An effective trouble ticket system can be a lifesaver for all organizations that must handle thousands (or more!) support queries each day. Choose the right ticket system, and it’ll help you resolve questions, suggestions, and complaints, as quickly as possible. Many of the tasks typically handled manually will even get automated.Given that there are many trouble ticket systems on the market, it is of utmost importance to get an excellent understanding of their potential features. Read on as we explore our handpicked selection of the most efficient and helpful capabilities to pay attention to when choosing a trouble ticket system.
What Is a Trouble Ticket System (And Why Your Business Needs One)
A trouble ticketing system lets you capture and track ticket requests created by employees or third-parties, such as customers. Whenever a ticket is submitted, a member of the help desk or customer support is assigned to it and is responsible for resolution.Customers in particular expect a quick response to their support requests. A trouble ticket system like SolarWinds Web Help Desk can help you resolve issues more efficiently. It does this by enabling you to capture all ticket requests in one location, assign them to the most appropriate agent, and prioritize the most urgent tickets.
Trouble ticket systems can also notify you if a ticket is taking too long to resolve. This can significantly reduce the time it takes to resolve individual ticket requests.
7 Must-Have Features of an Efficient Trouble Ticket System
Below, you’ll find seven things to look for in a trouble ticket system, starting with automating certain actions.
1. Ticket Automation
Ticket automation is where parts of the support journey happen automatically. Automation can save your staff time and effort, making it a crucial feature for any effective trouble ticket system.Automation can also provide a better customer experience, by reducing human error. For example, some ticketing systems will automatically assign tickets to the most appropriate team member, then generate a reminder if the ticket is left unaddressed. This helps you avoid situations where an important ticket remains unassigned.Some ticketing systems also provide automated escalation processes. This ensures urgent issues are resolved promptly.
2. SLA (Service Level Agreement) Information
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) defines the response and resolution times you’re expected to provide a particular customer. Some ticket systems display SLA metrics as part of their User Interface (UI).By displaying key SLA metrics, a ticket system can help your agents prioritize tickets. This helps ensure your business meets all of its service level goals.In particular, missed SLA due dates can have a significant impact on customer satisfaction. To help you avoid SLA violations, you may want to look for a ticket system that provides SLA management and monitoring.
3. Integrated Hardware and Software Inventory
Most companies rely on a range of hardware and software. To help you manage these critical assets, you may want to opt for a ticketing system with built-in hardware and software inventory.An inventory can be a particularly useful feature, as it enables you to link support tickets with specific assets. If there are recurring issues, your support staff can review the asset’s service history, and see how this problem was resolved previously.
4. A Centralized Knowledge Base
A knowledge base is a self-help resource that typically contains information about a product, service, topic, or department. Rather than escalating every issue or request to your help desk, customers can use these resources to answer their own question. Research by Gartner suggests that customers are happy to use a knowledge base where available. By offering these kinds of self-help resources, you can often minimize your support requests and your overall support costs. This also means less pressure on your support staff.While you could invest in separate knowledge base software, some ticketing systems have everything you need to create and publish a knowledge base.There are benefits to choosing a ticketing system that has a built-in knowledge base feature. For example, the ticketing system might evaluate each service request as the customer is creating it, then recommend some relevant knowledge base articles to help the customer resolve their issue independently.
5. Support for Multiple Languages
According to estimates, 60 percent of all the content on the Internet is in English. However, 74 percent of Internet users speak a language other than English. What’s more, 65 percent of consumers prefer to access content in their native language, even when that content is of lower quality.By offering content in multiple languages, you’ll immediately stand out from the competition. Wherever possible, it’s smart to opt for a ticketing system that you can customize with your own language labels.For SolarWinds Web Help Desk customers, there is a detailed, step-by-step guide to creating a ticketing UI that updates to reflect the customer’s preferred language.
6. Reporting Tools
If you’re going to offer the highest level of support, it’s essential to identify areas where you’re achieving, and areas for improvement. Ideally, your ticketing system should record key help desk performance metrics, such as average response time and ticket volume, as this is vital for evaluating your performance.To ensure you have access to this information, we’d recommend a ticketing system that has built-in help desk reporting and analytics. You can also use these reports to identify particular sources of pain, and then create self-help resources that will help users resolve these issues independently. This helps improve the user experience, while reducing the number of support requests you receive.
7. Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is a powerful tool that can help improve your level of customer service. It can also drive customer retention levels and encourage brand loyalty.While there are plenty of dedicated customer feedback tools, it’s a smart idea to request customer feedback seamlessly, as part of the ticketing process. To help you acquire this invaluable customer feedback, you can opt for a ticketing system that has a built-in survey engine.
Conclusion
An efficient trouble ticket system can help your team resolve customer queries as quickly as possible but bear in mind that its features can go far beyond simple ticket collection and routing. Knowing what help desk ticketing solutions are capable of will help you ensure your help desk operations are as efficient as possible. You can also download a free trial of SolarWinds Web Help Desk to try out its help desk features for yourself.