Young businesses may get away with a team shared inbox. However, when success knocks on your door and your sales start to grow, you’ll quickly be overwhelmed with emails coming from satisfied (and less satisfied) clients. Not to mention the multiple requests you will receive in the shape of phone calls, live chat messages, or comments on your social media accounts. That’s when requests start falling through the cracks and customer satisfaction decreases.
The solution: getting a killer ticketing system that enables your team to stay on top of customer requests at all times, and solve their issues as fast as possible. This will also result in happier customers, which essentially will bring more loyalty, new leads and higher profits. Born to replace spreadsheets, ticket management systems are now the core of help desk operations. But how do you a recognize a strong ticket solution when you see one? These are the 10 must-have features you should look for in your ticket management system:
01. Multi-channel accessibility
It’s no secret that we live in a hyperconnected society. Streamlining your customer support efforts across multiple platforms is more important than ever. By offering diverse contact channels, you allow users to pick whichever they feel more comfortable with. This freedom of choice results in an overall better experience that benefits both sides.
Because of this, a good ticket management solution ought to be able to track and manage requests from multiple channels. As of today, phone and email are the two largest support channels, followed by live chat. Despite its popularity, social media networks are still far behind these three main communication lines - but there’s no doubt they will grow significantly in the near future. Choosing a system that supports these types of communications, and merges them into one clean, ordered line of tickets, will have a major impact on your customer success results.
02. Support for multiple languages
There is no such thing as geographic borders on the online world. And there is no point on creating them yourself by using a ticketing system that supports only one language. It’s not just about being understood, but about offering your customers the best possible experience. Speaking their language is the first step towards a loyal relationship. Even if Google Translate is just two clicks away, users are looking for brands who go the extra mile. The only thing you should expect from customers is to reach out. The rest of the efforts depend on you, and the capability of your ticket management system to support multiple idioms.
Don’t need a multilingual support at the moment? Think ahead. Most online businesses require at least two languages to properly serve their users. Why choose a monolinguistic ticket management solution now just to go through the whole process again in just a few years at best? Make the right decision, and choose it now.
03. Full customization
Your ticket management system should be fully integrated into your brand. That is, it should look, act, and feel the same as the rest of your online presence. This is especially important from a user experience point of view. Customers don’t want to feel as if your business just didn’t put enough effort into the platform that gives them a voice. Because of this, you should stay away from systems that cannot be personalized.
Ideally, you want to start the process with a template. By doing so, you will save a lot of time and effort. Simply customize the colors and style to fit your brand, and you’re good to go. A good ticket management solution should also include customizable email templates. Again, this will help you create a cohesive brand with minimal requirements. The impact is also huge for you and your team, as the better the navigation (and more pleasant the layout of your system), the more efficient your workflow will be.
04. Workflow automation
This feature is an absolute must. Regardless of the industry, your business needs a ticket management system that works with rule engines. These allow you to create automation rules to assign new tasks. For example, you can use them to send alerts when tickets become overdue or create a filter system based on keywords. Essentially, it eliminates the delay between receiving a customer request and getting it to the right person.
Automating repetitive tasks will significantly reduce the time required to serve each user. At the same time, it will reduce the number of potential mistakes. Overall, workflow automation reduces agent demands and results in a better customer experience.
05. Personalized ticket pages
Each person is unique, and so are their needs and demands. On top of that, customers expect businesses to know their preferences beforehand, especially if they already contacted your support team in the past. The more you know about each customer, the better the service you will be able to provide. Before ticket management systems, this was nearly impossible. Now, however, it is a complete necessity. This is where personalized ticket pages come in. When a new query is created, agents will be able to access the entire ticket history of the user, from which issues they had in the past to how they were or are being handled. Not having to ask the same question twice will save time and nurture your customer base loyalty.
For better results, some ticket management systems now offer a device data log feature. This collects information about the device, browser and Internet service provider. Device data log is especially valuable for businesses whose service depends on the Internet access of the customer. For them, having this information in advance will significantly reduce the number of basic questions agents will need to ask before being able to properly serve the user.
06. Ticket categories and tags
A ticket management system without categories is like The Avengers ensemble on a bad day: a mixture that is just asking for chaos. So much happens from the moment a query is created to the moment it is solved. Moving them around, merging them, searching for issues, assigning them to different agents… The only way to keep track without losing your mind in the process is by labeling each ticket and process accordingly.
Doing so will enable agents to rapidly understand the status of each request and the steps that need to be taken. Additionally, systems which allow for advanced filtering enable for rapid search by issue, status, department, type of request, and more.
07. Knowledge base
A comprehensive knowledge base is the backbone of a strong customer support service. Offering quick answers through a searchable content database will result in happier customers and a lower amount of support requests. Industry research shows that 45% of companies offering web or mobile self-service reported both an increase in their website traffic, and a reduction of their phone inquiries.
This portal is also a key piece of any ticket management solution. And as such, it should be easily accessible from within the system. Having ticket deflection capabilities can save your team a significant amount of time. Even more so, a platform with smart suggestion capabilities may even save you the hassle of searching for the relevant content. Especially when dealing when the most common issues and requests.
08. Team empowerment
A good ticket managing system should benefit your team first and foremost. No matter how great the system is, it just won’t work without a strong team behind it. This platform should significantly reduce the effort required to answer a ticket. As well as provide the tools to improve team communication.
The amount of features your team can benefit from is almost unlimited. From basic ones like assigning tickets to groups or individuals, to more advanced features such as adding internal notes to discussions for future references. Managers should be able to track the team’s individual and collective performance, as well as creating announcements that can easily be sent out to the whole team.
09. Reporting tools
The first step to improvement is knowing what needs to be improved. This is why insights are one of the most important features of a good ticket managing system. Based on the requests you receive, they will allow you to see what customers are looking for, how they are being answered, and how your team is performing as a whole.
This information is priceless and will be the source of pretty much every move your support department makes. Think of the next articles that will be published on your knowledge base, for example. And which category to train your new agents in. And the need for a new cross-team workflow. And an infinite etcetera.
10. Customer experience oriented
The optimal ticket management system should allow you to improve your customers’ complete experience. It’s not just about offering them the correct answers, but being with them every step of the way, and making sure that they receive what they need in a comfortable and quick manner.
You can start by including a help widget to offer help from anywhere on your professional website. Once they decide to open a ticket, use custom fields to ask for information that will keep follow-up questions to a minimum. After their ticket has been answered, encourage them to leave feedback about their experience. This will help you understand which areas you need to improve on to provide better service.
Ready to manage tickets from multiple channels? Setup your ticketing system today!