Are you in customer service or IT? If so, you should probably be using a ticketing system to gather, manage, and resolve issues from employees and customers. Though nearly unheard of a couple of decades ago, these platforms have risen to universal prominence.
What is it that makes them so beneficial?
What Is a Ticketing System?
Commonly found in IT help desk software platforms and similar apps, a ticketing system is a recordkeeping and management system for coordinating, communicating, and resolving issues.
It usually works something like this:
A customer or end user encounters an issue or has a question. They raise this issue or question with a service team via a ticketing app, thus creating a new ticket. On the back end, this ticket is reviewed and assigned to a service agent, who is then in charge of dealing with it. They may choose to communicate with the customer on this ticket thread, use the ticket to research the issue, and venture out on their own to find a resolution.
When the ticket is resolved successfully, the service agent can insert any additional notes they feel are relevant and close the ticket. Over time, analysts and managers can track ticket creation, management, and closure processes in aggregate, using these data better to understand the team’s core strengths and weaknesses.
The Benefits of Ticketing Systems
Why are ticketing systems so useful?
1. Centralization. For starters, ticketing systems serve as a centralized information center. Employees and service agents can get all the data they need to resolve issues and perform their jobs responsibly in one location. Additionally, managers and supervisors can review tickets in progress, analyze ticket closure rates, and more.
2. Transparency. Many companies appreciate the transparency afforded by ticketing systems. Customer service agents aren’t operating in the dark; their superiors can review their work anytime and make recommendations or intervene whenever necessary. If there are issues with customer service delivery, authoritative parties can take action.
3. Automation. Automation is one of the most reliable ways to save time and money in an organization. Fortunately, most modern ticketing systems come with at least some automation features. That could include creating tickets from scratch, calling up canned responses when appropriate, practicing automated task assignments, and more.
4. Tracking. If there’s a question on a ticket’s status, users can track it. If a customer follows up on a previous inquiry, you can fetch information about it and give them a progress report. You can also track ticket management from a high level, identifying potential weak points and improving them to provide better customer service.
5. Individual accountability. Customer service agents usually function as a team, but they’re individually responsible for specific tickets. In this type of ticketing platform, it’s easy to assign tasks and tickets to individuals. This leads to higher individual accountability, ultimately increasing employee engagement and providing consistent results.
6. User experience. Using a ticketing system is much easier for employees than manually tackling customer service jobs. Instead of constantly answering the phone or dealing with a messy inbox, agents get access to all the information and resources they need in one place with a consistent record of communication and service events. User experience is even better on ticketing apps designed with usability; streamlined designs and intuitive features make these platforms ridiculously easy to pick up, even if you’ve never used a ticketing system.
7. Streamlined responses. Canned responses and other similar features can streamline customer service responses. If you aren’t familiar with it, canned responses are prewritten responses designed to handle some of the most common inquiries you receive. Instead of typing the same thing over and over all day, agents can tap into the power of this semi-automated feature.
8. Prioritization. Some problems are more important than others. A major client experiencing a platform-breaking bug is more important than a free trial user who encountered a minor hiccup. Ticketing systems are beneficial because they allow you to prioritize tickets based on their importance and urgency.
9. Reporting. In-depth reporting can help you track your milestones and goals – and communicate your progress to other stakeholders.
10. Customizability. If you find the right ticketing app, you can also access significant customizability and flexibility. You can integrate the ticketing platform with other platforms used by your organization or add or modify features at your discretion.
Ticketing systems have come a long way, with modern apps and platforms having far more features and better functionality than ever before. But the core premise of the ticketing system has remained the same for many years and will likely remain similar indefinitely. The benefits are just too powerful for companies to pass up.
