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Collaboration & Productivity

The 5 best IT ticketing systems

By December 22nd, 2021No Comments
the best it ticketing systems

Investing in a competent IT ticketing system is one of the best choices you could make to improve the performance and productivity of your team. A professional ticketing system allows you to organize all support queries in a centralized system. 

Even better, you can consolidate interactions into a single thread; improve communication with users, thus customer service quality. Most importantly, ticketing systems promote easy team collaboration.

The challenge comes in selecting a suitable ticketing system, especially with so many choices in the market. Read on this guide for everything you need to know about choosing the best IT ticketing system.

What are the most important features an IT ticketing system should have?

Collaborative features

A good ticketing system should facilitate collaboration among service teams. Check for screen recordings, chats and other features that will make it easier to solve customer issues. Note that customers consider how fast a company responds to their inquiry to determine their loyalty. A ticketing system with collaborative features will make it easier for you to respond and solve consumer problems thus increased retention.

Smart messaging and rerouting

Some IT problems demand complex solutions. The help desk agents may not be able to offer immediate answers and have to seek assistance from those above them. For instance, if the customer’s concerns are technical, they have to be directed to the specialists that bear the credentials which match the customer demands. Your ticket system should enable you to redirect or reroute the inquiries to the suitable team. This ensures reliability and efficiency.

Multiple channel support

Every business should strive to offer convenient customer service at all times. Look for means to accommodate all your customers and there is no better way to do so than by introducing multiple customer service channels. Your ticketing system should serve as a link between different departments dealing with customer enquiries. Let your clients send their concerns via email, social media and SMS with assurance that they will get a timely response.

How to choose the right ticketing tool for your business

The right ticketing system for your business depends on your precise needs. Some tips to help you make sound purchase decision include;

Available features

Pay attention to the features of the tool to ensure that it can help you meet your end goal. For instance, it would help to choose a system that adds collaborative features like Kanban boards, internal team chat and shared inbox. Such features promote convenience and save time by eliminating the need to switch between emails and help desk.

Identify your needs

The most critical step before embarking on your search for ticketing software is to identify your support team’s needs. The team will use and rely on the system heavily, so you want to ensure that what you invest in will make their work easier. Talk to the support team and let them share the problems that they are facing. Then look for a system that can solve those issues, simplify their routine and boost productivity.

Your  customers’ needs matter

Although your primary concern is to meet the needs of your support team, it is also advisable to get a solution that will help meet your customers’ expectations. Aim to offer consistent and seamless customer experience. Think of a system that can boost customer interaction and reduce their waiting time.

The cost

It will help to come up with a budget for your ticketing software. How much can you comfortably afford to pay for the service? If you own a small business, avoid ticketing systems that are meant for large enterprises as they mostly feature high subscription plans. You may also try free helpdesk software for basic but helpful features.

What are the best IT ticketing systems available?

Drag
kanban board

Rating by Capterra: 4.4 stars
Rating by G2: 4.5 stars

Pricing:  $8/month/user

Drag is the best IT ticketing system for any team using Gmail. The first thing to love about Drag App is that it’s a chrome extension that adds collaborative features such as shared Kanban boards, internal team chat and email assignments to your Gmail.

It transforms Gmail into a help desk operations space, allowing you to use Gmail as helpdesk with shared inbox without having to switch tabs. The teams can manage shared inboxes such as support and billing collaboratively from Gmail, thus no need to switch between Gmail and Help Desk or CRM.

With Drag the email threads themselves can be treated as cards, so you never have to copy paste information. And you can add notes to the email and even share email drafts, so everything can be kept in just one place.

Even better, you can automate the repetitive part of your work for incoming emails to assigned cards on boards with Drag and focus on what’s more important.

Ticketing features

  • It has collaborative features to boost productivity and eliminate errors;
  • Transforms Gmail into a single working platform;
  • Kanban Gmail viewing board makes it easy for the teams to view which requests need immediate attention;
  • Automation features to skip repetitive work setting up task cards;
  • Mobile and desktop integration makes it easy for teams to view requests from different devices.

Pros

  • Easy to use for anyone used to Gmail’s interface;
  • Emails as cards on boards;
  • Award winning customer support.

Cons

  • It is only suited for businesses using Google Workspace

Zendesk
zendesk home page

Rating by Capterra: 4.4 stars
Rating by G2: 4.3 stars

Pricing: $19/month/user

Zendesk helpdesk ticketing system is designed to help customer support teams connect with customers across different platforms. It features a centralized hub that makes it easy for admins and managers to track the performance metrics and KPIs of their teams and make necessary adjustments.

Zendesk is also ideal for chat agents and chatbots who wish to get a comprehensive view of the whole customer journey. This way, the bots can stop searching for info and focus more on serving customers.

The main feature that differentiates Zendesk from other IT ticketing systems is the context. Customers love to chat with customer service teams they can connect with. They don’t want to feel like they are chatting with a robot. Zendesk aims to offer personalized service for each client by offering the service team with full details about each customer.

Ticketing features

  • The system allows integration with other apps to speed up problem solving processes
  • Zendesk facilitates ITicket collaboration
  • Features a knowledge base
  • Authentication options to boost security and compliance

Pros

  • Integrates with other apps
  • Easy to use interface
  • Offers a personalized experience for customers
  • Enables collaboration

Cons

  • It’s a bit expensive for small enterprises

Zoho Desk
zoho desk screenshot

Rating by Capterra: 4.5 stars
Rating by G2: 4.5 stars

Pricing: $14/month/user

Zoho desk is an ideal solution for small customer support teams that need a system they can grow with. It is also suitable for organizations that are already using other Zoho products, to take advantage of integrations.

You can easily sync your database with Zoho CRM. Furthermore, the system adds other features such as data analysis and social media integration.

With Zoho desk, you can manage, prioritize and close a constantly increasing volume of requests through multiple channels. You can analyze the performance of your customer team and make improvements if necessary.

The help desk support system features Contextual AI that lets you offer the kind of support your customers expect.

Ticketing features

  • The ticketing system features work flow automation
  • Has real time chat tool
  • Integration with CRM
  • Has Contextual AI and SDKs

Pros

  • Integratable with other Zoho products
  • Allows call logging and recording
  • Highly configurable

Cons

  • The system is a bit complex to use and customize
  • Most advanced features are only accessible at high subscription rates

Help Scout
helpscout screenshot

Rating by Capterra: 4.4 stars
Rating by G2: 4.4 stars

Pricing: $15/ month/user

Help Scout offers a more personalized customer experience, just like email. The ticketing software is ideal for organizations of all sizes, but is mostly recommended for companies with more than ten users.

Moreover, the system features in-class reporting, strong API and is Integratable with other systems. Help Scout offers free Android and iOS apps to offer users support on the go.

In addition, this helpdesk ticketing system provides in-built knowledge base and with its extensive range of integrations, it is easier to connect with customers via a ton of customer channels.

Ticketing features

  • Has rule-based automation
  • The system features extensions and integrations with other systems
  • Built-in knowledge base content management
  • Enables multi-channel communication

Pros

  • The system is easy to use and understand
  • It makes it easier to organize customer services and delegate tasks
  • You can configure the platform to look like email
  • Makes it easy to personalize and optimize performance

Cons

  • The system lacks spam filter

Freshdesk
freshdesk screenshot

Rating by Capterra: 4.5 stars

Rating by G2: 4.5 stars

Pricing: $15/agent/month billed annually

Freshdesk features shared inbox which makes it for customer support team members to organize, assign and collaborate. The system enables interaction on different channels. It converts incoming email, Twitter, Facebook or voicemail request into tickets automatically. It also makes it possible to prioritize urgent tickets and assign them to the right support agents.

It has automation features that aim to eliminate repetitive tasks and give agents more time to focus on urgent tickets or ones that need attention.

Freshdesk enables you to send automatic emails to clients based on the status of their tickets or perform other actions on the tickets with a few clicks.

Ticketing features

  • Has automation features
  • Real-time chat for convenience
  • Enables customization
  • Features extensions and APIs
  • Both private and public knowledge base

Pros

  • Freshdesk boosts agent performance through help desk metrics
  • Offers personalized customer engagement
  • Enables tickets sorting and prioritizing

Cons

  • Ticket management for mobile app is not optimized
  • Email formatting in Freshdesk is a bit tedious and time consuming

How does an IT ticketing system work?

An IT ticketing system is designed to translate all end user requests from different sources into tickets. The software tracks the tickets’ status as the helpdesk team works on solving the requests. Moreover, the system records all the interactions, both internal conversations and communication between the rep and the users.

What are its workflow steps?

The system starts by creating a document, also known as the ticket. The document records interactions on a support case.

The created ticket is then shared between the customer and rep, then records their interactions in a single, continuous thread. If any detail is overlooked, both parties can go back, review the thread and make the necessary changes.

Once the ticket is created, the customer service team can work on the problem on their end and alert users via the tickets once they are done. And if the user has further questions, they can use the same ticket to contact the rep.

Once the issue is completely solved, the rep or customer can close the tickets, but they can be reopened if anything comes up.

Do IT ticketing systems differentiate from others, like HR ticketing systems?

IT ticketing system aims to help organizations to resolve their internal IT support problems. It works by helping the service team to manage and streamline the problem solving process.

On the other hand, a HR helpdesk ticketing system helps with employee management and organization of information. It also aims to automate manual tasks to create more time for the HR team to focus on other productive processes. 

Why you need a ticketing system

Times are changing and you must willingly adopt a solution that matches the constantly rising customer demands. Having a ticketing system streamlines the problem solving process, which helps save time and minimize chances of errors. The main benefits of a competent ticketing system include;

  • Boost agent productivity
  • Promotes transparency in customer service performance
  • Improves customer interaction
  • Ensures teams collaboration

How to implement a ticketing system

Ticketing systems have exciting capabilities. However, the only way to make the most out of the features is through proper implementation. Some best practices to help you enjoy the numerous benefits of ticketing tools include;

Invest in training – train your agents on how to use the new system and make use of all features

Create a self-service knowledge base – it will help to create time to build a knowledge base for your customers. This idea improves the agents’ experience as they do their job and makes your clients happier.

Automate – it will be best to automate processes with predefined actions. This reduces the response time and keeps and increases productivity.

Investing in a reliable IT ticketing system is one of the secrets to reducing downtime in your company, saving time and maximizing productivity. Drag has proven to be one of the most effective IT ticketing systems available. Sign up to enjoy the benefits. Also, check out how Boosted Commerce is using Drag to better their customer service.

Get an IT ticketing system in your Gmail

Drag turns Gmail into your Team’s Workspace – One single place to support customers, manage tasks and close deals, from the place teams love: Gmail. We are a Techstars-backed Company, trusted by 30,000 users around the World.

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J Olof Stefenson

Author J Olof Stefenson

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