Alongrail Desk · for software companies, and any business whose customers or partners use its dashboard
Fewer “how do I…?” questions reach your team.
Desk gives each task in your product a help article your customers can read, and a guided session they can follow on their own screen.
You do a task once in your product, and Desk writes the help article, with a screenshot of every step. Or you start from a help article you already have. Then you turn it into a link for your help centre, support replies or onboarding emails. A customer who opens the link shares their screen, and Desk shows them one step at a time until the task is done, at any hour. They do every click themselves.
Free for 14 days: 10 guided sessions and 2 help articles, no card. Nothing to install.
Both videos use a made-up company, so you can see Desk at work without anyone’s real data.
On a phone?
Signing up, uploading your help documents and reviewing what Desk makes from them all work here. The guided session shares a screen, so it needs Chrome or Edge on a computer.
Start here with your email. Your desk is kept under that address, so it is waiting when you sign in with it on your computer.
You’ve explained it already. They still ask.
Your help articles already explain how to invite a teammate, import data or change billing details. The questions still come.
Sometimes the customer is looking at a different screen from the one in your help article, because of their plan, their permissions or a change in your product. Sometimes there’s no help article yet, because a good one, with a screenshot of every step, takes an afternoon nobody has. And some questions only end with a call that begins “Can you share your screen?”
It’s tiring to explain the same task again and again. Meanwhile a customer waits, and some stop trying. And nobody should have to wait for a call just to find a button.
What changes for your team
- Fewer “how do I…?” questions reach your team. Many are answered by a help article before they’re asked, and many that still come are taken care of by a guided session.
- Help articles in about the time it takes to do the task once. No afternoon of screenshots, cropping and covering.
- Anyone who knows the task can write the help article. They do it once in your product, and Desk does the writing and the screenshots.
- A help centre that keeps up with your product. When your product changes, you refresh a help article, and Desk lists what changed.
- Fewer screen-share calls. The customer is shown each step on their own screen, without waiting for someone to join a call.
- Help at any hour. At night, at weekends and in other time zones, with nobody from your team there.
Two ways to explain every task
Help articles
Please do the task once in your own product, and press Capture step at the start of each step. Desk writes the help article: the instruction for each step, a screenshot of every step with the place to click highlighted, a title and a short introduction.
You can change any words, cover anything private, and download it as one HTML file, a PDF or a zip, or copy it as HTML or Markdown, ready for your help centre. If a help article you already have has fallen behind your product, Desk can refresh it and list what changed.
Guided sessions
Please give Desk a help article: one written with Desk, or one you already have as a document, a PDF or pasted text. Desk prepares the steps, you try them on your own product, and you publish.
You get a link. A customer who opens it shares their screen, and Desk shows them one step at a time, checking their screen after each, until the task is done. They do every click. Each guided session leaves a written record of where the customer went and where they stopped.
One task: read it, or follow it
The two parts work together. Once the workflow made from a help article is published, every download of that help article carries a Walk me through it button.
A customer who likes to read can read. A customer who gets lost can press the button and be shown each step on their own screen. Desk also gives you a ready reply with the link in it, to paste into your help desk.
How to start
- Show Desk the task. You do it once in your product, or give Desk a help article you already have.
- Check it, and publish. You can change any words, and try the guided session on your own product. Nothing is live until you publish.
- Share it. The help article goes in your help centre, and the link wherever customers ask for help: in the help article itself, a support reply, an onboarding email, or your product.
Your customers stay in control
Sharing a screen can feel like a big step. Here is exactly what happens.
- Desk never clicks or types. Your customer does every action in their own account.
- They choose what to share. One tab, one window or the whole screen, and they can stop at any time.
- No picture of their screen is kept. The session record is in words.
- No account and nothing to install. Chrome or Edge on a computer.
- When your team writes a help article, a picture is taken only when someone presses a capture button. There is no recording.
Pricing: 1 for each guided session or help article
Start with a free trial: 14 days, 10 guided sessions and 2 help articles, and one workflow published at a time (a workflow is the steps Desk guides a customer through, with its link), no card.
After that, you can buy a pack when you need one: 100 for $99, or 500 for $399, plus tax. Each guided session or each help article uses 1 from the same balance. Packs never expire, and nothing renews. There are no seats, so your whole team can use Desk, and a quiet month costs nothing. Each guided session costs less than a dollar, with nobody from your team on a call.
Questions
Does Desk click anything for my customers?
No. Desk has no way to click or type. Your customer does every action in their own account.
Is my customer’s screen recorded or kept?
No picture of their screen is kept. Each guided session leaves a record in words: what they typed, each instruction and each screen check. Security has the details.
What does my customer need?
Chrome or Edge on a computer, and your link. No account, and nothing to install.
Where do customers find the link?
Wherever you put it: in the help article (as the Walk me through it button), in a support reply, in an onboarding email, or in your product.
Does it work with our help desk?
There’s no direct connection to Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk or other help desks yet. You download a help article or copy its text into your help desk, and paste the link wherever you like. Desk gives you a ready reply with the link to paste.
What counts?
Each guided session or each help article uses 1. Editing, downloads and undo are free, and so are your own rehearsals. Pricing has the details.
Please try it with the task your customers ask about most
Please pick the task your customers ask about most. Then write its help article, or upload the one you have, and try the guided session on your own product.
Free for 14 days: 10 guided sessions and 2 help articles, no card. Nothing to install.