Prepare HappyFox Help Desk to receive requests and help your team respond. Complete the essentials in order, then add automation and self-service features as needed. Each link opens a detailed setup guide.
How much effort does basic setup take?
Plan for about five minutes of hands-on setup to create your first support category, connect an existing support mailbox, and invite your agents. You'll need a HappyFox account and access to your mailbox settings before starting. Email authentication, security policies, and automation are additional setup tasks.
Before you start
- Sign in to the agent portal as the Account Administrator.
- For email setup, have access to your support mailbox and help from whoever manages your domain's DNS records.
Some features depend on your plan. Check the linked guide for availability.
Set up the essentials
- Add your account details. In Account Settings, set your company name and logo. Choose your default time zone and language before inviting agents.
- Organize incoming tickets. Go to Manage > Categories and create categories for the teams or departments handling requests, such as Support or Billing. Under Manage > Custom Fields, add ticket or contact fields only for information your team needs.
- Connect your support email. Go to Channels > Email and set up an email channel to turn incoming emails into tickets. Choose its category, configure mailbox forwarding, and run Test Forwarding. For outgoing emails using your domain, configure and verify SPF and DKIM, which help authenticate your emails.
- Review email notifications. Go to Manage > Notifications and choose which notifications agents and customers should receive. Check both the overall settings and the settings for each category.
- Invite your team. Review roles and permissions under Manage > Roles & Permissions. Then invite agents from Manage > Agents and associate them with the categories they will support. Ask agents to accept their invitations and review My Settings.
- Configure sign-in security. If your organization uses an identity provider, configure single sign-on (SSO) so agents can use their organization credentials. Review your password policy for agents using HappyFox passwords.
Add automation
Once the essentials work, choose the features that will help your team most:
- Canned Actions: Reuse common replies and ticket updates.
- Auto-assignment: Distribute tickets among agents automatically.
- Service level agreements (SLAs): Set time targets for ticket handling.
- Smart Rules: Automate actions when tickets meet your conditions.
Prepare your Support Center
If customers will submit requests or find answers online:
- Review your general settings and login and signup settings, including whether customers need to sign in.
- Create knowledge base sections and articles to answer common questions.
- Customize your Support Center branding and ticket submission form.
- Optionally, configure a custom domain and SSL to use your own support address with HTTPS.
Test before going live
- Send an email to your support address and confirm it creates a ticket in the correct category.
- Have an agent open the ticket and reply. Confirm the reply reaches the sender.
- If you configured automation, check that it behaves as expected.
- If you use the Support Center, submit a test request and confirm customers can access the intended articles.