Help desk software RFP: ask for a workflow, not a feature list

Describe the service before asking about the product

Start the RFP with the people you support, the channels they use and the kinds of request the team handles. Give suppliers an ordinary month and a busy period, including the approximate number of agents, occasional contributors and administrators. Explain the systems that already contain customer or order information.

Then name the problem you want to fix. Perhaps cases are being lost between departments, agents cannot find the right customer history, or managers cannot distinguish a waiting customer from work awaiting an internal answer. These are useful requirements because a supplier can show how the proposed setup addresses them. A sentence saying improve efficiency is much harder to evaluate.

Choose three cases that expose different handovers

For a fictional equipment supplier, use a simple delivery question, a damaged-item claim needing warehouse review and a technical problem requiring an engineer. Give each case a starting message, relevant customer context and a clear end state. Keep personal data and live credentials out of the demonstration pack.

Ask each supplier to use those same cases. The point is to compare how work moves, not how quickly a presenter can click through a polished account. Include one unresolved condition, such as an unavailable colleague or a missing order reference. The team needs to see where an exception waits and who notices it.

Ask separately about the queue and the person

A queue can identify the responsible team without identifying the person who will act. Freshdesk’s group guidance makes that distinction explicit: assigning a group does not necessarily assign an agent. Its routing features also have package and configuration boundaries.

Write separate requirements for team routing, personal ownership, absence cover and escalation. Ask what happens when no eligible person is available. A proposal saying automatic assignment supported should identify the actual product, tier, routing method and conditions under which a case can still remain unassigned.

Specify the information that must travel with a case

Zendesk’s ticket-field documentation describes standard and custom information used in support records and workflows. Use that as a prompt to define your own minimum case data. Do you need the order identifier, affected product, customer organisation or preferred contact route?

For every required field, name its source and the person who can correct it. Separate internal notes from customer-visible messages. If an engineer needs a serial number, demonstrate where the agent sees it and how it reaches the next owner. A connector logo does not establish that this particular value is present, current or editable in the required place.

Make the commercial response comparable

Ask for the exact product and plan, committed agent count, contributors, required channels, AI or usage charges, onboarding, migration, integrations and support. Separate the recurring service from one-off implementation. State the billing term and currency you want suppliers to use, and ask them to identify assumptions rather than silently filling gaps.

Also ask who maintains routing, fields and reporting after launch. A proposal can depend on a consultant for changes that another package lets an administrator make. Neither arrangement is automatically wrong, but the ongoing responsibility and cost belong in the decision. Keep optional additions separate from the minimum viable service you asked suppliers to demonstrate.

Decide how the team will accept the implementation

Before choosing, record the few conditions that must be true at handover. For example, a test customer can submit a case, the right team receives it, the next owner can find the history, the customer receives the intended response and an authorised administrator can export the required records. Leave test results open until someone actually runs the checks.

Use the help desk directory to create a shortlist and the comparison scorecard to record evidence. An RFP is most useful when it produces a shared service brief that the vendor, implementer and support manager can all recognise after the sales presentation is over.

Frequently asked questions