You probably don’t need a customer support system that holds their hands, but it does need to be fast and responsive. If your customer support system takes several minutes or even hours to respond, you have an issue since your customers are slightly impatient and expect an immediate response.
This is why streamlining operations with a help desk ticketing system is often an effective solution. Don’t worry; this doesn’t mean wading through tons of tickets with the expectation of answering every single one within seconds. Instead, it’s a handy system that can put your help desk on overdrive. Ready to learn more? Keep reading to find out more about the benefits of help desk ticketing systems.
What is a Help Desk Ticketing System
A help desk ticketing system is basically what its name implies, only without the paper. You don’t need to worry about paper tickets piling up. This practice is outdated and ineffective. Even if you’re averse to technology, this is one system you can easily embrace.
So, what is a help desk ticketing system? The premise is pretty simple. When a customer generates a query, and the question can be about basically anything from a product complaint to wondering when an item will be back in stock, a ticket is generated. Once again, don’t think of paper tickets—instead, you’ll receive a message, even an email, with a ticket number and possibly even a deadline.
The deadline lets you know how long you have to respond to the customer. Yes, the customer also has a general idea of when to expect a response. This can help to cut down the number of tickets a consumer generates for the same query.
Okay, the ticket is numbered and this doesn’t necessarily apply to the order it comes in. The system organizes the tickets and sends them to various departments. For example, a complaint will go to one department and a technical issue will be sent somewhere else. This means each department is only dealing with tickets that fit into their area, it’s an effective way of streamlining the process.
Back to the ticket number; the assigned number typically relates to importance. If the customer’s tech issue is preventing the product from working, their ticket will have a higher importance than someone who’s simply asking if you carry the technology.
To quickly recap: a help desk ticketing system separates, prioritizes, and assigns deadlines so your staff is only responsible for responding to the queries. This effectively eliminates backlogs and prevents tickets from getting lost as they’re sent from one department to another.
Streamlining Your Help Desk with a Ticketing System
Now that you have a basic understanding of a help desk ticketing system, it’s time to look at how it can streamline your customer service department. If you’re not paying a lot of attention to your customer service department, you’re making a mistake. You may be losing your existing clients and having trouble attracting new customers. This is never good for your bottom line.
How do you know if your customer service is sub-par? An easy way is to check your customer reviews. If service isn’t up to your customer’s standards, chances are, they’re letting everyone know in their reviews.
Here’s a fun fact to remember. On average, 82% of consumers expect a fast response to their requests for support. Meeting consumers’ lofty expectations can be stressful unless you’re taking advantage of a ticketing system for your help desk. Here’s how a ticketing system can help you accomplish your goals.
Automate the Process
Compared to technology, humans are slow. Even if you have a large staff devoted entirely to your help desk, technology is still faster. You’ll also quickly find that it’s also significantly cheaper. Instead of hiring several employees, one system can take care of most of the work. This way, your staff can focus on other tasks.
With an automated ticketing system, your staff isn’t manually entering data. All customer requests are automatically turned into tickets. Critical tickets jump to the front of the pack, instead of getting lost in a stack of queries. Your staff instantly knows which tickets are considered a higher priority than others. This means your goal of responding promptly, within minutes, is easier to meet.
Automating the process also means your valuable clients can receive the level of support they often require. You can more easily keep your largest spenders happy and help to ensure their repeat business.
Boost Your Support Staff’s Performance
Your help desk is only as good as your staff’s performance. If they’re overwhelmed, so is your customer support system. You may have gaps in your help desk resources that no one has noticed due to the large volume of daily tickets.
With a ticketing system, your support staff gets a bit of a breather. Remember, they’re no longer manually entering data to create the ticket. The system takes care of this. All your support staff is responsible for is to provide solutions to customers’ queries. This means your staff is more likely to notice if the same complaint or question is coming in several times a week or even daily. This may mean dedicating a few support personnel to handle this one issue.
The ticketing system can also alert you if deadlines are being missed. This allows you to identify reasons and issues for the delay. Once you know there is a delay, you can start working on solutions.
Improve Customer Relations
Customers can be impatient and they’re not afraid to leave reviews detailing any issues they have with a company. Other consumers pay attention to reviews, and this means so should you.
When your help desk is running smoothly, customer relations generally see a boost. Simply by speeding up response times to their queries, you can significantly improve your customer relations.
Give Your Customers the Support They Deserve
Adopting a help desk ticketing system, though it might appear to be a minor adjustment, can profoundly transform various aspects of your business. This change streamlines customer service processes, ensuring that every inquiry or issue is tracked, managed, and resolved efficiently.
The automation of help desk tickets not only boosts the efficiency and responsiveness of customer support teams but also significantly improves customer satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, by providing valuable insights into common customer issues and support performance, a ticketing system can guide strategic decisions that directly contribute to your business’s growth and profitability.
With over a decade in the tech field, Bogdan blends technical expertise with insights on business innovation in technology.
A regular contributor to TMS Outsource's blog, where you'll find sharp analyses on software development, tech business strategies, and global tech dynamics.
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