{"id":231,"date":"2020-12-22T12:36:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T12:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helpcrunch.com\/news\/?p=231"},"modified":"2026-04-01T08:15:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:15:29","slug":"updates-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helpcrunch.com\/news\/updates-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83c\udf84 HelpCrunch in 2020: our main achievements and future plans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With Time<\/a> naming 2020 the worst year and all the uncertainty awaiting us in 2021, the last thing you want to hear right now is how bad it has been. Yes, it has been a difficult year in many unprecedented ways. But let\u2019s not go there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d much rather talk about our actual achievements and make plans for the upcoming year. Despite all the difficulties and mishaps, we at HelpCrunch have been steadily improving your experience and delivering new features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our team consists of 27 people right now. This year, we hired a lot of new people and also learned to cooperate remotely. This is just the new normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, our revenue grew threefold, but you know what? There\u2019s no doubt that our team is going to excel this result in 2021, because nothing can stop us after what we\u2019ve overpassed this year ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, our developers were swamped with work taking care of the HelpCrunch infrastructure. They\u2019ve acquired some new, more powerful servers and reinforced the entire system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, please allow us to brag a little bit about our main achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New features we delivered in 2020<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s so much more we want to do for you in 2021. But there are many features and improvements<\/a> that we\u2019ve already implemented for you, and we\u2019d love to wrap up this year by talking about them once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some of our much-loved highlights from the past year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WIDGET 3.0<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Our widget has changed a lot this year. Starting from the new interface update, it\u2019s been evolving and acquiring the new look and capabilities. It\u2019s something completely new if you ask me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, you can now add a knowledge base section to your widget, turn on the \u2018department\u2019 selector, customize other elements in any way you need, and much more. So, let\u2019s talk about this in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KNOWLEDGE BASE INTEGRATION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long gone are the days when people used a chat widget for chatting with businesses. This little window has completely changed to become the ultimate stop for getting any necessary information at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a knowledge base<\/a> section integrated into your chat widget, customers can quickly find relevant guides and how-tos without even talking to your support reps. All it takes to switch between two sections is one click.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Widget-with-KB\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MULTI-CONVERSATIONAL WIDGET (aka CHAT AS A TICKET)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before our huge interface update (we\u2019re going to talk A LOT about it later), each person could have an infinite conversation with your support team. Now, every closed conversation stays actually closed, and new requests will appear as separate conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This setting allows your team to distribute new chats and prioritize them more effectively. Different types of requests belong to different tickets, so why keep them in one thread?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, website visitors and clients can hide closed chats from a chat widget so that they don\u2019t distract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of your chats as tickets. Everybody is using messengers these days, and businesses should jump on this bandwagon, too. No more waiting for email replies for hours (if not days), all tickets are right here in the customer\u2019s account, available 24\/7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DEPARTMENTS SELECTOR<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have several departments in your HelpCrunch account (e.g. support, sales, marketing), it only makes sense to allow visitors to choose between them. Before starting a conversation, they can select from the available options in the dropdown menu. This way, the chat will be automatically assigned to the selected department, and your team can focus on relevant requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Department-selector-in-widget\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WIDGET REFACTORING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This still remains a work in progress, but the first phase of widget refactoring has been already implemented. What does it mean for your business? Well, your customers can notice faster load speed and smoother work already, and it\u2019s going to be even better after the next iterations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our goal for 2021 is to make the HelpCrunch widget as fast as possible, and we\u2019ve already completed the first steps in this direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Inbox section<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to believe that the Inbox update happened this year, but it did. And it\u2019s the biggest one ever. Basically, the section with all incoming chats is a single most important place in HelpCrunch. Our customers spend most of their time there managing requests and trying to keep everyone happy and satisfied. So their shared inbox should be powerful and fully-featured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our designers and developers have invested a lot of time into this update, getting their inspiration from all the most popular messengers. So, the support representatives should feel as if they\u2019re just using WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things like a convenient interface, shared and custom inboxes, statuses, assignees (both people and departments), user profiles are bound to align everyone\u2019s work and take efficiency to a whole new level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"HelpCrunch-old-interface-vs-new-interface\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CUSTOM INBOXES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of the default inboxes available to every team member, it\u2019s possible to create custom inboxes, both shared and private. The latter ones will only be visible to their creators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each custom inbox is based on the criteria that you choose for it. So, all new conversations are filtered by them and delivered to a suitable folder. This way, the sales reps, billing team, marketers, and any other departments can have their separate spaces filled with relevant chats only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better prioritization means less time wasted on routine tasks and more attention to each case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Custom-inbox-settings\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CHAT LIST SETTINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We brought even more flexibility into the Inbox section by adding the Chat List settings. Every team member can configure HelpCrunch to their tastes and needs. Just specify which attributes and information you want to see in your list of chats, and it will be visible near each new conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This helps to get all the important information about customers and their chats even before you open and read the chat history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHAT SNOOZING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can now snooze your chats and get back to them later once some new information or solution emerges. When a chat gets unsnoozed, it marks as unread. Basically, it works like a reminder so that you don\u2019t forget to follow up on unresolved issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowledge Base access control<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you want to have more control over your knowledge base visibility, it\u2019s now possible to restrict who can access your public knowledge base. As of today, there are two available options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n