The 15 best email support ticketing systems: Guide & review

Are you struggling to manage customer inquiries and support requests through regular email? Then maybe a reliable and efficient email ticketing system is just what you have been looking for to provide excellent customer service.

Don’t know where to start? No problem, we will walk you through everything you need to know about email ticketing systems and help you find the best solution for your business. Whether you’re a small business owner or a support team manager, this article will give you the information and insights you need to streamline your customer support process and enhance customer satisfaction.

So, if you’re ready, let’s jump right in!

What is an email ticketing system

An email ticketing system, sometimes referred to as an email support system, is a software solution that helps businesses manage and track customer emails in a more efficient way. It automatically assigns each customer inquiry a unique ticket number, allowing support teams to prioritize, categorize, and respond to customer issues effectively. This system streamlines the customer support process by ensuring that no request goes unnoticed or unanswered, which provides a seamless experience for customers and support agents.

Advantages of email support systems

Now that we have a basic understanding of what an email ticketing system is, let’s dive into the advantages it offers.

Email is a big part of customer service. Based on research by Statista, over 20% of customers preferred using email as the main communication channel when they needed to reach out to a company. Our findings show that the average business receives approximately around 10,500 emails per month.

This is exactly why email support systems have become an integral part of customer service strategies for businesses of all sizes, operating in various industries. On top of that, these systems provide numerous benefits that can enhance your customer support processes and positively contribute to your business’ success. So let’s explore some key advantages you can expect by implementing them.

Streamlining customer service

Email ticketing systems streamline an organization’s customer service operations by centralizing all inquiries, assigning unique ticket numbers, and enabling support teams to tackle issues efficiently. This approach saves customer care representatives from cluttered inboxes, making it easier to prioritize tickets based on urgency and importance.

Furthermore, these systems typically incorporate various automation features designed to automatically assign incoming tickets to the suitable support agent or department based on predetermined rules or criteria. This helps eliminate the need for manual ticket assignment, promoting efficiency, saving time, and minimizing the potential for human error.

Email ticketing systems also facilitate smooth collaboration among your support teams by providing them with essential tools for efficient resolution of customer issues. These tools allow agents to leave internal notes and comments on tickets, offering valuable insights or progress updates to their fellow team members.

Tracking and resolving inquiries

As mentioned before, an email ticketing system, assigns each inquiry a unique ticket number, allowing for easy tracking and data retrieval. This prevents overlooking some customer requests and ensures that each inquiry receives proper attention and follow-up. Agents can quickly search for specific tickets, access the entire communication history, and customer data. This allows them to provide more personalized support.

Many support systems offer ticket prioritization and management features. Using these functionalities, tickets can be categorized based on their urgency or type of inquiry, allowing agents to address the most critical issues first. This can also help to identify trends or recurring issues, which allows businesses to proactively address them and work towards improving the overall customer experience.

When it comes to resolving the inquiries, ticketing systems provide a structured approach. Agents can frequently update ticket statuses, add notes, or assign tasks, ensuring that each inquiry is handled in a timely and organized manner. They can also communicate with customers directly through the ticket thread, providing consistent updates, resulting in a transparent resolution process.

Enhancing team productivity

Using a centralized platform to handle customer inquiries eliminates switching between multiple platforms and threads. This can be a valuable time saver, allowing agents to focus on resolving customer issues more efficiently.

Increased productivity and efficiency leads to improved customer satisfaction levels and the overall success of your business. In order to meet customers’ expectations, a ticketing system ensures that inquiries are handled promptly and efficiently. Increased productivity means that the team can handle a higher volume of inquiries while maintaining high quality, leading to happier customers and improved customer loyalty.

A comparison chart of the top 5 email support systems

Software	Capterra Rating	Number of integrations	Free version	Free trial	Starting price
LiveAgent	4.7/5	220+	YES	YES	$9/agent/m
Hiver	4.7/5	9+	YES	NO	$19/user/m
HelpCrunch	4.8/5	30+	YES	NO	€29/user/m
Freshdesk	4.5/5	1000+	YES	YES	€18/agent/m
Zoho Desk	4.5/5	300+	YES	NO	€20/user/m

The 15 best email ticketing systems: Compared and rated

1. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is a comprehensive help desk and customer support software that offers a robust email ticketing system. It comes with a wide range of features to streamline and optimize customer service operations. With its user-friendly interface and advanced automation capabilities, LiveAgent empowers businesses to deliver exceptional customer support through email communication.

Features

LiveAgent comes equipped with a wide range of features that should not be missing from any reliable ticketing tool:

• Canned messages
• Predefined answers
• Universal inbox
• Custom roles
• Ticket statuses
• Email forwarding
• Email notifications
• Email templates
• Internal tickets
• Tags
• Notes
• Service level agreements (SLAs)
• Agent collision detection
• SPAM filters

Pricing

• Small: $9 per agent/month, billed annually
• Medium: $29 per agent/month, billed annually
• Large: $49 per agent/month, billed annually
• Enterprise: $69 per agent/month, billed annually

Free trial: YES, LiveAgent offers a 30-day free trial to give you the option to enjoy all the features from the Large plan for free.
Free version: YES, you can use LiveAgent’s limited features free of charge.

Expert opinion

LiveAgent is a robust and scalable customer support software that offers a reliable email ticketing system for businesses of all sizes. One of LiveAgent’s standout features is its 24/7 customer service, which ensures that users receive support whenever they need it.

Managing email inquiries is quite effortless thanks to LiveAgent’s intuitive platform. Sorting, assigning, and monitoring email tickets is a breeze, thanks to its user-friendly interface. The ability to organize emails using tags, filters, and folders further enhances productivity, allowing teams to stay organized and prioritize customer inquiries effectively.

While LiveAgent has many pros, there are a few areas where it could improve. The user interface could benefit from a modernization to align with current design trends. Additionally, the search functionality for finding specific emails could be further refined for quicker and more accurate results.

Overall, LiveAgent is a versatile customer support solution that can benefit companies across various industries, especially those with heavy email usage. The efficient email ticketing system, coupled with its robust features and scalability, ensures that companies can provide exceptional support and maintain high customer satisfaction levels.

2. Hiver

Hiver is a powerful collaboration tool that offers a seamless and intuitive platform for managing customer inquiries right from your Gmail inbox. It’s a simple yet effective solution that helps teams streamline their customer support operations, ensuring timely and efficient resolution of customer inquiries.

Features

Here are some of the notable features that Hiver has to offer:

• Email accountability
• Assign/re-assign emails
• Ticket statuses
• Email tags
• Notes and mentions
• Email tracking
• Rule-based task automation
• Collaborative features
• Email templates
• SLAs
• Customer surveys

Pricing

• Lite: $19 per user per month
• Pro: $49 per user per month
• Elite: $69 per user per month

Free trial: YES, Hiver offers a 7-day free trial where you can try their Elite plan for free.

Expert opinion

Due to its seamless integration with Google Suite, Hiver can be a great team collaboration tool and email ticket management system for Gmail. One of the standout features are its easy email management capabilities, allowing users to effectively handle customer inquiries right from their Gmail inbox. Another important aspect is its customer support services. The Hiver team is highly responsive and provides prompt assistance whenever needed.

While Hiver has many strengths, there are a few areas that could use improvement. For example, the task automation rules could be more advanced, allowing users to set up more complex criteria. Additionally, there is a slight learning curve when initially getting started with the platform. However, once you learn how to navigate the system, it is incredibly easy to use.

Because of its versatility, companies across various industries can benefit from using Hiver. Any organization that relies on Gmail for their customer communications can take advantage of their seamless integration. For example, businesses in customer-centric industries, such as e-commerce, IT, or telecommunications can particularly benefit from Hiver. The shared inbox feature and streamlined ticketing system effectively enhance collaboration and ensure timely resolution of customer inquiries.

3. HelpCrunch

HelpCrunch is a customer support software that offers an advanced email ticketing system designed to optimize and enhance customer service operations. Businesses can effectively manage and resolve email inquiries from a one centralized platform. HelpCrunch provides a seamless and efficient way to handle customer support through email, ensuring timely and personalized responses.

Features

Here are some of the key features HelpCrunch has to offer:

• Automated chat routing
• AI-powered shared inbox
• Custom share inboxes
• Private notes
• Snooze conversations
• Smart routing rules
• Assign conversations
• Notifications
• Saved replies

Pricing

Their pricing varies based on the number of emails you choose.

• Basic: Starting from €29 per team member per month (1000 emails)
• Pro: Starting from €45 per team member per month (5000 emails)
• Unlimited: Starting from €620 per team member per month (50,000 emails)

Free trial: YES, HelpCrunch offers a 14-day free trial

Expert opinion

The HelpCrunch support software provides an intuitive interface that allows you to manage and respond to customer inquiries efficiently via email and live chat. Their customer support team is very helpful and responsive, ready to address any questions or concerns.

Although, no software is without flaws. The initial learning curve for new users might be a bit too steep. Furthermore, performance reporting could be enhanced to provide more detailed insights and analytics. In addition, some users have reported occasional slowness in the platform, which could impact productivity during peak hours.

HelpCrunch can be beneficial for companies in various industries that want to provide excellent customer support. It is well-suited for businesses in e-commerce, SaaS, and technology sectors, where efficient email and chat support are essential.

4. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a well-known customer support software provider that offers an intuitive and efficient ticketing system. It’s a comprehensive platform for managing and resolving customer inquiries, as well as improving team productivity by converting multiple emails into a single ticket.

SysAid is powerful and convenient email support and management software that includes password reset functions, a self-service portal, live chat features, asset management, and more. SysAid is an excellent solution for improving decision-making and IT/email support performance for smaller and larger teams alike.

Features

Freshdesk offers a wide range of features that helps you keep track of all tickets, including:

• Team inbox
• Customer ticket status
• Canned responses
• Shared ownership
• Time-triggered automation
• Easy email integration (Outlook and Gmail)
• Automated ticket assignment
• Automated routing
• Real-time analytics and reporting tools
• SLA management

Pricing

• Free: €0 up to 10 agents
• Growth: €18 per agent/month
• Pro: €59 per agent/month
• Enterprise: €95 per agent/month

Free trial: YES, Freshdesk offers a 14-day free trial.

Expert opinion

Freshdesk stands out for its easy-to-use interface and the ability for multiple users to write internal notes or attach files/documents to tickets. These features enhance collaboration and ensure more streamlined customer support.

However, as with any other software, there are a few areas that could be improved for better performance. Occasionally, you can experience bugs and crashes, which can disrupt workflow and require troubleshooting. Some users also reported experiencing slow customer support from Freshdesk.

Overall, Freshdesk is a versatile solution that can benefit companies across various industries. However, because of its pricing, it may be a bit expensive for smaller companies that have tight budgets.

5. Zoho Desk

Another renowned customer support software provider on our list is Zoho Desk. This system comes with many tools, including a customer service email management system that helps manage emails in order to provide fast and personalized customer service, as well as increase team productivity.

Features

Zoho Desk offers many valuable features and functionalities, including:

• Ticket prioritization
• Ticket statuses
• Pre-written responses
• Reply assistant
• Automated article suggestions
• Automatic ticket tagging
• Internal email threads and private comments
• Ticket tracking
• Automated ticket assignment
• Feedback collection

Pricing

• Standard: €20 per user per month
• Professional: €35 per user per month
• Enterprise: €50 per user per month

Free trial: YES, there is a 15-day free trial available.

Expert opinion

In my opinion, Zoho Desk is a comprehensive solution that offers a wide range of useful features. Its simplicity and easy-to-use interface make it easy for businesses to adapt and use. Additionally, Zoho Desk provides advanced customization capabilities, allowing companies to tailor the system to their specific support processes. Another plus is its seamless integration with other Zoho Desk applications, which are further enhancing team efficiency and productivity.

However, some users have reported difficulties in finding certain functionalities within the software, which can be frustrating and time-consuming. Additionally, new users may experience an initial learning curve due to the complexity of the software.

Zoho Desk can be a reliable solution for companies of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises, due to its wide range of features. The pricing is also reasonable, which makes it quite affordable even for smaller to medium-sized businesses.

6. HappyFox Help Desk

HappyFox Help Desk is a customer support software that offers, among other things, an email ticket management system to streamline and optimize customer service operations. With HappyFox email ticketing, businesses can manage and resolve customer inquiries through email communication to provide exceptional customer service.

Features

Let’s look at some features HappyFox offers to their customers:

• Ticket categories
• Tags
• Custom ticket queue
• Ticket tracking
• Ticket status
• Pinned tickets
• Quick reply
• Bulk actions
• Collaboration features
• Private notes
• Monitoring tickets

Pricing

Agent based pricing:

• Mighty: $39 per agent/month
• Fantastic: $59 per agent/month
• Enterprise: $79 per agent/month
• Enterprise Plus: $99 per agent/month

Unlimited agents pricing:

• Starter: $1499/month, billed annually
• Growth: $1999/month, billed annually
• Scale: $2999/month, billed annually
• Scale Plus: $4999/month, billed annually

Free trial: The company encourages new clients to request a demo call before granting them access to a trial account.

Expert opinion

HappyFox Help Desk offers a user-friendly solution for managing customer support operations. The software is quite easy to set up, allowing businesses to get started quickly, without complex configurations. It also offers the ability to track critical metrics that can provide valuable insights into agent performance and customer satisfaction.

On the other hand, the lack of alerts and notifications on ticket activity may result in delays or missed updates. Additionally, HappyFox may not be suitable for businesses that require more intricate workflows, and its scalability may also be a concern for larger companies.

Different companies in various industries can benefit from the HappyFox’s features. For example, small to medium-sized businesses with straightforward support processes can take advantage of its ease of use and customization options. Industries such as hospitality, retail, or SaaS can benefit from efficient management of customer inquiries and provide a great support experience to their customers.

7. ProProfs Help Desk

ProProfs Help Desk offers a comprehensive email help desk tool that aids businesses in efficient tracking, managing, and organizing customer emails. With ProProfs Help Desk, companies can streamline their customer support operations, provide timely and effective resolution to customer issues, collaborate, monitor email support performance, and much more.

Features

Here is a list of features that can help you with customer email management:

• Shared inbox
• Internal notes
• Canned responses
• Monitoring of email support metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Custom signatures
• SLA management
• Ticket prioritization
• Ticket status
• Automated ticket assignment
• Notifications and alerts

Pricing

• Single user: Free plan
• Team: $29.99 per user/month (available for 2+ users)

Free trial: YES, they also offer a free trial to experience all the features before you decide to commit.

Expert opinion

ProProfs Help Desk is a user-friendly solution that offers several benefits for businesses looking to optimize their customer support operations. One of them is its simplicity. The platform is easy to use, allowing teams to quickly adapt and start managing customer inquiries effectively. The reporting features provide valuable insights for analyzing team performance and track key metrics.

However, providing more integration options would enhance the platform’s versatility and enable seamless connectivity with other tools and software. Additionally, it can be challenging to assign tickets to the appropriate agents, particularly if there are complex routing requirements.

ProProfs Help Desk can be beneficial for companies of all sizes operating in various industries. Businesses that rely on email communication for customer support can leverage ProProfs Help Desk to streamline their operations and provide timely resolution to customer inquiries. Its simplicity, robust reporting features, and tracking capabilities make it a valuable asset for many businesses.

8. JitBit Helpdesk

JitBit Helpdesk is a help desk ticketing system designed to streamline customer support operations. With its intuitive platform, JitBit tracks and manages customer requests by providing seamless integration with your mailbox. Whether you prefer a cloud-based solution or an on-premise version, JitBit provides an option that meets your needs.

Features

These are some key features JitBit has to offer:

• File attachments
• Knowledge base
• Canned responses
• Automation rules
• Ticket categorization
• Ticket assignment
• Tags
• Customizable analytics

Price

Cloud hosted pricing:

• Freelancer: $29/month (1 agent)
• Startup: $69/month (up to 4 agents)
• Company: $129/month (up to 7 agents)
• Enterprise: $249/month (up to 9 agent—$29 for per extra agent)

Self-hosting pricing (offers one-time perpetual license and includes 1 year of version upgrades and support):

• Small: $2199
• Company: $3799
• Enterprise: $6499
• Source codes: For more information, you need to contact the company

Free trial: NO, JitBit does not offer free trials.

Expert opinion

JitBit is a user-friendly solution that comes with several notable strengths. Its simple and clean user interface makes it easy to navigate and use. JitBit also provides a wide range of customization options, allowing businesses to create custom categories and set up dropdown lists based on their unique needs. This flexibility enhances the overall user experience and helps align the ticketing system with specific business requirements.

While JitBit has its advantages, it also comes with several drawbacks. The reporting capabilities could be more customizable and advanced, allowing for more in-depth analysis of key metrics and better visibility into team performance. Additionally, some customers reported experiencing insufficient customer service. Lastly, the mobile app could use further improvements to ensure better functionality and a smoother user experience on mobile devices.

Overall, it can be beneficial for many types of companies in various industries. Any business that requires a streamlined system for efficient management of customer inquiries can leverage JitBit’s customizable features and simple interface to deliver exceptional customer support.

9. SysAid

SysAid is a provider of help desk and IT service management software, offering a comprehensive ticketing system for email support. With SysAid’s ticketing system, businesses can effortlessly handle customer inquiries, resolve issues, and efficiently manage assets. The system automates help desk processes, eliminating the need for manual ticket sorting, allowing you to focus on other important aspects of running your business.

Features

Some of their key features include:

• Ticket automation
• Asset management
• Remote control
• Customizable user interface
• Escalation rules
• Routing rules
• Automatic ticket assignment
• Automation capabilities
• SLA management

Pricing

Pricing is not available on SysAid’s website. To find out more about SysAid’s pricing options, you need to provide your work email address.

Free trial: YES, SysAid offers free trial for new customers.

Expert opinion

One of the SysAid’s most significant qualities is its ease of use and implementation. SysAid offers a highly customizable platform, allowing businesses to tailor it to their unique needs. Their commitment to innovation is evident through their continuous addition of new features and upgrades, ensuring that users have access to the latest tools and functionalities.

However, there are few things that could definitely be improved. The inability to merge tickets can be a drawback when dealing with similar or related issues. Because of its advanced customization possibilities, users may feel overwhelmed by the numerous settings that need to be configured, which requires a learning curve. Additionally, improving the integration options could aid in the software’s versatility.

SysAid is a suitable option for businesses of all sizes. Small businesses can benefit from its user-friendly interface, and larger organizations can take advantage of its customization options. The highly customizable nature of the system helps to align it with complex workflows. Furthermore, its scalability ensures that the solution can meet customers’ growing needs.

10. SolarWinds Service Desk

SolarWinds Service Desk is a provider of IT service management software, also offering a ticketing system that automatically converts emails into help desk tickets. The system streamlines email ticketing processes, allowing teams to handle a high volume of tickets effectively while maintaining a personalized and efficient customer experience.

Features

Here are some of SolarWinds’ features:

• Automated ticketing management
• Alerts of unassigned or unattended tickets
• Ticket history
• Reporting and performance monitoring
• Relational ticketing
• SLA management
• Ticket assignment and routing
• Ticket escalation

Pricing

• Essentials: $39 per month per technician (supports unlimited users)
• Advanced: $79 per month per technician (supports unlimited users)
• Premier: $99 per month per technician (supports unlimited users)

Free trial: YES, they offer a 30-day free trial.

Expert opinion

SolarWinds Service Desk stands out with its simple and clear user interface. The platform offers an intuitive experience, allowing users to navigate the system effortlessly. The customizable dashboard also allows users to personalize their view, enabling easy access to the most relevant information.

However, submitting new tickets can be difficult, and it may require some adjustments to make it more user-friendly. Additionally, there can be a lack of ticket updates during the resolution process, which can leave users as well as the support team uncertain about the progress. The software offers limited integration options, which may restrict its compatibility with other tools or software.

Overall, SolarWinds Service Desk can be a good option for companies of various sizes. Small and mid-sized companies can benefit from its ease of use, simplicity, and reliable customer support, allowing them to streamline their ticket management effectively. Larger businesses can also find value in SolarWinds Service Desk’s customization options, allowing them to align the system with their complex needs and requirements.

11. Intercom

Intercom is one of the leading help desk platforms, offering a ticketing solution to enhance customer support. With Intercom’s email ticketing feature, businesses can seamlessly convert customer conversations into tickets, ensuring that no context is lost. With their all-in-one platform, there’s no need to switch between multiple tools, eliminating the risk of missed updates and ensuring a seamless customer support experience.

Features

These are some of the features that are definitely worth mentioning:

• Shared inbox
• AI assistant
• Canned responses
• Custom tickets
• Ticket tracking
• Back-office tickets
• Automatic real-time updates
• Automatic ticket assignment
• Reporting and analytics
• SLA management

Pricing

• Essential: $39 per seat per month
• Advanced: $99 per seat per month
• Expert: $139 per seat per month

Free trial: YES, Intercom offers a free trial for 14 days.

Expert opinion

Intercom is a powerful platform offering a variety of features that can improve customer interactions. The ability to easily access articles and canned messages allows agents to respond to inquiries quickly and efficiently. Intercom also offers a well-functioning mobile app, allowing agents to provide support on the go.

However, there are a few drawbacks worth noting. Intercom can be challenging when it comes to managing multiple customer conversations simultaneously and switching between them seamlessly. Additionally, users have reported slow response times from Intercom’s own customer service team, which can be frustrating.

Intercom can be used by businesses of all sizes, but larger companies may benefit more from its extensive capabilities and scalability. As for smaller businesses, the pricing can be on the higher side, which may pose a challenge for those with limited budgets. Nevertheless, Intercom’s feature-rich platform can provide significant value and improve overall customer satisfaction.

12. Front

Front is a customer communication platform that combines the efficiency of a help desk system with the familiarity of email. With Front’s ticketing solution, businesses can streamline their customer conversations by automatically collecting and routing messages from their email channel. This ensures that every message is delivered to the relevant team or individual, improving average response times.

Features

These are some of Intercom’s main ticketing features:

• Shared inboxes
• Message templates
• Automation rules
• Smart email routing
• Assign ticket ownership
• Tags
• Internal comments
• Email reports and analytics
• SLA management

Pricing

• Starter: $19 per seat/month, billed annually (2-10 seats)
• Growth: $59 per seat/month, billed annually (minimum 2 seats)
• Scale: $99 per seat/month, billed annually (minimum 20 seats)
• Premier: $229 per seat/month, billed annually (minimum 50 seats)

Free trial: NO. Front currently does not offer free trials.

Expert opinion

Front is a unique customer communication platform that offers some valuable features. For example, the ability to have internal conversations within email threads allows teams to collaborate and discuss inquiries without the need for external tools. The option to snooze emails is also helpful in organizing and prioritizing tasks.

However, the software lacks in multiple areas. When you receive multiple emails with the same title, Front bundles them together as one thread. This can cause confusion and hinder quick response times. Users have also reported occasional crashes and slow loading times, which can highly impact the overall productivity. Additionally, there have been instances of emails disappearing from inboxes and archives, which is a significant concern for a platform of this nature.

Overall, companies of all sizes can utilize Front. Smaller businesses may find the value in Front’s starter pricing plan, which is tailored to their needs and is still budget-friendly.

13. HubSpot Service Hub

HubSpot Service Hub is a comprehensive customer service software that is designed to deepen customer relationships and drive team efficiency. With this solution, businesses can bring all their customer service data and channels together into one CRM platform, allowing them to easily support, retain, and grow their customer base. Their email ticketing solution enables seamless switching between different communication channels, ensuring more effective customer service experience.

Features

Let’s look at some of the most important features in HubSpot Service Hub’s email support ticketing system:

• 24/7 live customer support
• Document storage
• Automated routing
• Gamification options
• Ticket automation
• Email management
• Workflow automation
• Mobile apps for Android and iOS
• IT service management
• Remote access to the email ticketing system

Pricing

• Free
• Starter: Starting at €20/month
• Professional: Starting at €490/month
• Enterprise: Starting at €1180/month

Free trial: NO, there is currently no free trial, but you opt for a free plan to try out some of HubSpot Service Hub’s features.

Expert opinion

HubSpot Service Hub offers several notable benefits. The intuitive and user-friendly interface makes it easy to navigate and utilize the platform. It also provides numerous video tutorials and guides to help users get the most out of the system, which can be very helpful, especially in the beginning. The ability to organize and track customer issues and service requests is another strong feature, as it enables businesses to streamline their support processes and ensure timely resolutions.

However, while the dashboards in HubSpot Service Hub have a visually appealing design and a lot of useful data, they can occasionally load slowly, which can be frustrating for users. Additionally, it can be challenging to assign multiple team members to collaborate on a single ticket.

HubSpot Service Hub is best suited for medium to large-sized companies. This is due to its pricing that is on the higher side, making it less affordable for smaller companies. Nevertheless, for companies aiming to optimize their customer service and build stronger customer relationships, it offers a wide range of functionalities that can deliver significant value.

14. Zendesk

Zendesk is a popular customer support software designed to help businesses build strong relationships with their customers. With Zendesk’s email ticketing solution, businesses can personalize customer experiences, leading to increased loyalty and revenue. This powerful system allows businesses to easily track, prioritize, and solve customer support tickets, ensuring timely and efficient resolutions to customer inquiries and issues.

Features

Here are some of the features worth mentioning:

• Ticket routing
• Time tracking
• Predefined responses
• Custom rules and triggers
• Customizable automation capabilities
• Skill-based routing
• Incoming email authentication
• Automatic email archiving
• CSAT rating
• Service level agreements

Pricing

Zendesk Suite plans:

• Suite Team: €69 per agent/month
• Suite Growth: €115 per agent/month
• Suite professional: €149 per agent/month
• Suite Enterprise: For more information about this plan, you need to contact their sales team

Zendesk Basic plans:

• Support Team: €25 per agent/month
• Support Professional: €69 per agent/month
• Support Enterprise: €149 per agent/month

Free trial: YES, Zendesk also offers free trials on all pricing plans.

Expert opinion

Zendesk comes equipped with numerous features that can benefit your business. You can easily automate repetitive tasks and effectively assign tickets, saving time and improving efficiency. Additionally, Zendesk centralizes all customer interactions from various channels, including email, into one easy-to-access platform.

However, there are some drawbacks that are worth mentioning. The admin panel can be a bit inconvenient because there are separate systems for managing tickets and automations. This can add complexity and require additional time to navigate. Users may also encounter a learning curve when getting acquainted with the software. For example, the more complex integrations may require additional technical skills or dedicated IT staff.

Zendesk is most beneficial for medium to large-sized companies that can fully leverage its extensive set of features and capabilities. The higher price point may make it less affordable for smaller businesses with limited budgets. However, it is still a valuable tool for optimizing customer support and can greatly benefit companies seeking to enhance their customer interactions.

15. Spiceworks

Spiceworks offers a powerful ticketing solution that helps businesses effectively track and prioritize user requests, while decluttering their inboxes. With Spiceworks’ free ticketing system, businesses can easily manage and organize customer inquiries, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks. What sets Spiceworks apart is not just their free ticketing solution, but also the availability of free support through the active Spiceworks Community forum.

Features

Here are some of Spiceworks’ key features:

• Automatic ticket assignment
• Ticket routing
• Categories and priorities
• Custom ticket queues
• Automated responses
• Ticket filtering
• Reporting capabilities

Pricing

Spiceworks is a completely free cloud help desk software.

Expert opinion

In my opinion, Spiceworks offers a reliable and user-friendly ticketing system. The platform is easy to set up, making it convenient for businesses to get started quickly. Moreover, creating, assigning, and monitoring tickets is a very easy task.

However, Spiceworks comes with some disadvantages. Advanced features and reporting capabilities are limited compared to other paid solutions. And because it is free, it contains a lot of ads, which some users may find distracting. Additionally, emails sent to Spiceworks are converted to plain text, resulting in the loss of tables and images, which can impact the visual aspect of communication.

All in all, Spiceworks could be an excellent choice for companies of all sizes. The fact that it is free makes it especially appealing for smaller companies with limited budgets. Regardless of size, businesses can benefit from Spiceworks’ ticketing system to efficiently manage customer inquiries.

What should you consider before investing in email ticket systems?

There are a few key factors to consider before investing in an email ticket management system to get the best value for your money and a positive return on investment (ROI). Here are a few things you can keep in mind when choosing a system for your business.

• Cost: Closely evaluate the pricing structure of different systems and compare it with the features they offer. Consider your specific needs as well as your budget. It’s important to strike a balance between cost and the functionality required to meet your customer support goals.
• Scalability: As your business continues to grow, you need to consider the scalability of your email ticketing system. Ask yourself questions, such as: Does the system have the capacity to accommodate your growing customer base and customer support team?
  Picking a system that can easily scale up or down based on your needs can prevent costly migrations or upgrades in the future.
• Customization: Assess the level of customization options the system provides. Remember, every business has its unique requirements and workflows. Therefore, look for a system that allows you to make customizations that align with your specific needs, and tailor the system to match your support team’s processes.
• Integration capabilities: Make sure it integrates well with other tools and software you’re using, such as CRM, live chat, or social media management platforms. These integration capabilities can streamline data sharing and enable a unified view of customer interactions to enhance efficiency, and provide a better customer experience.
• Reporting and analytics: Robust and advanced reporting allows you to track key metrics, such as response times, resolution rates, or customer satisfaction scores. This data is crucial for monitoring performance, identifying areas for improvement, and demonstrating ROI.

Best email support system features

Since there are so many different email support systems out there, it can become quite challenging to find an option that suits your business needs.

Fortunately, we have come up with a list of the best email support system features that you should look for when choosing an email support system for your company. Whether you’ll go with a big industry name or a smaller alternative email provider, these features should be at the top of your list of priorities.

• Automated ticket distribution

One of the crucial features your email support system should have is automated ticket distribution. This invaluable tool automatically assigns tickets to your customer service agents based on a set of rules. It can either assign tickets to agents based on their particular skills or route tickets to agents that are available at the moment.

• Self-service knowledge base

Your email ticketing solution should allow for proactive services through a help center or a customer-centric database. This database or customer portal allows your customers to find any information they need through an FAQ page, videos, or how-to articles.

• Real-time reporting

A ticket system is nothing without an advanced reporting feature. This feature allows you to track various customer service metrics and performance indicators. You can also identify weaknesses in your customer service by encouraging customers to leave their feedback and rate your service.

How to select the right email ticketing system

Selecting the right email ticketing system for your business can be difficult with the numerous options available in the market. So, in order to do it right, it’s important to be strategic during the selection process. To make it easier, here are a few steps you can take to make sure you choose the email help desk software that will meet your needs.

Evaluate your business needs

Evaluating your exact needs is essential to pick a system that will work well for your company. Because what is best for one business may not necessarily be the best fit for another. By taking time to understand your requirements, you can find a solution that will align with your goals and provide the necessary features and functionalities.

• Evaluating your business’ requirements helps you identify the specific challenges you want to address. For example, if your support team receives a high volume of customer queries on a daily basis, you might prioritize a system with robust automation and routing capabilities to streamline ticket management.
• Make sure to determine the level of customization you require. Some solutions offer extensive customization options that allow you to tailor the system to match your unique processes. This flexibility can be crucial in driving efficiency and customer satisfaction.
• Evaluating your business needs also helps you avoid investing in features or functionalities you don’t need.

Essential features to look for

Email support ticketing systems come equipped with numerous features and functionalities that can help you streamline your customer support efforts. Here are some of the essential features to look for:

• Ticket management: A comprehensive email ticketing system should provide functionalities for organizing, categorizing, and tracking customer tickets. This includes features, such as ticket assignment, prioritization, tags, and statuses. Such features ensure that tickets are properly managed and resolved.
• Automation: This can include features like automatic ticket assignment, automated ticket routing based on predefined rules, and automated responses to common inquiries. Automation helps reduce manual effort and ensures consistent and efficient ticket handling.
• Collaboration tools: Effective collaboration is vital for every customer support team. Look for features that enable internal communication and collaboration, such as internal tickets and notes, comments, or ticket sharing. They are here to facilitate communication between team members, allowing them to work together to resolve customer issues more efficiently.
• Reporting and analytics: This feature provides insights into your team’s performance and customer trends. Look for a system that offers comprehensive reporting on metrics like response time, resolution rate, customer satisfaction, or agent productivity. Analyzing them helps identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.
• Integration capabilities: The system should offer a seamless integration with other software and tools you are already using. This may include a CRM or live chat platforms. It enables you to share data across different systems, providing a unified view of customer interactions and enhancing efficiency in support operations.
• Customization: Look for features like customizable ticket fields, ticket forms, and workflows. Customization enables you to tailor the system to your exact requirements for a smoother and more efficient support process.

Compatibility with various business tools

Compatibility and integration with other business tools can enhance efficiency and provide better customer support experience. When these systems are not compatible, it can lead to various challenges and drawbacks. Here’s what can happen if the tools are not compatible:

• Data silos: Without proper integration, customer data may remain isolated in different systems. This creates data silos that hinder a comprehensive view of customer interactions across different touchpoints, so it becomes more difficult to understand the context and provide personalized and consistent support.
• More manual effort and duplication: Incompatible systems may require more manual effort to transfer or duplicate data between tools. This not only consumes time and resources but also increases the risk of errors and inconsistencies.
• Lack of real-time data: When agents struggle to access real-time information about customers and their previous interactions, it can result in repetitive questions or requests for information that has already been provided. This can lead to lower customer satisfaction.

7 Best practices for email ticketing

When it comes to utilizing the email ticketing system effectively, implementing best practices can significantly enhance your customer support operations. Let’s discuss the most significant ones.

Train your team

Dig deep and try to explore the software, its features and functionalities to get a better understanding of what it can do for your company. Don’t forget to pass your knowledge to your staff and train your support agents to be able to operate it effortlessly.

Consider organizing hands-on training sessions where they can explore the software’s features and functionalities, provide comprehensive documentation and resources, conduct interactive workshops, and encourage open communication to address any questions or challenges that may arise during the learning process.

Clear ticket categorization

Set a clear system for categorizing tickets to help your support team quickly identify the type of issue and prioritize accordingly. Use different labels, tags, or customizable ticket fields to create specific categories that align with your needs.

Utilize automation

Take advantage of features that can increase efficiency by automating routine tasks such as ticket assignment, routing, or sending canned responses. This will save valuable time for support agents, enabling them to focus on more complex issues and provide a faster and more consistent customer support experience.

Implement SLAs

Establish clear expectations for query response and ticket resolution durations to guarantee customer issues are addressed within specific timeframes. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are, in simple terms, contracts that define the level of service expected by a client from a service provider. They outline specifics like response time, resolution time, and service quality, among others. By adhering to these SLAs, you can more efficiently prioritize and handle tickets.

Focus on internal collaboration and communication

Encourage collaboration and communication among your team members. They can use internal notes or internal chat features to share insights, updates, or seek assistance from colleagues. This ensures that all support agents are always well-informed and up to date to provide consistent responses to customers.

Integrate an internal knowledge base

Integrate your email ticketing software with an internal knowledge base or FAQ section. This lets support agents efficiently access relevant resources when responding to tickets. By doing so, you can reduce response times and enhance the overall customer experience.

Keep an eye on performance

Track key performance metrics to identify trends, areas of improvement, and recognize outstanding support agents. Moreover, regular performance reviews help maintain quality standards and ensure customer satisfaction.

Possible pitfalls of shared inboxes and how to avoid them

Pitfall 1: Lack of accountability and ownership

A shared inbox can lead to a lack of accountability and ownership over customer inquiries. When multiple individuals have access to an inbox, it becomes difficult to assign responsibility for each ticket. As a result, tickets may go unnoticed, unanswered or receive delayed responses, leading to customer dissatisfaction.

How to avoid it:

• Use a ticketing system that allows you to assign tickets to a specific agent or team to ensure that someone takes the ownership of each ticket to avoid misunderstandings and improve accountability.
• Define roles and responsibilities by assigning specific agents to handle certain types of inquiries or customer segments. This helps create accountability and ensures that each ticket receives appropriate attention and resolution.

Pitfall 2: Lack of transparency and collaboration

A shared inbox might lack the necessary features required for effective teamwork. Support agents may find it difficult to understand the status of tickets, coordinate efforts, and access relevant information, which can lead to inefficiencies and potential duplication of work.

How to avoid it:

• Invest in an email ticketing system that provides a centralized platform for managing tickets. These systems offer much more transparency, when it comes to ticket statuses, allowing agents to leave internal notes or comments, and facilitate collaboration among team members.
• Use tags and labels within the system to categorize tickets based on status, priority, or other relevant factors. This makes it easier for agents to track and prioritize tickets, leading to better coordination and collaboration.

Pitfall 3: Inconsistent responses and lack of knowledge sharing

There is also the risk of inconsistency in dealing with customer inquiries. It’s possible that customer service reps may lack access to prior interaction histories or may meet difficulties in monitoring updates. This can result in duplicated responses or conflicting information.

How to avoid it:

• Leverage internal communication tools to ensure efficient knowledge sharing and updates among support agents. This enables them to access the latest information and provide consistent responses.
• Create and maintain a knowledge base with frequently asked questions and relevant articles. Integrate it with the email ticketing system of your choice and allow agents to access accurate information quickly. Don’t forget to regularly update the knowledge base to document all changes.

Steps to easily set up your email ticketing system

After a careful selection process, you’ve finally chosen a solution that perfectly addresses your business needs. However, this is just the beginning of the journey. You need to properly set up and start using it to experience its wealth of benefits and features.

Setting up an email ticketing system can differ based on the provider you’ve selected. To offer some guidance, we’ll guide you through this process using LiveAgent as an example.

LiveAgent allows you to connect your email accounts and convert all your emails into tickets. Once connected, your support agents can respond to emails directly from their LiveAgent accounts and enjoy all the benefits of this powerful helpdesk software. You can also configure your email accounts to route appropriate tickets to various departments within your organization.

In LiveAgent, there are two separate integrations for incoming and outgoing email accounts. If you want to receive, as well as send emails from LiveAgent, you need to integrate both options.

How to connect your email account with LiveAgent

To connect a new email account and use it for both sending and receiving messages, we recommend starting with the outbound configuration:

• Log into your LiveAgent account.
• Navigate to Configuration → Email → Outgoing Email Accounts and click on “Integrate new email account”
• After connecting your email address as an outgoing email account, go to Configuration → Email → Incoming Email Accounts and click on “Integrate new email account”
• Now that you’ve integrated both, the next few steps depend on the email platform you use. All the options for configuring incoming email accounts are available at our knowledge base.

But to show you an example, let’s say you are using Google as your email provider. LiveAgent uses Google Authentication to connect with your Gmail mailbox. After you authenticate this connection, your Gmail is connected, and no further configuration is needed. Just follow these simple steps:

• Go to your LiveAgent account and navigate to Configuration → Email → Incoming Mail Accounts → click on “Integrate new email account”

• In the “Mailbox account” section on the left, use Google connector to connect your Gmail.

• Click on “Connect” — this will open a pop-up window with Google’s login page → log in to your Gmail account that you want to use as your incoming email account → authorize LiveAgent to access it.

• Name your incoming email account (better recognition among other accounts)
• Choose from either “Skip all existing emails in the mailbox” to get only your new emails into LiveAgent, or “Fetch all existing emails in the mailbox” to get all emails that have already been delivered to your mailbox into LiveAgent.
• After an email has been successfully fetched into LiveAgent, you can also decide whether to “Leave the email in the mailbox” or “Delete the email from the mailbox”.

• Select the department that will receive emails in the form of tickets fetched from Gmail, and the outgoing email account that will be the default reply sender.

• And that’s it! Your Gmail account is now successfully connected. You can start receiving emails from your Gmail inbox directly to your LiveAgent account.

For a smoother integration process, we advise setting up your email address as an outgoing account first, followed by the incoming email account. This order is beneficial as the final step of incoming integration involves selecting a previously connected outgoing account. Upon selection, this account becomes your default sender for responding to emails or tickets.

It is also recommended to use native Google/Microsoft connectors when you are connecting your email addresses from either Google or Microsoft. This is because these connectors support the new Google/Microsoft OAuth authentication methods.

Our knowledge base provides detailed information about every connection method. In case you are using another email provider, or you want to connect your own mail server, you need to select the “Custom mailbox method”.

Built-in email account

Every LiveAgent account has a pre-set built-in outgoing and incoming email account in the following form: support@mail.mycompany.ladesk.com.

Please note that this email account cannot be deleted and should ideally be used solely for testing purposes by new users. It’s advised against using this built-in email for your business communications. The reason being, it operates on our servers which are shared with other customers. As such, there’s a potential risk of your emails being deemed as spam or, worse, being entirely blocked by email providers.

Conclusion

Congratulations! Now, you have all the necessary information regarding the world of ticketing systems. We started by understanding what email ticketing is and dived into the benefits it offers for businesses, such as streamlined customer support and efficient issue resolution. We then compiled a comprehensive list of the 15 best email ticketing systems available on the market and compared their features, pros, cons, as well as pricing plans.

To help you make an informed decision, we discussed the key factors to consider before investing in an email ticketing system and highlighted some features to look for in a good system. We also shared best practices for email ticketing and provided guidance on how to easily set up your system for optimal performance and productivity.

At this point, you should consider yourself well-versed in email ticketing systems. You now possess the necessary insights and comprehension to choose the ideal solution that perfectly suits your business. However, if you’re still searching for a reliable and efficient ticketing system, look no further than LiveAgent. Take advantage of our 30-day free trial and experience the power of LiveAgent’s email ticketing system firsthand. With the user-friendly interface, advanced features, and exceptional customer support, LiveAgent offers an excellent option for managing your customer inquiries and improving your overall customer service.