What is a ticketing system: Definition, examples & features

Have you ever thought about how customer support agents stay organized when they are flooded with countless amounts of customer inquiries? How do they manage to respond promptly and keep track of every customer issue?

Based on our research, the average ticketing system receives around 578 tickets per day from different communication channels. And without the right tools, it can be difficult to offer assistance in a timely manner. Parature’s report shows that 42% of support agents struggle to resolve issues due to outdated systems, leading to employee and customer frustration. All this can be prevented by choosing the right ticketing tool.

Let’s delve into the nature of ticketing systems, their significance for businesses, and their role in streamlining customer support. Through real-world examples from various industries, we’ll illustrate how these systems enhance daily operations, employee productivity, and customer service processes.

What is a support ticket?

A support ticket is a key element of a ticketing system that serves as a communication channel between a customer and a support team. When a customer contacts a company with an issue or question, they submit a support ticket. This support ticket contains details about their inquiry, including a description of their problem, contact information, or any relevant attachments.

Customer support ticket acts as a documentation tool that allows support teams to track, prioritize, and resolve customer issues effectively.

For example, let’s say a customer encounters a technical issue while using your application and contacts you through the live chat on your website, providing their contact information and a brief problem description. In this process, a ticket is automatically generated and enters the ticketing system. Your support team can then access, assign, and work on resolving the ticket, marking it as closed once the issue is resolved.

What is ticket status?

Ticket status refers to the current stage of a support ticket. It provides visibility into where a ticket stands in the support process and helps customer service agents effectively prioritize and manage their workload.

Ticket statuses can vary depending on the specific ticketing system, but common status labels include “Open“, “In Progress“, “Resolved”, and “Closed.” Each status reflects the current stage of the support journey for a particular ticket.

Keeping the status of each ticket updated is crucial for several reasons:

• Clear communication: Status updates provide transparency between customer service team and customers. Thanks to the status, everyone can see the progress of the issue.
• Prioritization and resource allocation: By having an accurate view of ticket statuses, support agents can prioritize urgent issues, allocate resources appropriately, and ensure that high-priority tickets receive prompt attention – maintaining customer satisfaction and service level agreements.
• Workflow efficiency: Different status categories allow agents to streamline their workflow. For example, tickets marked as “On Hold” may signify that they require additional information from the customer. Categorizing tickets accordingly allows support agents to focus on active tickets that require immediate action.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Ticket statuses provide valuable insights for analyzing customer service performance. Managers can track metrics like average resolution time, ticket volume at each status, or customer satisfaction based on ticket resolution. This advanced analytics help identify areas that need improvement in the support process.

How ticketing systems work

Ticketing tools for customer service can be really useful because they help each staff member to be more organized and efficient. The managing system also has an impact on costs, sales, revenue, customer satisfaction and it is a great time-saver.

Ticketing systems enhance efficiency by centralizing ticket management and automating routine tasks, such as ticket assignment and replies. They categorize and prioritize customer tickets, and integrate with comprehensive knowledge bases for quick solution access. These systems facilitate collaboration using internal tools and provide comprehensive reporting and analytics.

It works by centralizing and automating the process of managing and resolving customer inquiries. Let’s take a closer look at the steps involved in how a ticketing system operates:

Step 1: Ticket creation

The process begins when a customer submits a support request. This can usually be done through various channels like email, live chat, social media platform, or contact form, where the customer provides information about their issue, such as a detailed description, contact details, and any relevant attachments.

Step 2: Ticket routing

Once a ticket is created, the ticketing system automatically assigns it to a support agent or a designated department based on predefined rules. This ensures that the ticket is always directed to the most appropriate person with the relevant expertise to handle the particular issue.

Step 3: Ticket prioritization

Support agents can also prioritize incoming tickets based on predefined criteria. Urgent or high-priority issues can be marked, allowing agents to address them promptly and ensure timely resolution.

Step 4: Collaboration

Support teams often need to internally collaborate to resolve more complicated issues and complex tasks. Robust ticketing solutions enable agents to communicate with each other, share their insights, and work together on finding efficient resolutions. LiveAgent’s simple ticketing system also alerts you whenever you’re about to start answering a ticket that another agent is working on.

Step 5: Ticket escalation

In cases where a ticket requires escalation to a higher level of support, one of the significant ticketing features allows seamless handoffs. This ensures that the complex issues receive the expertise required to reach a faster resolution.

Step 6: Resolution and closure

Once the support agent has successfully resolved the customer’s issue, they update the ticket status to “Closed”. The ticketing system keeps a record of the resolution for future reference.

What are the basic features of the ticketing system?

Good ticketing systems come equipped with several basic features that enhance customer support processes and empower support teams. Here are some of the key features to look for:

• Ticket management: The system should provide a centralized platform for managing customer queries, where agents can create, assign, and track tickets throughout their lifecycle. Agents should also be able to easily access customer information, conversation history, and any relevant attachments associated with the ticket.
  • Example: When a customer submits a ticket regarding a billing issue, the ticketing system captures all the customer details and assigns the ticket to a support agent. The agent can then view the customer’s previous interactions, such as previous tickets, enabling them to provide personalized assistance.

• Ticket status tracking: Reliable ticketing systems should offer various status options to track the progress of each customer ticket. It helps prioritize tickets based on urgency, ensures clear communication with customers, and provides transparency into the resolution process.
  • Example: A ticket with the status “Postponed” can indicate that the support agent is awaiting additional information from the customer before proceeding further with the resolution.

• Ticket assignment and routing: Automated ticket assignment is based on predefined rules and is used to make sure that each ticket is routed to the most suitable agent or department, improving efficiency and reducing agent response times.
  • Example: Ticketing system can automatically assign technical issues or questions to a specialized technical support team, while general inquiries are directed to a customer service team.

• Internal tickets: These tickets are a part of many ticketing tools, allowing agents to submit internal tickets when they face problems, and get help from other agents. Internal queries are only visible to your agents and cannot be viewed by any customers. By utilizing them, you can enhance collaboration, communication between agents, and productivity within the organization.

• Internal notes: Internal notes are a feature typically added to ticket threads to convey additional information about a certain ticket or customer. They can also be used as to-do lists or reminders.

• Canned messages (Macros): Canned messages, also known as macros, are short predetermined responses, written in advance to help agents answer to customers in a single click. They’re typically used to answer frequently asked questions, save time and provide accurate resolutions.

• Predefined answers: Predefined answers serve a similar purpose as canned messages. However, predefined messages can be much longer and you can also add attachments to them, which is not possible in canned responses.

• Service level agreements (SLAs): They represent a contract between a service provider and customer that defines what level of service has to be provided at all times. They typically cover the quality of service that is expected, how quickly the issue needs to be addressed, and responsibilities of the provider. Service level agreements can also define internal business goals and metrics that need to be met.
  • Example: A service level agreement could state that the software provider has to answer the customer’s queries within 1 business hour. If it’s not met, the customer has the right for compensation.

4 Real-life examples of companies using ticketing systems

Cotswold web

Cotswold web is a web design, eCommerce and marketing company that helps their customers create visually appealing websites. They decided to give LiveAgent a try back in 2016. They are supporting over 400 clients in different countries, which can be quite a difficult task with the limited number of customer service reps.

However, implementing LiveAgent’s helpdesk ticketing system gave them the ability to reply to customer questions with knowledgeable responses. Their support team is able to solve around 600 tickets per month. But that’s not all. It’s one thing to respond to as many customers as possible, but it’s completely another thing to deliver high-quality customer service. And Cotswold web has a customer satisfaction level over 98%.

“Having live chat as well as ticketing in one product is excellent, also the ease of set up was matched with an excellent level of configuration options. Normally these 2 things do not go hand in hand, I think the level of maturity of LiveAgent is impressive.”

Richard Jaques, the founder of Cotswold web

But, when they decided to try new help desk software, the managers tried several providers through free trial. All of them had their pros and cons, but ultimately, they decided to go with LiveAgent for the following reasons:

• Ease of use
• Cost
• Software maturity
• Software depth

When asked if LiveAgent was able to help improve their customer service, the answer was YES! Most importantly, their support team also loves using the helpdesk ticketing system because it’s easy to use and helps them keep track of each customer interaction.

Atomer

Atomer is a company that offers their customers the possibility to lease a web-based system in which they can create and fully customize their online store or website. But they can’t offer all this without having high-quality technical customer support available to their clients. After testing multiple help desks and ticketing systems, they decided that LiveAgent fit all their needs perfectly.

“LiveAgent helps us solve customer inquiries on a daily basis. The decision to start using LiveAgent has been the right choice and 95% customer satisfaction is only proof of that.”

Martin Drugaj, employee of Atomer

What does the company like the most about working with LiveAgent?

• Easy and intuitive to use
• Offers transparency in communication between the company and their clients
• Easy to re-assign tickets if needed

Refresher

Refresher is the most-visited lifestyle website in Slovakia. Because of its success, they were also able to expand to the Czech Republic. But even a successful and well-running website needs help desk software with a reliable ticketing system.

They need to manage a lot of editors that cover every kind of topic that is currently trending, business collaborations, marketing campaigns, design projects, and much more. With all that, their email gets filled up and it becomes a mess. This is where LiveAgent came into play.

Refresher decided to implement LiveAgent back in early 2015, when they were looking for a solution that would help them streamline all the communication effectively. Thanks to LiveAgent, Refresher was able to reduce the number of their support staff and on top of that, they are able to respond and resolve over 1700 tickets per month.

They use the helpdesk ticketing system to communicate with advertisers and their marketing department is able to respond to tickets immediately, and have the complete history of communication with a customer. All this has resulted in a massive revenue growth.

How do they use LiveAgent?

Smart automation rules are running in the background, helping Refresher’s team to automatically transfer tickets to the hands of the right person. However, the possibility to assign tickets to team members manually is also very useful for them. LiveAgent helps Refresher to filter important business communication from community messages. This is possible thanks to powerful automation algorithms.

So when asked what is the main benefit of LiveAgent for their company, the response was clear:

“I would have to repeat myself, but I cannot emphasize enough how much faster, more flexible and tidy our communication has become.”

Gabor Boros, the CEO of Refresher

Huawei

Huawei is a global ICT solutions provider that quickly realized how important the contact with customers in real time is. They started looking for a ticketing system that would be able to improve their customer support efficiency via live chat. In 2013, they decided to go with LiveAgent.

There were multiple achievements that came from implementing LiveAgent:

• Real-time interactions with customers to boost brand loyalty and trust
• Reduce contact center calls and email tickets
• Enhanced online customer experience
• Increased conversion rate of cross-selling and upselling

To evaluate the overall customer satisfaction levels, Huawei uses the feedback feature that allows them to receive both positive and negative feedback from their customers. The feedback helps to make improvements in their customer support quality and provides an overview of the performance of their customer support agents.

Conclusion

In summary, we gained a comprehensive understanding of the purpose and functionality of help desk ticketing systems as a tool that helps to manage customer inquiries and support tickets. It allows support teams to track, prioritize, and resolve customer issues efficiently.

Don’t forget the importance of a ticket status to provide transparency, clear communication, and effective workflow management. By keeping these statuses updated, support agents can prioritize, allocate resources, and provide timely resolutions for customer inquiries.

When selecting a ticketing system for your company, consider essential features such as ticket management, status tracking, assignment, internal tickets, canned messages, SLAs, and more. Gain insights from real-life examples of companies that have enhanced business efficiency, agent productivity, and overall performance through ticketing systems. To explore these benefits for your business, try LiveAgent’s 30-day free trial. Don’t wait, sign up today!

Expert’s note

A ticketing system is a vital customer service tool for efficient issue resolution and customer satisfaction. Features include ticket management, prioritization, and tracking.

Andrej Saxon Sales manager

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