IT staff plays a crucial role in keeping organizations running optimally. Support ticketing software aids your IT team in helping your organization while being as productive as possible.
The longer a support ticket is open, the more money your organization is probably losing in productivity. Ticket management makes it possible to prioritize issues based on their severity.
Ticketing systems also help reduce emails and phone calls to the IT department by allowing staff and customers to input their own tickets via the online system. We’ll explain the benefits of this type of software, features to look for and the top software on the market.
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What are the Benefits of Support Ticketing Software?
Ticket support for IT teams has many benefits that help improve productivity and resolve issues with timeliness. These benefits include:
- Prioritizing requests based on urgency
- Facilitating simple communication between support and the requester
- Organizing your IT team’s efforts
- Keeping track of recurring issues and providing analytics
- Building improved efficiency for your team
- Tracking how long a support ticket has been open
- Delegating tickets based on support staff expertise
- Adding a level of professionalism to your team
What Factors Make a Good Support Ticketing Software?
When evaluating customer support ticketing software you have two main considerations:
- The needs of your customers (both internal staff and external stakeholders)
- The needs of your customer support agents
Balancing both audiences is important and will produce the best results and the most beneficial software. Here are some main considerations for accommodating both audiences.
Bug Tracking
Track tickets from intake to resolution. The requestor will get regular updates about what’s happening with their request and you’ll have a better understanding of the time it takes to resolve different types of problems. This enables improved communication between IT and customers while ensuring you never lose or miss a request.
Collaboration
Taking ticket requests through email or phone calls generally means that only one support agent can work on that ticket. If the support agent goes on vacation or is out sick, the ticket might take longer than it should to resolve. Or, you might end up with agents who have too much work to accomplish while others don’t have enough.
Collaboration is the key to ensuring that workloads are split evenly and that tickets don’t get stuck when someone is out of the office. Remote workers can also collaborate easily to see open tickets and help out where needed without being there to answer phones or talk to people who walk into the support office.
Analytics
Analytics provide real-time statistics on how long each type of issue takes to resolve. You’ll also be able to track the frequency of recurring issues to look for major software updates or hardware upgrades your team requires. This allows you to be proactive in your IT support by viewing trends. You’ll also understand where your team spends the most time, which can be helpful in knowing what expertise you should hire to expand your team when the time comes.
User Interface
The best software interfaces are ones that both customers and support agents can navigate easily. For customers, it means allowing them to explain their issue clearly and with the detail your support team needs to troubleshoot the issue. And for agents, it means providing alerts on outstanding tickets or tickets that have remained open for too long.
Easy-to-use interfaces ensure that customers don’t bypass the ticketing software and just call their favorite support agent or send a generic email. This is an important element in ensuring full adoption of the system so that you get the most out of it.
Knowledge Base
A knowledge base allows users to find answers to their questions quickly. They enjoy the ability to solve their issues without waiting for support staff, your organization spends less on support and your agents free up time to work on other things. It’s truly beneficial for all stakeholders involved.
Look for a ticketing software that allows for an external knowledge base with FAQs, service updates and troubleshooting information. The more categorization and searchability, the better.
The Best Support Ticketing Software
Take a step toward improved IT support team efficiency while delighting your customers by adding one of the best support ticket software options to your business. This list includes the top products on the market with information about the businesses they are best suited for.
1. Best for Small Businesses: Freshdesk
The Freshdesk user interface is incredibly inviting and simple. Your team will find it easier to prioritize help tickets. One thing to note about Freshdesk is that it’s really tailored for supporting external customers over internal staff. With a free tier, small teams can test out the software to see if it’s right for them and upgrade as the business grows.
Pricing: Get started with a 21-day free plan that includes email and social ticketing, a knowledge base, ticket trend reports and more. The free plan is available for an unlimited number of agents so you can see how Freshdesk works with your team. Once your trial ends, the entry-level tier is $15 per month per support agent.
2. Best for Growing Businesses: Zoho Desk
Small businesses looking for software that will grow with them should take a good look at Zoho Desk. If you’re just getting started with your business, Zoho Desk offers a suite of products from office tools to a CRM. The tools all integrate to create an outstanding experience for your staff. Additionally, you’ll find the support ticketing software to be feature-rich for the price.
Pricing: Small businesses with 3 agents or less can enjoy the free plan, which offers helpful features to get your business up and running. Upgrade to a paid plan to get more robust analytics, a public knowledge base, product-based ticketing and more for $12 per month per agent.
3. Best for Improving Customer Service Experience: Zendesk Support
If you view your support desk as a part of your marketing and customer experience team, Zendesk Suite is right for you. Take support tickets through all channels, including social media. Integrate your marketing or CRM software to have a clearer picture of who is requesting support. And get in-depth reports to better understand recurring issues or trends to improve your customer experience.
Pricing: Plans start at $49 per month per agent but you can test out the software with a free trial. It’s by far not the least expensive plan but it is thorough and provides the tools and resources you need to improve your customer relationships.
4. Best for Teams Already Using HubSpot: HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot offers a suite of cloud-based software services to connect your teams. For organizations using HubSpot for sales, marketing or CRM, integrating the help desk software will serve you well. Build an online knowledge base, route and organize tickets, manage 1-on-1 customer communication, and get in-depth reporting to help your team learn and grow.
Pricing: Like other HubSpot products, you can get started with the help desk software for free for 1 account. Once you have 2 agents though, you’ll need to pay $45 per month. You can bundle your HubSpot software and get the CRM, marketing, sales and service hub starter pack for $50.
5. Best Free Option: Spiceworks
Spiceworks is an entirely free ticketing software. You’ll get all the features the program offers but you’ll also see some ads within the system, which is how the software sustains itself financially. But it’s still very robust. You can use it through your web browser or with a mobile app for Android or iOS.
Pricing: The software is free for an unlimited number of users and an unlimited number of tickets.
6. Best for Bringing IT Operations Under 1 System: ServiceNow
Manage both internal and external support tickets through ServiceNow. But you can also manage governance, administration and more through the software. Create custom workflows based on the type of user — internal, external or support staff. Manage your IT assets through the software as well. The software offers many extensions and apps to integrate your other programs and centralize your operations.
Pricing: ServiceNow does not publish its prices. Instead, you have to reach out for a custom quote based on your needs and users.
Get Optimal Productivity
Support ticketing software helps modernize your IT operations while ensuring optimal staff productivity. As you evaluate which system might be right for you, consider your existing technology and how it might work together.
Integrating your software with your other office tools, such as your CRM or business email, can further improve the usefulness of the software.
