We're looking at the plethora of different support tools out there and wondering what most people do. Seems there should be some solution using plain old email but it hasn't worked for us yet. What do you use?
What exactly are you looking for? We use Hipmob (we also ARE Hipmob.com) for live chat for our apps and our website, and Desk.com to handle email traffic and knowledgebase. We've also used Zendesk to handle email traffic in the past, as well as Olark to handle live chat for websites, and both work pretty well. Have heard of folks using Intercom.io for semi-automated in-app messaging, to good results.
I work at SugarCRM and we use our own product to handle cases. I do know that there is Zendesk integration which has been quite popular too (assuming you might also be thinking about CRM; just throwing that out there) <a href="http://www.zendesk.com/product/features/sugarcrm" rel="nofollow">http://www.zendesk.com/product/features/sugarcrm</a>
We use Request Tracker for our internal support tool. That started out when there were five people in the company, and now we're around fifteen now.<p>It isn't the most attractive application, but with dedicated addresses ("queues") it can be pretty flexible with a small number of different teams (e.g. "support", "accounts", "hardware", etc.)
I founded SupportFu ( <a href="http://www.supportfu.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.supportfu.com</a> ), which is a lightweight alternative to Zendesk. We focus on being invisible to the end customer and do email support pretty well.
We use HelpScout - <a href="https://www.helpscout.net/" rel="nofollow">https://www.helpscout.net/</a><p>Easy to use, good email integration, helpful support.