Best Ticketing Software and Tools

Ticketing Management Software: A Buyer's Guide

Ticketing or ticket management software consists of tools enabling companies to resolve their internal IT support queries. The software will help you in managing and streamline the process of issue resolution.

Ticketing system software handles individual elements called tickets. The latter is raised when your employees encounter an event that interrupts their workflow management.

A ticket provides a context of the issue being faced by the requester. Moreover, it also provides data such as the category and priority of the issue.

Thus, tickets document a particular problem, its current status, and other information associated with the query.

Once you or employees raise a ticket, they are categorized, prioritized, and assigned to different agents as per the organizational norms. Your agents then analyze the tickets, suggest appropriate fixes, and resolve the issues.

A ticketing software also acts as a central repository of all these tickets. It even provides the issue history and how its resolution was done.

Benefits of Ticket Management System

While there are several benefits of a ticket management system, let us understand how it can benefit your organization.

1. Prioritization

   When you rely on email to solve customer queries, workers are likely to take orders as they come in. This means that a severe issue can go unresolved while a trivial problem will receive assistance on priority.

   Ticket management software will let you prioritize the important tasks so that workers get to fix the urgent issues first. You can even choose to design a ranking system where your queries can be sorted and arranged in priority order.

2. Efficiency

   Ticket management software will help your support team work more efficiently. This is because they need not go back and forth between inboxes, figuring out what to do next.

   You can even integrate your email with your ticketing system so that you can segregate emails appropriately. This will allow your team members to work at full capacity, meaning that more problems can be solved in a short period. It helps to manage good customer relationship management.

3. Collaboration

   Many issues require the expertise of more than one support person. A ticket management software allows technicians to collaborate with ease. In the absence of ticketing, software collaboration becomes difficult. Employees then have to access each other’s work email and then look for the exact issue.

   However, with ticket management software, your workers need not struggle for a prolonged period. This, in turn, results in less frustrated and happier customers, which in the long run benefits the business.

4. Tracking And Reporting Metrics

   A ticket management software comes with advanced tracking and reporting metrics. These tools provide information about each employee's work, the time it takes to resolve a problem, and whether customers have received adequate support. You can run a report on any ticket in the system and even specify a date range to run reports on a certain employee’s tickets.

5. Professionalism

   A ticket management software is more professional than email, and you can use it for advertising your campaigns. It will even help you build trust with customers and ensure that you can easily tackle their issues and help them.

   If you are a small business, you can use ticketing software to look bigger and more sophisticated. This way, you can gain an edge over bigger companies still dependent on the email method.

6. Transparency

   Ticketing allows you to view details that email systems don’t provide. It gives information about the businesses and departments that submit the most support requests, which helps allocate resources.

   A ticketing system also shows uncompleted tasks, the status of jobs, and which employees worked on a particular task. All of this information is helpful when it comes to providing customers with quality, efficient support.

   Ticketing systems allow you to view details that email systems can never provide. It provides you information about the departments and businesses that submit the most support requests.

7. Continuity

   The knowledge base in ticketing software enables support workers to solve the same problem with the same solutions. This provides continuity in service because all workers are on the same page regarding which solutions to try for a specific issue.

   Ticketing software also provides continuity when it comes to re-assigning tickets. It allows you to re-assign a ticket to a different worker if one worker leaves. The new worker can easily pick up where the old worker left off.

   They’ll see a detailed history of the problem and solutions the old worker already tried. It eliminates the need to dig through the old worker’s email account to find information.

Features of a Ticketing Software

Let us have a look at the features of ticket management software.

1. Multi-Channel Accessibility

   We stay in a hyperconnected society, and streamlining your customer support efforts across multiple platforms is more important than ever. A ticket management software offers you diverse contact channels. This means your customers can choose their preferred channel of communication.

   A ticketing system also helps you track and manage requests from multiple channels. Phone and email have emerged as the largest support channels, followed by live chat.

2. Support for Multiple Languages

   Mapping geographical boundaries are no longer a challenging job. As your organization grows in size and onboards offshore clients, you would need support for multiple languages. 

   Moreover, it is not just about understanding customers, it is about offering them an extraordinary experience. Speaking their languages is the primary step towards building a loyal relationship. 

   Today, most online ticketing software offers multilingual support. We agree that Google translate is just two clicks away, but users seek tools that go the extra mile.

   Well, all you need to do is invest in a ticket management system. Now, the only thing you should expect from your customers is to reach out.

3. Customization Capabilities

   As a brand, your priority is to deliver a smooth and customized experience for your customers. You surely don’t want your customers to feel like your business doesn’t put enough effort into the platform.

   Interestingly, a majority of ticketing software allows you to customize their interface. So, how will this benefit you in the long run?

   Well, you can start personalizing the software with a template. Doing so will save you a lot of time and effort. A ticketing software lets you customize the colors and style to fit your brand.

   Some of the platforms even offer customizable email templates. Not only does customization help you navigate better, but it also helps you make your workflow more efficient.

4. Workflow Automation

   Regardless of the industry, you work in, automation is a must. A ticketing software allows you to automate repetitive tasks and significantly reduce the time required to serve each user. You can even assign automation rules to assign new tasks.

   For instance, you can create tasks and use them to send alerts when tickets become overdue. Another way to achieve this creating a filter system based on keywords. The result- it helps eliminate delays between receiving a customer request and assigning an agent to solve the issue.

   At the same time, it will reduce the number of potential mistakes. Overall, workflow automation reduces agent demands and results in a better customer experience.

5. Personalized Ticket Pages

   Customers are unique, and so are their needs and demands. Moreover, customers expect businesses to know their preferences beforehand. This is especially true if they already contacted your support team in the past. The more you know about each customer, the better service you will be able to provide.

   To address customer issues effectively, ticket management software allows you to create ticket pages. Whenever a new query is created, agents will be able to access the user's entire history. A ticket page will give out issues that they had in the past and how they were handled.

   Some ticket management systems even offer a device data log feature. This tool collects information about the device, browser, and Internet service provider. It is useful for businesses whose service depends on the internet access of the customers. Moreover, it will help reduce the number of basic questions agents need to ask before assisting the customer.

   

6. Ticket Categories and Tags

   Categorizing and tagging your queries and list of issues can help you streamline your workflow and effectively address customer issues. So much happens when a query is created and till the time it is solved.

   Moving them around, searching for issues, merging them, and assigning them to different agents can be a tough job. The only way to keep track and organize your process is by labeling each ticket and proceed accordingly.

   A ticket management system will allow you to create categories and tags. Moreover, it will allow for advanced filtering by status, department, search by issue, and request type.

   Thus, a support ticket system will enable agents to understand each request's status and the steps that need to be taken.

7. Knowledge Base

   A knowledge base is the backbone of a strong customer support service. Offering quick answers through a searchable content base will result in happier customers and a lower number of support requests.

   A ticket management software allows you to create a knowledge base and make it accessible within the system. Moreover, some of the tools even provide ticket deflection capabilities.

   This can save your team a significant amount of time. With smart suggestion capabilities, your customers will no longer need to search for the relevant information when dealing with the most common issues and requests.

8. Team Empowerment

   A ticketing system provides you several tools to improve team communication. From basic ones to assigning tickets to groups or individuals to more advanced features such as adding internal notes, ticketing software does it all.

   Moreover, it allows your managers to track a team's individual and collective performance. You can also use it to create announcements that can easily be sent out to the whole team.

9. Reporting Tools

   Without key insights on your data, it gets difficult to track your progress and address your shortcomings. A ticket management software comes with reporting tools and advanced analytics to better understand employee and customer issues.

   Moreover, it will also help you analyze what customers are looking for and how your team performs as a whole.

Factors to Consider While Purchasing a Ticket Management Software

There are several factors you need to consider before buying ticket management software.

1. Tools for Collaboration

   Coordinating work among team members is an essential part of any help desk operation. One advantage of a ticketing system is the ability to share draft replies among team members.

   An effective ticketing system will help you review drafts, make changes and send messages within the same platform. Moreover, it will also provide tools to facilitate collaboration.

   It would be best if you looked for ticketing software that allows you to add comments on emails. This will help your service staff easily explain their issues to support representatives. Furthermore, an online ticketing system should reduce the need to switch between screens and software platforms.

2. Shared Inbox & Customization

   Most of the ticket management software comes with a shared inbox. However, it is essential to consider the amount of customization that is allowed. Moreover, your agents should be able to login into their dashboard, add custom filters, tags, and views, and access information in the way they desire.

   Another important aspect is that your chosen ticketing system software must allow the management of multiple teams and brands. This will provide your team the flexibility to support your additional customers as your business grows.

3. Privacy & Data Integrity

   The best ticketing systems offer advanced privacy settings so that administrators have complete control over access. Moreover, you should choose a ticketing software that allows you to create private inboxes. Furthermore, it must also help you protect sensitive data associated with customer requests or projects.

   You may also choose to invest in software that utilizes cloud storage. This is because a cloud-based ticketing system allows efficient backups of data and real-time access to the system anytime and anywhere.

4. Customer Portal

   One of the best ways you can build client trust is through a customer portal. It will give customers real-time access to a customized interface where they can create and review tickets directly. They will also be able to see the status of their support request. This means they would no longer need to email your support team to determine if their query is being addressed.

   When customers can see their past requests and solutions in one central location, they can use the customer portal as a knowledge source. Thus, they are less likely to ask the same questions again. Ticketing systems that include a customer portal are better equipped to serve as a real customer-facing support platform.

5. Simplicity and Reporting

   The real test of a ticket management system is its ability to streamline your processes. Ticketing systems often come with a shared inbox. This tool allows you to make assignments and view the status for any ticket without using external software.

   You should look for a tool that allows your team members and management to create and view reports with real-time performance metrics. A ticketing software that presents data clearly and provides essential information within a clean interface will be a great choice.

Latest Trends and Statistics of Ticket  Management Software

The global ticketing market size is expected to register a 14.9% CAGR from 2019 to 2026. Moreover, an increase in the adoption of smart ticket software by enterprises worldwide is expected to propel the market growth over the forecast period.

An increasing number of cashless transactions across the globe are expected to drive market growth. The rising popularity of blockchain in ticketing software is expected to fuel growth in the upcoming years.