What are ticketing systems?
Ticketing systems are software applications used to track, organize, and manage requests or issues from customers, clients, or internal team members. They provide a centralized repository to log, prioritize, assign, and monitor all inquiries in one place. Ticketing systems are essential for any organization that needs to field a high volume of customer requests, resolve technical issues or bugs, streamline operations, and improve service desk efficiency.
Some key features of ticketing systems include:
- Ticket creation – Customers or team members can open a new ticket to report an issue or make a request.
- Ticket assignment – New tickets can be assigned to specific teams or individuals responsible for resolution.
- Ticket tracking – All details related to a ticket such as status, priority, assignee, time spent, and communication are logged within the ticket record.
- Ticket categorization – Tickets can have categories, types, and subtypes to segment different kinds of issues or requests.
- Ticket escalation – Unresolved or high priority tickets can be automatically escalated to ensure they get prompt attention.
- Reporting and analytics – Ticket data can be analyzed to identify trends, measure performance, and improve service processes.
- Notifications and reminders – Email alerts keep customers and teams updated on ticket changes and reminders prompt follow-up.
- Customization – Fields, views, rules, and workflows can be customized to match business processes.
With these capabilities, ticketing systems enable organizations to deliver more efficient and streamlined support across customer service, IT, HR, facilities, finance, and other departments.
Benefits of using a ticketing system
There are many important benefits that ticketing systems offer organizations:
Improved customer service
Ticketing systems standardize customer support processes for faster, more consistent issue resolution. Features like SLAs, reminders, and escalation rules ensure no customer inquiry goes unanswered. With all customer interactions tracked in one place, agents have the full context to deliver personalized service. Customer satisfaction is improved when issues are handled promptly and efficiently.
Increased visibility
Detailed reporting provides visibility into ticket volumes, types, response times, resolution rates, and more. Trends can be identified and performance benchmarks established. Management has an overview of workloads and service levels across departments. Teams can use insights to identify problem areas, capacity gaps, and opportunities to improve operations.
Enhanced internal collaboration
With a centralized ticketing system, different departments have transparency into the requests coming in and how they are being handled. Teams can easily communicate and collaborate on tickets to resolve issues faster. Organizational silos are broken down.
Greater accountability
All activity and communication on tickets is logged and auditable. With a clear record of who was assigned, when SLA deadlines are reached, and what steps were taken, it’s easier to hold teams and agents accountable. Performance issues can be identified and addressed.
Seamless omnichannel support
Customers can submit tickets through multiple channels like email, portal, phone, chat, and social media. As long as tickets are logged in the system, a continuous support experience is maintained across channels. Context isn’t lost when issues need to be transferred or escalated.
Enhanced productivity
With standardized procedures, task automation, and well-defined workflows, ticketing systems allow customer service teams to work more efficiently. Less manual work and fewer redundancies boost productivity. Support staff can handle higher volumes without adding headcount.
Improved compliance
Ticketing systems make it easier to comply with regulations and security policies around request tracking and audit trails. Customer data is securely stored and changes are logged. Ticket histories provide documentation of support interactions for reporting needs.
Challenges of relying on email and spreadsheets
Many organizations initially start out tracking customer issues and internal requests through makeshift methods like email chains and spreadsheets. However, these tools tend to break down as inquiry volumes increase:
Limited visibility
Emails get buried and spreadsheets become unwieldy. There’s no easy way to get visibility into the volume of requests, types of issues, response times, unresolved items, and service levels.
No ownership
With emails flying back and forth and multiple versions of spreadsheets floating around, there is confusion and lack of clarity on who owns what issues and requests. Things can slip through the cracks.
Manual processes
Every step of the process from request capture to routing, follow-ups, reporting, and notifications requires manual work in emails and spreadsheets. This is inefficient, duplicative, and prone to human error.
Data silos
Information related to requests gets scattered across disconnected tools and systems. Important context gets lost, leading to delays and repetitive communication whenever issues need to be escalated or transferred.
Lack of audit trail
It’s impossible to track the history and maintain documentation without a centralized place to store interactions. This makes it difficult to resolve disputes or comply with reporting obligations.
Security risks
Sensitive customer data may get mishandled when relying on disparate tools like emails and spreadsheets. There are few controls around data access, sharing, and retention without proper systems.
Limited collaboration
Cross-team communication on shared issues is difficult across disconnected systems. This leads to duplication of efforts and lengthy resolution times.
No scalability
Volume caps out quickly. As requests increase in scale and complexity, email and spreadsheets become highly unwieldy. Support teams ultimately become overwhelmed.
Key criteria when evaluating ticketing systems
With many ticketing system solutions available, it’s important to assess your key needs and priorities before selecting a platform. Some key criteria to evaluate include:
Deployment method
SaaS systems have quicker deployment while on-premise options allow for customization and integration capabilities. Cloud-based systems should offer high uptime and reliability.
Scope of use cases
Determine what types of requests you need to track – customer service, IT, facilities, HR, projects etc. See if the tool covers your required use cases out-of-the-box or through configurations.
Ticket management workflows
Assess the ticket routing rules, SLAs, reminders, escalations, and reporting available. Do the workflows align with your processes? How much customization is possible?
End user interface
The portal for customers and other end users to submit and track tickets should be intuitive and self-serve. Review any usability limitations.
Agent interface
The UI for support agents should allow for efficient ticket management and resolution. Look for key features like canned responses, macros, and custom views.
Reporting and analytics
Evaluate the reporting functionality around ticket statistics, trends, and service performance. See if you can create custom reports. Also check for dashboards and alert capabilities.
Integration and API capabilities
Consider what other systems like CRM, ITSM, email, and communication platforms you need to integrate with. Availability of APIs and pre-built integrations add convenience.
Security
Cloud-based systems should offer enterprise-grade security, access controls, and encryption. On-premise systems need IT oversight for security hardening and patching.
Mobility
See if native mobile apps are available to help teams manage tickets on-the-go. Mobile functionality improves responsiveness.
Pricing model
Evaluate both subscription costs and any additional fees for users, storage, or features. See if volume tiering discounts apply. Calculate total cost of ownership.
Support and community
Look for responsive customer support and an active user community for documentation, resources, and peer troubleshooting.
By carefully evaluating your needs against solution capabilities, you can determine the ideal ticketing platform for streamlining request management across your organization.
Best practices for implementing ticketing systems
Follow these best practices when rolling out a new ticketing system to ensure smooth adoption:
Get executive buy-in
Gain stakeholder alignment on goals, metrics, and timelines for the ticketing system initiative. Leadership support will drive commitment across teams.
Form a cross-functional team
Involve key members from service, support and IT teams in the vendor selection, data migration, and implementation process. Leverage their insider knowledge.
Clean up existing data
Consolidate customer information from emails and spreadsheets into an organized data source before importing into the new system. This yields higher data quality.
Map and optimize processes
Analyze current workflows for gaps and bottlenecks. Redesign processes for efficiency before configuring them in the system.
Pilot with smaller team
Test and refine processes on a smaller scale first. Then roll out to wider groups in phases. Starting small allows for corrections before full deployment.
Get user feedback
Incorporate feedback from pilot users into the full rollout plan. Feedback loops improve user adoption and experience. Address training gaps.
Provide user training
Offer both live and self-help training resources to users at all levels. Good training dramatically accelerates user adoption. Factor follow-up change management.
Start with must-have features
Resist overcustomization out of the gates. Start with core workflows and add enhancements over time. Stick to must-have functionality.
Monitor and iterate
Measure usage, satisfaction, and performance metrics. Use insights to continuously refine and enhance system configuration, workflows, and features.
With careful planning and change management, organizations can successfully rollout ticketing systems that maximize ROI, user adoption, and business impact.
Top ticketing system software
Here is a look at some of the top platforms:
Zendesk
Zendesk is a popular cloud-based customer service and support ticketing system used by companies like Airbnb, Box, and HubSpot. Key features include:
- Omnichannel request intake from email, chat, social, and phone
- Custom views and workflows for ticket management
- SLAs, reminders, escalations
- Reporting and analytics
- Integration APIs and 250+ app integrations
Zendesk starts at $5/agent/month on the Essential plan.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a cloud-based support desk and ticketing system with customers like Honda, Bridgestone, and Cisco. Key capabilities include:
- Email, chat, and self-service support channels
- Ticket routing, assignment, collaboration
- Automation for rules and workflows
- Suite of built-in ITIL and DevOps management tools
- Customizable dashboards and reporting
Freshdesk starts at $15/agent/month for the Blossom plan.
Jira Service Management
Jira Service Management combines IT service desk capabilities with Jira’s popular project tracking tools. Key highlights:
- ITIL support workflows out-of-the-box
- Native Jira integration
- Advanced customization with Jira configurations
- Scalability to handle high ticket volumes
- Strong integration ecosystem
Jira Service Management pricing is $7/user/month starting.
HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub is part of HubSpot’s all-in-one CRM platform. Main features include:
- Email and portal for ticket intake
- Ticket assignment, routing, and collaboration
- SLAs and automation
- Reporting and analytics
- Integrated knowledge base and chat
HubSpot Service Hub starts at $50/user/month.
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud combines case management, knowledge base, and omnichannel communication capabilities. Key features:
- Email, chat, call center support
- Queues, assignment rules, escalations
- Automation tools
- Custom objects, fields, and apps
- Analytics and Einstein AI
Price starts at $25/user/month.
Conclusion
Ticketing systems have become a necessity for organizations to efficiently track, manage, and resolve all types of requests from customers, clients and internal teams. Their benefits are wide-ranging – from improving customer service to enhancing productivity and collaboration to providing visibility into operations. Platforms like Zendesk, Freshdesk, Jira, HubSpot, and Salesforce offer robust features for request intake, ticket workflows, reporting, automation, and omnichannel support. For optimal results, take time to evaluate capabilities against your needs and follow best practices for rollout. With the right ticketing solution, organizations can streamline support operations and delight customers.