In the electronics industry there is a ton of competition. Heck in any industry, there is ton of competition. Now think about this. When all things are equal, what is the one thing that becomes the deal breaker? Service. It wins every time, and the dirty little secret is, even if your price is not the best. I don’t have to tell you, customer service is the corner stone of any good company. Part of keeping customers happy (even in the electronics industry) is an easy way to communicate issues. It’s essential and your company website is a key tool to make this happen. Contrary to popular belief, this does not need to break your bank. I would like to introduce you to a couple of free (yes a dirty four-letter word) software’s which can make your website more customer centric. The idea has been gleamed from the world of the help desk. Imagine, if you will, an engineer trying to figure out the moisture sensitivity level on your components, or what drivers he needs to get your IC running. He doesn’t want a visit from a rep or have to track down a number to call someone. All he wants is to communicate an issue and get a concise answer. Below are some free solutions whereby engineers can ask and you can answer. You can track the questions that come up often, and build a knowledge base engineers can count on to help in their design activities. This is by far not an exhaustive list of software, but some of the more popular ones avaialble:

Help Desk Software by Php Junkyard Download here
Customers are able to submit support tickets and your staff has a nice web based interface to reply to and manage help desk tickets. Features include:

• Unlimited personalized accounts for staff
• Unlimited categories
• Canned responses
• File attachments
• Custom fields in the “Submit a ticket” form
• Anti-SPAM security image when submitting a ticket
• Powerful ticket search functions
• E-mail notifications of new tickets and replies
• Easy-to-use web interface
• Easy to translate to any language

QuickTicket       Download here
Features Include:

• Multiple language interface
• Private or public sections
• Powerful search utility
• Secure registration
• Complete customization with templates
• Multiple database engine supported

KubeSupport      Download here
Features Include:

• Support Tickets
• Manuals
• Knowledge base
• Easy to edit html template files
• Simple wizard installation
• Easy to edit language files
• Powerful Admin panel for controlling your site
• 1 year of upgrades

PHP Lively      Download here
While this is not a “help desk” suite like the others above, this software will allow you to set up a “Live Help” service on your site. Another very helpful way to communicate with your customers.