Everything a small support team needs, in one queue.
Solves turns your shared support inbox into owned tickets, with private notes, SLA timers, saved replies and clear reports. It is built for small teams that answer support by email, and it is priced in team bands, so the colleague who helps on a busy day does not cost a full seat.
The short answer
A proper helpdesk for small support teams
A small support team needs five things from a helpdesk: clear ownership of every email, a private place to discuss a ticket, saved replies for the questions you answer every week, first-response and resolution SLA timers, and reports that show how the team is doing. Solves ships all five, works from one queue, and does not punish you for letting an occasional helper pitch in.
Most teams start on a shared inbox. It works for a while, then it does not: two people reply to the same customer, a message slips behind a newer one, and nobody can say how long the average reply is taking. The fix is not a heavyweight contact-centre suite with channels you will never staff. It is a focused email helpdesk that adds ownership, status and timing without adding noise.
Solves is that helpdesk. It keeps the thing your team already likes about email, the simple back-and-forth with a customer, and adds the accountability a team needs: one owner per ticket, a clear state, a priority, a full history, and private notes that can never leak to the customer. Everything below is shipped and working in the pilot, not a roadmap.
What your team gets
The day-to-day kit for support work
Owned tickets, one queue
Every email becomes a ticket with a single owner and a state: New, Open, Waiting for Customer, Snoozed, Resolved or Closed. No more two people answering the same message.
See the product tourPrivate notes and clean handover
Discuss a ticket internally with private notes that are hard-separated from public replies, so context stays in, and never reaches the customer by accident.
Public replies vs private notesSaved replies
Answer repeat questions consistently with saved replies, scoped to a brand or shared across the organisation, so the whole team replies in the same voice.
SLA timers
First-response and resolution timers, with per-brand or organisation targets, and a breaching view that flags tickets at risk before they slip.
How SLA timers workReports that matter
See open backlog, ageing, first response, resolution and created-versus-resolved, with brand filters, so you can manage the queue on facts, not gut feel.
See reportingRoles and helper-friendly pricing
Set role presets, brand access and ticket visibility per teammate, and add light collaborators on notes only. Team bands mean helpers do not cost a full seat.
See pricingHow a team gets going
From shared inbox to owned queue in three steps
Connect your support address
Run the guided, forwarding-first mailbox setup with plain-English DNS steps. Start by forwarding from your existing support@ inbox, so you move off the shared inbox without a risky cut-over.
Set owners, states and SLAs
Decide who can see and reply to what with role presets, then let tickets land in saved queue views: New, Unassigned, Waiting, Breaching SLA and more. First-response and resolution SLA timers start the moment a ticket arrives.
Work the queue and watch the reports
Your team picks up owned tickets, uses saved replies for repeat questions and private notes for context, and you watch backlog, first response and ageing in the reports to keep the queue healthy.
In practice
What changes for the team on day one
Take a three-person support team on a shared support@ inbox. Before Solves, the day starts with someone scrolling to work out what is new, what is already answered and what has been sitting for two days. Replies collide, a refund question waits behind a newsletter bounce, and when the manager asks how fast the team is replying, nobody can answer with a number.
Clear ownership ends the collisions
With Solves, each email is a ticket with one owner. The Unassigned view shows what needs picking up, the Waiting view hides what is parked on the customer, and the Breaching SLA view shows what is about to slip. Two agents cannot quietly answer the same ticket, and the composer warns if a reply has gone stale because someone else moved the conversation on first.
Private notes keep context in, not out
When a ticket needs a second opinion, the team talks it through in private notes, hard-separated from the customer reply, so the working-out never lands in the customer's inbox. A light collaborator from another team can be added on notes only, lending knowledge without the risk of sending a customer-facing reply.
Saved replies and SLAs make the work repeatable
The questions that come up every week, where is my order, how do I reset this, what is your returns policy, get answered from saved replies in the same voice every time. First-response and resolution SLA timers track each ticket against its target, so the team can promise a response time and the manager finally has real first-response and resolution figures to act on.
A note on around-the-clock cover
Support teams are often asked about 24/7 cover: replies at any hour, every day. Solves is email-first, so it does not run phone lines or live chat shifts you would need to staff overnight. What it gives a small team is a queue that never loses a message, first-response and resolution SLA timers, and a clear breaching view, so you can promise dependable response times honestly rather than pretend to staff a contact centre around the clock.
Honest comparison
Solves vs staying on a shared inbox
Where a focused email helpdesk helps a small support team, and where Solves deliberately stops.
| Solves | Shared inbox | |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership of each email | One assignee per ticket | Everyone sees it, nobody owns it |
| Internal discussion | Private notes, hard-separated from the reply | Forwarded emails or a side chat |
| Response-time tracking | First-response and resolution SLA timers | None |
| Reporting | Backlog, ageing, first response, resolution | None |
| Cost of occasional helpers | GBP team bands, no per-seat penalty | Free, but with no accountability |
| Phone, live chat and social | Not included, by design | Not included |
Competitor facts last verified 13 June 2026. Re-check the vendor's current plans before deciding.
Solves does not claim to be a full contact-centre suite. If you need phone, live chat, social channels or AI-drafted replies, a broader platform is the better fit. For email support done properly, this is built for you.
Email-first, on purpose
Solves handles support email: tickets, ownership, notes, SLAs, saved replies, reporting and multi-brand. It does not do live chat, phone, social or AI drafting. That focus is why a small team can run dependable support without drowning in channels they cannot staff.
FAQ
Questions support teams ask
What does a customer support team need from a helpdesk?
At a minimum a support team needs to turn a shared inbox into owned tickets, so every message has one clear owner and nothing is answered twice or missed. On top of that it needs private notes for context, saved replies for repeat questions, SLA timers so response times are tracked, and reports that show backlog and response speed. Solves ships all of these and works from one queue, so a small team can run support properly without a contact-centre suite.
How is Solves different from a shared inbox like support@?
A shared inbox shows the same messages to everyone with no owner, no status and no record of who is handling what, so two people reply to the same email or each assumes the other has it. Solves gives every email an owner, a state, a priority and a history, with private notes kept hard-separated from the customer. You keep the simplicity of email and add the accountability a team needs.
Will adding occasional helpers cost a full seat each?
No. Solves is sold in GBP team bands, not per agent per month, so the colleague who picks up overflow on a busy Monday or covers a holiday does not cost a full licence. You size the plan to your team band and let helpers help. Light collaborators can be limited to private notes only, so they add context without sending customer replies.
Can two agents reply to the same ticket at once?
Solves prevents the common collision in two ways: a ticket has a single assignee, and the reply composer warns when someone else has already moved the conversation on, so you do not send a reply that has gone stale. Private notes let the team discuss a ticket without anything reaching the customer, and notes are kept hard-separated from public replies.
Does Solves track response times?
Yes. First-response and resolution SLA timers measure each ticket against per-brand or organisation targets set in minutes, so you can promise a response time and see how you are doing against it. A breaching view surfaces tickets at risk before they tip over, and ageing shows how long work has been open.
Does Solves do live chat, phone or AI replies?
No. Solves is email-first by design. It handles support email: tickets, ownership, notes, SLAs, saved replies, reporting and multi-brand. It does not run live chat, phone lines, social inboxes or AI-drafted replies. That focus is what lets a small team run dependable support without being stretched across channels they cannot staff.
Give your support team an owned queue
Start at £29 on the paid Starter, or join the early-adopter pilot for hands-on setup help and guided saved-reply migration.