When companies adopt a help desk ticketing system, they are making a proactive investment in long-term customer satisfaction and creating an environment in which their agents can feel empowered to do their best work.
Ultimately, they are also making a wise decision to confront the unknown by focusing on what they can control. For example, as businesses grow, it can be difficult to predict the volume of questions and complaints a customer service team will face. Customers may also reach out from an ever-increasing range of channels, which means companies need to ensure their agents are prepared to meet them wherever they are.
What is a help desk ticketing system?
A help desk ticketing system streamlines the collection of data and agent workflows regardless of how busy contact centers get or what channels customers choose. By converting issues into tickets, customer service teams can organize their workloads and prioritize.
According to Forbes, up to 96% of customers say they would switch brands after receiving poor customer service. With reports of contact center wait times tripling and companies struggling to keep them staffed, business leaders have an opportunity to get ahead of these issues and lay a foundation for customer service excellence.
That means companies can focus on retaining customers and deepening their loyalty, rather than worry about losing out to competitors.
Customer service ticket system advantages
Consider some of the top help desk ticketing system benefits:
1. Guided agent and customer journeys
Distractions can come at customer service agents from every direction, whether that means questions from a colleague or requests from a senior manager. However, keeping focused on customers waiting for help needs to be a key focus at all times.
Customer service ticket systems can help by offering notifications when certain conditions are met, such as when a new request comes into the queue or if there has been no movement on a ticket after a set period of time.
The same capabilities can also empower customers and allow them to be notified at key points, such as when their ticket has been logged or if they need to provide any additional details.
2. Enhanced escalation of complex tickets to experts
Even when companies train their customer service team well, there can be some tickets that require a deeper level of product knowledge or experience.
A customer service ticket system helps route issues to the team member most qualified to tackle the toughest questions or problems. That frees up the rest of the staff to respond more quickly to other tickets and get through more of the queue.
3. Effective management of a remote or hybrid workforce
Traditionally, customer service agents were centralized in an on-site contact center. The past few years have changed that, as more organizations recognize the opportunity to offer their contact center workforce greater flexibility.
One of the potential risks of remote or hybrid work, though, is losing track of who is doing what. A customer service ticket system provides a convenient platform to assign work and manage schedules whether agents are in the office, at home or elsewhere.
4. Reduced duplication of effort and manual errors
A danger for organizations not using a help desk ticketing system is the possibility for customers to receive a response to their inquiry from multiple agents. This kind of disconnect can be frustrating for everyone involved, given that it translates into time wasted.
It's far easier to keep track of tickets when you have a system that provides greater visibility into what issues are coming in and who should be responsible for communicating with the customer.
Automation can create even greater efficiencies by organizing set responses to some of the most common questions.
5. Improved monitoring and measurement of agent performance
Every employee deserves the best coaching their employer can offer them. However, contact center shortages make it harder for managers to dedicate as much time to training, coaching and assessing how each agent is carrying out their duties from day to day.
Help desk software gives managers a dashboard with insights into which agents are resolving tickets quickly and effectively (and should therefore be rewarded) versus which ones need more training or assistance. Meanwhile, agents can be incentivized with data about their performance and those of their peers, gamifying their job with some healthy competition.
6. Greater ability to track key performance indicators and set goals
For some organizations, lowering the average time to resolve a ticket is a key performance indicator. For others, it might be boosting the average response time.
Whatever the metric, a help desk ticketing system can evaluate the organization's overall progress in delivering top-tier customer service—and what it could do to go even further.
7. Increased insight into customer needs and expectations
The value of customer service departments is not limited to resolving every ticket in the queue. The work they do can also be a gold mine in terms of contributing to the collective intelligence of the entire organization.
For example, help desk data could identify trends and patterns about where customers typically run into trouble with a product, as well as opportunities to introduce self-service tools and capabilities.
Partnering with a trusted, experienced provider such as Verizon can give you access to the latest of these tools and capabilities to deliver game-changing customer experience. Learn more about Verizon's cloud-based customer experience tools, and reimagine the future of your help desk today.
The author of this content is a paid contributor for Verizon.