Over the past two decades, the evolution of help desk ticketing systems has been rapid. Here we explore some of the key features to look out for.
Introduced initially to assist help desk professionals solve customer issues, they are now the backbone of multiple help desk teams across the globe. When evaluating help desk systems, be sure to look for the following.
10 Must-Have Features of a Great Help Desk Ticketing System
The best help desk ticketing systems have some or all of the features discussed in this article.
1. Ticket Automation
All help desk ticketing systems should have an automation component because it frees up your customer service staff and allows them to work on other tasks. Ticket automation should remind your employees that a ticket response is due, route tickets to specific users, and much more.
2. Ticket Tags
Ticket tags offer users the ability to organize their tickets and spot common issues amongst customers, which help find pain points. They can also provide direct value by automatically recommending articles or FAQs to customers depending on what tags are designed.
3. Service Level Agreement (SLA) Status Information
Without a help desk ticketing system, employees must gauge based on business policy and personal preference if a ticket is urgent. With an SLA, it’s easier for businesses to prioritize or deprioritize tickets while avoiding service level agreement violations simultaneously.
4. Ticket Templates
Templates are an effective way to simplify one of the most tedious parts of the help desk process. Not all tickets are the same, so the ability to add and create several templates can quicken your response time. You can combine templates for more complicated responses.
5. Ticket Status Options
Not all tickets fall into the “open” and “closed” category; others are in limbo or require further information from a customer or a follow-up. Help desk ticketing systems allow for customizable ticket status options, which can also trigger email responses after a change in status.
6. Individual Ticketing Queues
Many businesses are using the same ticketing queues for all of their responses. Unfortunately, this can bottleneck your response time and increase the time it takes to reply. With individual queues, your employees can organize tickets more effectively, quickening the process.
7. Inventory and Product Association
When a customer sends your help desk a question about an item, oftentimes, they forget to add the item number or an accurate description of the product. Help desk ticketing systems can match up the customer’s purchased product with their ticket, leading to less confusion.
8. Private and Public Response Actions
Not all ticket conversations amongst your staff or customers need to be seen by everyone. With a help desk ticketing system, employees can separate conversations between public and private. When they’re ready to inform the customer, your employee sets the action to “public.”
9. Related Tickets
All help desk employees have had to answer the same question multiple times across multiple mediums. Not only is this frustrating, but it also slows down your team. Help desk ticketing systems can combine similar tickets and reply to them all with one click to save time.
10. Customer Ticket Pages
The more your employees know about your customers, the easier it will be for them to solve their issues. Help desk ticketing systems give users the ability to separate each customer by a number, name, or keyword and show information about their open tickets and satisfaction rating.
