Ticketing tools

Ticketing System: Essence, Key Functions, Benefits

A ticketing system enables the collection of service requests from various communication channels and automates a request resolution flow, including request assigning, prioritization, escalation, and tracking. Here are quick facts to equip you with the fundamental knowledge on ticketing software:

• Key functions that all ticketing systems support are automation of a ticket life cycle, knowledge management, self-service support, and analytics. SLA management can be implemented for more formalized service delivery.
• Among the benefits of a ticketing system, a possibility to speed up ticket resolution shines above all.
• There are three types of ticketing systems: a customer service desk that helps manage requests from a company’s customers, an IT help desk that enables employee support, and a ticketing system for software developers to track bug fixing in the course of projects.
• Relying on ScienceSoft’s experience in ticketing automation, we recommend Microsoft Dynamics 365 as the best software for a customer service desk, ServiceNow as the best IT help desk system, and Jira Software as a ticketing system for software development projects.

Why Use a Ticketing System

Companies that have successfully adopted ticketing software report the following benefits:

Order and transparency, even with large volumes of service requests

Having a centralized system makes it much easier to organize incoming tickets, control their status and not overlook unanswered requests.

Omnichannel customer care

A ticketing system can be integrated with any communication channels your customers use when they need help.

Fast first response

With an automated, rule-based distribution workflow, tickets are not stuck in a general waiting queue.

Fast ticket resolution

Support agents raise their productivity with access to a knowledge base right in a ticketing system and AI-powered suggestions for a quicker search.

Smooth ticket escalation

Even if a ticket passes through several people (agents or a manager), they all instantly grab the whole context of the situation and previous communication.

Continuous service improvement

In-built reporting on service KPIs helps assess the service quality, while full process visibility helps detect improvement possibilities.

Features to Form a Full-Scale Ticketing System

Using our features list, you can set up automated ticket management. We also offer to create a feature list specific for your individual case and help choose a platform that would provide the relevant capabilities.

Ticket management

• Ticket creation from requests submitted via email, web, phone, live chat, social media.
• Ticket prioritization based on urgency, SLA terms, or any other custom rules.
• Ticket routing based on the expertise, availability, and workload of service agents.
• Ticket escalation.
• Response templates.

Knowledge management

• Knowledge base for agents.
• Content tool to create and edit knowledge articles.
• Document co-authoring.
• Contextual search of articles for agents.
• AI-driven knowledge intelligence.

Self-service portal

• Communities and forums.
• FAQs.
• Virtual agent to answer commonly asked questions.
• Service request submission.

Analytics and visualization

• Customizable dashboards.
• Surveys to get user feedback for service optimization.
• Incident root cause analysis.
• Post-incident reviews.
• CSAT reporting.

Service level management

• Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
• Entitlements (type and level of support).

See how it all works

We’ve prepared a demo built on Dynamics 365 to give you a real experience of working in a ticketing system.

Start a demo

Success Story by ScienceSoft

Customer Service Desk Built on Microsoft Dynamics 365

ScienceSoft planned and built a comprehensive customer service solution for a logistics provider that ultimately helped the company reduce the case resolution time by 30%.

READ THE STORY

Types of Ticketing Systems

Depending on the purpose and target users, we differentiate between three types of ticketing systems:

Customer service desk

Used to manage and respond to customer inquiries. Often makes up a part of a larger CRM system. Its key value is in improving customer satisfaction and retention.

Implementation tip: integrate all communication channels with a unified omnichannel dashboard to help agents handle all interaction threads in a single place.

ScienceSoft’s choice: Microsoft Dynamics 365

IT help desk for employees

Used to collect and process IT issues reported by employees. Its key value is in supporting the continuity of business processes relying on IT.

Implementation tip: implement a standalone analytics app to monitor high-level performance trends of your IT unit and uncover their root causes.

ScienceSoft’s choice: ServiceNow ITSM

Ticketing system for software developers

Used to track bugs and change requests in software development projects. It usually makes part of larger project management software.

Implementation tip: set up automated notifications on task placement and updating to speed up the project flow.

ScienceSoft’s choice: Jira

Do you need a custom ticketing system?

Our 5 simple questions will give you the answer!

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Have you already considered some market-available software and have requirements not met by it?

Will you need integration with custom legacy systems?

Do you need a ticketing system as an extension of your current custom-built software (e.g., a customer service desk to make a part of your custom CRM)?

Do you need support formats rarely included in ready-to-use ticketing systems (e.g., video support)?

Do you have a support team of 100+ agents?

Yes

No

Scenarios of a Ticket Lifecycle

A ticket’s journey is not always as simple as submitted-resolved-closed. An effective ticketing system should cover the following typical scenarios:

Top 4?Systems for Ticketing

We relied on our hands-on experience and also conducted market research to develop this list of the most functional and convenient ticketing systems. Of course, your choice will be conditioned not only by the system portrait but by your requirements. We can work with you individually to narrow the list down to one system, your best choice.