data Exchange SaaS products include:

• Dun & Bradstreet currently offers more than 30 data products on AWS Marketplace, delivered using AWS Data Exchange. Products include Direct Marketing Services – First Research Industry Profile, Insurance Agencies & Brokerages – First Research Industry Profile, and Department Stores (US) – Industry Marketing File. Dun & Bradstreet’s datasets are priced based on a 12-month subscription.
• Reuters currently has nine data products on AWS Marketplace, delivered using AWS Data Exchange. Products include Reuters News Archive: Automotive (1 Year), Reuters News Archive: Pharmaceutical (1 Year), and Reuters News Archive: Energy (1 Year).
• SafeGraph offers accurate Points-of-Interest (POI) data, business listings, and store visitor insights data for commercial places in the United States. SafeGraph currently offers 23 different products on AWS Marketplace, delivered using AWS Data Exchange. This includes SafeGraph Core Places – Restaurants, SafeGraph Core Places – Entire US, and SafeGraph Foot Traffic Patterns (2019) – Car Dealerships.

SaaS Products

ERP Cloud

Discover how enterprise resource planning (ERP) cloud solutions can future-proof your business across accounting, analytics, consolidation, planning, procurement, projects, and reporting.

Explore Enterprise Resources Planning
What is ERP?
What is SaaS ERP?

Supply Chain Cloud

Discover how Oracle’s Supply Chain Management & Manufacturing (SCM) solutions help drive innovation and turn traditional supply chains into agile and integrated value chains.

Explore SCM
What is SCM?

Sales Cloud

Discover how Oracle Sales solutions go beyond sales force automation to optimize your sales engagements through a comprehensive set of capabilities that bolster customer relationships and drive business growth.
Explore Sales

HR Cloud

Discover how HR leaders are making faster, smarter decisions with Oracle’s human resources solutions to drive engagement, productivity, and business value for organizations and the people within them.

Explore HCM
What is HCM?

Marketing Cloud

Discover how digital marketing solutions support B2B and B2C marketers’ omnichannel experiences to drive sales, brand, and customer loyalty. Oracle Marketing supports marketing automation for cross-channel orchestration.
Explore Marketing
What is Marketing?

Service Cloud

Discover how Oracle Service solutions help to differentiate your brand by providing automated, personalized, omnichannel, and knowledge-driven interactions and customer service.
Explore Service
What is Customer Service?

What is software as a service?

Similar to platform service solutions (PaaS), SaaS applications require nothing more than a SaaS provider’s server to run. The provider is also in charge of managing access to the application, including performance, availability, and security. Some of the most common SaaS characteristics include:

• multitenant architecture
• easy customization
• better access
• customizing with a point-and-click interface

Asked questions

What is software as a service?

What is SaaS used for?

It can be used for CRM, content management, sales management, access management, database management, financial management, HR management, patch management, project management, etc.

How does software as a service work?

What are examples of software as a service?

The best examples of SaaS are solutions such as Salesforce, Microsoft 365, HubSpot, LiveAgent, Zoom, Netflix, Mailchimp, and more.

What are the main business advantages of SaaS-based services?

The main advantages of SaaS include accessibility, operational management, affordability, scalability, analytics, and increased security.

What makes software SaaS?

Multitenancy, automated provisioning, high availability, cloud delivery, data, and application security constitute the main characteristics of SaaS software.

How much do you get from SaaS?

Because SaaS solutions offer multiple subscription models, you can decide the amount of service you want from them based on your specific needs.

How can I create software as a service?

Above, we discussed the steps you need to take. To simplify the process, you need to research the market, plan your product and its features, and select the right technology and servers.

SaaS is a cost-effective, scalable and accessible solution, perfect for modern, e-commerce businesses. With a variety of use cases, it’s revolutionizing the software industry.

LiveAgent is a customer service software solution designed to streamline messages from different platforms into a single inbox for improved workflow efficiency and customer satisfaction. It offers a native live chat, virtual call center, and the ability to create a customer portal with a knowledge base and community forums. The platform is trusted by companies such as NASCAR and Forbes and offers a free trial. LiveAgent can also improve a company’s marketing efforts and create a customer-centric culture with features such as VoIP phone systems, self-service software, and complaint management systems.

Call monitoring software

The article promotes LiveAgent as a customer service software that offers advanced chat tools and ticket management for efficient customer relationships. It highlights the advantages of live chat communication, including faster responses, 24/7 availability, and personalization. The software also offers benefits such as automation, reporting, and keeping track of customer service issues. Additionally, the article provides sales contacts and information on the company’s privacy policy and partnership opportunities.

Customer contact software

What are the benefits of service software?

As we mentioned previously, service software is extremely adaptable, which means that there are countless ways you can benefit from it. Provided you define your goals and set up your software tool accordingly, you can do anything from enhancing the customer experience to increasing brand loyalty.

Another beneficial aspect of customer service platforms is their capability to integrate with other software in order to gain crucial insight regarding customer behavior. This is especially favorable for small businesses that need to make the most out of every customer interaction.

And it’s not just customer behavior that can be analyzed, having reports on your customer service representatives can give you crucial insights into what may or may not be working. Service software can give you that information, allowing you to tweak processes and improve your service model.

Choosing a software solution with built-in CRM can change your entire customer service workflow. This type of business application helps agents access important customer information on the same cloud platform where the request is being handled. CRM can also be customized to provide further data regarding what types of products they have purchased, even if they did it through a third-party vendor.

Some services even provide the option to create a knowledge base for your customers with useful information about your product and common issues people face. This helps customers find faster solutions and frees your agents to deal with the most complex cases.

Automation and AI are some of the most recent features to be added to service platforms, and they are a godsend. Even the smallest businesses have to deal with repetitive tasks and there are certain customer requests that appear over and over again. Automation allows you to handle repetitive tasks and simplify the process of solving recurring issues, further enhancing your enterprise resource planning.

In order to get the most out of your service software, make sure to check the software license to see which functionalities come with each subscription tier. While we do suggest LiveAgent, the reality is that any platform is better than none.