When not just any solution will work, you want to find the best help desk ticketing software for your business. You might be wondering how you can find the best software to suit your business’ needs. After all, your business is unique, and you might feel like a one size fits all approach isn’t right. Well, the good news is the best help desk ticketing software will work around your business, enabling you to customize it to suit your requirements.
Besides customization, what should you be looking for? If you’re an early-stage business, or if you’re simply new to providing a help desk ticketing service, you might be struggling to know exactly what your perfect help desk will look like. Customers are at the heart of your business, and so their wants and needs should be considered first and foremost. Since a help desk is there to create a more positive customer experience, viewing everything through the lens of a happy customer will help to identify your ideal help desk ticket system.
Once the needs of your customers have been taken into account, it’s important to recognize what you need to make your business run the most efficiently and be the best it can be. With so many tools and software out there, which one is going to be the best for your needs?
We’ve put together this handy guide for picking the help desk ticketing software that will move your business forward, and win you loyal customers that keep coming back.
Why Does Your Business Need a Help Desk Ticketing System?
When you’re running a business, there are so many balls to juggle and plates to spin. But, the last thing you want your business to be is a circus. Part of turning your business into a smooth running, well-oiled machine is providing top quality customer service.
You may think that simply replying to emails does the trick in regard to answering customer queries and providing information. But, where’s the scalability in that? It’s probable that your goal is to grow your business and strive for continuing success. In order for that to happen, you’ll need more customers. More customers mean more questions and queries to respond to.
Scalability is just one of the key reasons your business needs a help desk ticketing system. There are a number of support processes that can be automated through help desk ticket systems. These include:
- Responding to queries
- Providing answers to questions and signposting to further information
- Tracking of productivity and issues
- Consolidation of customer data
The whole purpose of a help desk ticketing system is to make processes within your business more efficient and effective, so it can grow and develop. You can scale your business with automation, since processes can be carried out quickly and accurately. Mistakes and human errors are minimized, and operational efficiency is increased, which is great for keeping budgets in line.
According to research, customer expectations are 65% higher than they were five years ago. People want fantastic products and services, without any roadblocks or difficulties getting in the way. Businesses should invest in help desk software in order to keep up with rising expectations.
To fully appreciate the benefits of a help desk ticketing system, we will first go over exactly what one is. It’s a huge help to have a strong understanding of help desk ticket software, so you know what to look for in the help desk software that’s right for you.
So, what is a help desk ticketing system?
A help desk refers to software that is a collection of all the tools a business might need in order to provide great customer service. This can be integrated into apps and systems, and include contact management, registration mechanisms and, of course, ticketing management.
Ticketing systems record interactions between customers and service agents. These can be referred back to at any time by both the customer and agent (plus any other agents that may need to be involved). This system provides centralized information that is easily organized and accessed, ensuring no customer issues are left unresolved or unanswered.
Research shows that 86% of consumers prefer humans to chatbots. However, it would be a mistake to assume that help desk software replaces human service agents. Rather, they act as a brilliant assistant to your valuable customer service team, enabling them to deliver the finest service.
The best help desk software will streamline customer service work, including the repetitive tasks that take up a lot of time. This organization and automation frees up time for humans to chat to humans, which customers appreciate highly.
A help desk ticketing system will also aid the provision of customer service on an omnichannel basis. This increases the level of accessibility to support for your business, and ensures inquiries and communications from various sources are picked up and responded to in a timely fashion.
Taking an omnichannel approach also means it’s much easier for customers to get in contact. Think about when you’ve tried to get in touch with a business to ask a question. You appreciated the speed at which you could find the necessary contact information to make your inquiry, and felt confident that you’d get the answers you needed. Or, perhaps you struggled to do this as it was not obvious who to contact, and so you gave up and took your custom elsewhere.
Help desk ticketing software ensures you never lose customers in this manner again.
Key Features of an Effective Help Desk Ticketing System
We’ve looked at the major benefits of integrating a help desk ticket system into your business. Now, it’s time to go over the key features that help desk software possesses, in order for these benefits to be brought into being.
There are a number of useful features included in help desk ticketing software. Communications can be taken from email, social media, telephone calls, texts, live chat, and contact form, and turned into a ticket. This is the core of ticketing systems, but the additional features are what make this software so attractive for growing businesses.
- Knowledge Hubs & Tutorials – Articles and guides that are available to either customers, agents, or both can be accessed via help desk software. This means information is readily available, and can help to solve issues more promptly.
- Tracking & Automation – Help desk ticket systems make it easy for SLAs (service level agreements) to be set and met. As a result, customers are responded to on time, avoiding any frustration. These can be customized, and businesses can keep on top of various milestones, e.g. first answered.
- Tagging – Adding tags in help desk ticketing software enables rules and timed rules to be implemented, as well as a customized workflow to be created.
- Reports – Metrics that indicate the performance of your customer service agents can be found and compiled into reports. This includes the number of answered tickets, and how long after tickets are received that they are replied to. Equally, ticketing software lets you access reports and information relating to your customers, helping you to stay informed about your customer service operations, as well as how they can be improved.
- Internal Notes – The use of internal notes and tickets within help desk software means agents can share information quickly and accurately with one another. These notes are perfect for escalating situations through to other departments, but also as reminders to agents revisiting outstanding cases.
- Canned Responses – You can set up canned or predefined responses within your ticketing system, streamlining the response process for your agents. These responses also mean no crucial information is missed, and that practices are unified across the business.
This list is not exhaustive, and there are plenty of other features to be looked at and considered when choosing the right help desk ticketing system.
It might sound like, although extremely advantageous and vital, an effective help desk ticketing system will require a high level of technical skill to integrate. This isn’t so.
Wavity offers an amazing no-code help desk software solution, that can be made to fit any type of business. There’s no need to rebuild an entire tech stack to add a new help desk ticketing service. You can easily integrate one and still keep using the tools you love and are used to.
With the right help desk ticketing software, you can integrate third party business tools, like Slack, Asana, or Google Drive, without any hassle. Besides any tools your business uses to function, you can also integrate things like email and social media with your ticketing software. This allows you to get a clearer picture of how customers are interacting with your business online, so you can keep up to date with their expectations.
Alongside keeping an eye on what your customers are saying about you on social media, it’s key to the growth of your business to keep track of certain metrics and KPIs. A lot of these are found within a business’ customer service, and include things like net promoter score, first contact resolution, and average resolution time. Checking that a help desk ticketing system keeps track of the areas you need it to is an important factor to consider when finding a software for your business.
How to Choose the Best Ticketing Software for Your Business
Now that you’re armed with useful information to guide you through finding the best help desk software for your business, it’s time to start the all important decision-making. We understand that time is incredibly precious in the business world. Knowing how to approach choosing the best ticketing system will save you time, whilst helping you feel like you’re making an informed choice.
Before you invest in help desk ticketing software, we recommend running a comparison. Taking this approach will help make it clear what your must-have features and deal breakers are. It’s also the perfect way to see what’s on offer, as well as gauge how much you’re willing to spend. Some things to consider are:
- Affordability
- Ease of use
- Customer service features
- Third-party integration
- Knowledge base management
Looking at the full picture when comparing ticketing software is key. In order to carry out a successful comparison, you must first identify which features matter most to your business. If you’re most excited about having your customer service agents collaborate with other departments, look out for software that supports this. Maybe you’re trying to branch out your business to other countries, and capture a global audience. A help desk ticketing software that offers support for multiple languages will be high on your list of priorities.
Being aware of just how beneficial the features of a ticketing system are will also guide your comparison and decision-making. When lining different software up side by side, be mindful of the knowledge base aspect. 45% of organizations that offer online self-service help enjoy boosted web traffic, and a reduction in phone-in queries. This takes unnecessary pressure off of customer service agents, whilst improving your online presence. Furthermore, it increases customer satisfaction by making information more readily available.
When comparing help desk software, ease of use and an intuitive interface are significantly important. As with implementing any new tools or systems, you want your service agents to be able to adapt quickly to the new software, avoiding any impact on performance.
Taking the time to trial different systems will give you the opportunity to experience the software before you commit to it. Getting an idea of how it will look, and any aspects that present issues for your business or way of working, means you won’t make the wrong choice when picking software. At Wavity, we offer a 30-day free trial of our no-code help desk and ticketing services, so you can see how our software will fit in beautifully with your business.
Affordability is another aspect to consider when comparing help desk ticket software. The idea of using one is to improve customer satisfaction and retention, so your profits and business can grow. It’s pointless if you’re spending too much on a help desk that doesn’t pay for itself. There are various free ticketing systems available, but the features tend to be reflected in the price. If you’re a smaller business looking to stick to a strict budget, this option may be right for you to begin with. But, if you’re growing your business, or anticipate significant growth in the future, it is wise to invest in an effective system early, so everything is covered from the outset.
It’s worth noting, many free options do not include a live chat feature. A study discovered that 82% of customers were happy with their live chat experience, compared to just 61% and 44% for email and telephone, respectively. It has been found that companies using live chat customer service increase their customer loyalty, as well as revenue. So, it may be worth investing a little more in help desk ticketing software that offers this feature.
Looking for the Perfect Ticketing System for Your Business? Wavity Can Help!
If you’re looking to make support processes within your business more effective and efficient, then you need a help desk ticketing system. Support customers and employees alike, and use a no-code software solution that can be customized to suit your business needs.
The Wavity help desk and ticketing software supports customer service agents by organizing their work, helping them stay focussed and on track, whilst improving overall experience for customers. Provide thorough and attentive support without ever missing a query or taking too long to respond.
With a simplified, no-code solution, you can create dynamic dashboards, full of only the tools you want and need. Build the ideal help desk for your business, and don’t worry about any additional building or maintenance. It couldn’t be easier. We’ll even walk you through how it all works, so you can start building your custom help desk applications right away. Request a demo today, and take a look for yourself!