Industry
Web Design & Digital ServicesCompany
Cotswold Web is a design studio providing web design and PPC services in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, supporting over 400 demanding customers across 4 countries.
Location
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK
Key Features
- 600 tickets solved per month
- 98% customer satisfaction level
- 400+ customers supported across 4 countries
Cotswold Web is a design studio based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, that has built a reputation for delivering exceptional web design and PPC services. The company supports over 400 demanding customers across 4 countries with a lean team of just 6 agents. Their success story demonstrates how the right help desk solution can scale to meet complex business needs while maintaining exceptional customer satisfaction.
The Challenge: Supporting Complex Customer Needs
Supporting a web design company presents unique challenges compared to e-commerce or other business models. Clients require knowledgeable, considered responses to complex and difficult questions. As Cotswold Web’s founder Richard Jaques explained: ‘I think the ability to reply to complex and difficult questions with knowledgeable / considered responses" is what sets their support apart.
With a growing customer base spanning multiple countries, Cotswold Web needed a help desk solution that could handle the complexity of their support operations while remaining cost-effective and easy to use.
The Migration: From HelpScout to LiveAgent
Cotswold Web had previously used HelpScout as their help desk solution, but they recognized the need for a more flexible and cost-effective platform. After evaluating several options, they chose to migrate to LiveAgent.
"We have much more flexibility at way lower costs. A win / win!" – Richard Jaques, Founder @ Cotswold Web
The decision to switch was driven by several key factors:
- Software maturity - LiveAgent demonstrated a level of maturity that competitors couldn’t match
- Software depth - The platform offered comprehensive features for their specific needs
- Ease of use - Despite its powerful capabilities, LiveAgent remained intuitive and straightforward
- Cost - Significantly more affordable than alternatives like Zendesk, Teamwork Desk, and Freshdesk
Why LiveAgent Stood Out
When evaluating help desk solutions, Cotswold Web conducted thorough testing across multiple platforms including Help Scout, Zendesk, Teamwork Desk, and Freshdesk. They found that LiveAgent offered unique advantages:
"Having live chat as well as ticketing in one product is excellent, also the ease of set up was matched with an excellent level of configuration options. Normally these 2 things do not go hand in hand, I think the level of maturity of LiveAgent is impressive." – Richard Jaques
The combination of live chat and ticketing in a single platform, coupled with powerful configuration options, made LiveAgent the clear choice. The platform’s flexibility allowed Cotswold Web to customize their support workflow without sacrificing ease of use.
Favorite Features and Implementation
Cotswold Web quickly discovered features within LiveAgent that became essential to their daily operations:
Templates - The ability to create templates easily streamlined responses to common inquiries, saving time and ensuring consistency.
Department-based Access Control - As a manager, Richard appreciated the ability to easily restrict access depending on department, ensuring proper organization and security.
Gamification - The team embraced LiveAgent’s gamification features, competing to earn badges like ‘Inspector." This fun element helped maintain team motivation and engagement.
"We love the ability to create templates so easily. Also, as a manager, it is very useful to easily restrict access depending on department. We do use the 'gamification", competing to get badges for 'Inspector' etc. Fun stuff :)' – Richard Jaques
Transforming Support into Sales
One of the most significant advantages Cotswold Web discovered was LiveAgent’s ability to serve both support and sales functions seamlessly.
'YES – tickets do not look like tickets in LiveAgent. Responses look like normal emails and for us this is very important as LiveAgent can be used for sales and support." – Richard Jaques
This flexibility meant that support interactions could naturally transition into sales conversations, and vice versa, without the artificial boundaries that many help desk systems impose.
Impressive Results
Since implementing LiveAgent, Cotswold Web has achieved remarkable results:
- Nearly 600 tickets solved per month - Despite the complexity of web design support, the team efficiently manages a high volume of inquiries
- 98% customer satisfaction level - Quality remains paramount, with customer satisfaction consistently exceeding 98%
- 400+ customers supported across 4 countries - The lean team of 6 agents successfully manages a large, geographically dispersed customer base
Team Feedback
The support team’s verdict on LiveAgent was unanimous and enthusiastic:
'That this is the best ticketing and chat system we have used." – Cotswold Web Support Team
The Decision-Making Process
When asked about their decision to choose LiveAgent, Richard shared an interesting insight:
"We saw a large supplier using LiveAgent and thought if they are using it then it must be good. We started trialling the software and found it to be a very mature product compared to others we have used. Hugely impressed and the cost made it a complete deal."
This observation highlights how LiveAgent’s reputation and proven track record with established businesses influenced Cotswold Web’s decision.
Why Cotswold Web Chose LiveAgent Over Competitors
In their comprehensive evaluation, Cotswold Web tested multiple solutions at varying levels, from trial periods to over 6 months of full team usage. Their comparison included:
- Help Scout
- Zendesk
- Teamwork Desk
- Freshdesk
While acknowledging that all these platforms have merit, Cotswold Web found that none came close to LiveAgent for the following reasons:
- Software maturity - LiveAgent’s platform demonstrated superior development and stability
- Software depth - Comprehensive feature set addressing all their needs
- Ease of use - Intuitive interface that required minimal training
- Cost - Most affordable option without compromising on features
Conclusion
Cotswold Web’s success story demonstrates that LiveAgent is truly universal—capable of scaling to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes and types. Whether you’re a web design studio supporting complex client needs or any other type of business, LiveAgent provides the flexibility, maturity, and cost-effectiveness needed to deliver exceptional customer support.
The combination of powerful features, ease of use, and affordable pricing makes LiveAgent the ideal choice for businesses looking to improve their customer support operations while maintaining profitability.
