Why the Customer Service Industry Needs Smart Ticketing?
According to Forrester, investing in a customer-first operation can yield up to a 700% ROI over 12 years.?
Now, “customer-first operation” can mean many things. But what it most definitely means is how you treat your customers when they come to you with an issue. We are talking about ticketing. Ticketing is the process of centralizing customer queries from various places, driving accountability, and ensuring all customer queries are resolved on time.?
Dealing with large numbers of customer queries on a daily basis requires a ticketing platform to be set up. A fully integrated ticketing platform is the first step towards building great customer service. So, a large part of the customer-first approach lies in how well you can handle customer issues using a ticketing platform.
Nevertheless, not any ordinary ticketing platform can do the job. Especially if you deal with a large number of customer queries regularly, you would need a smart ticketing platform. A smart ticketing platform incorporates omnichannel support, automation, collaborative workflow, and a healthy mix of human agent + AI chatbots. Let’s look at smart ticketing in detail:
What is Smart Ticketing?
A ticket is simply an interaction between a customer and customer support. A ticket is a customer calling to raise an issue with their recent purchase. Similarly, a customer writing to return a product is also a ticket.
Ticketing is the process of tracking customer queries right from submission until they are resolved. Simply put, a ticket is a unique identifier that contains information about a particular issue from a particular customer.?
To manage tickets, a ticketing platform is needed. Ticketing platforms are helpdesk software used to manage, process, and track customer issues from submission to resolution. Ticketing systems can help create tickets for each customer query. Tickets can also be tagged according to urgency, type of issue, origin channel, and other custom filters.?
Smart ticketing goes a little further than this. Smart ticketing introduces Artificial Intelligence, automation, and omnichannel integration to the mix. Here’s how that works:
Jessica logs into her workstation and is greeted with already categorized and prioritized tickets according to urgency and other metrics. Jessica can also see tickets from across the channels including WhatsApp, Email, chatbot, and social media platforms. Moreover, Jessica is presented with all the relevant information helping her resolve tickets faster.?
So, automation helps in categorizing the tickets. Omnichannel integration helps Jessica be consistent across channels. And AI puts all the relevant information in front of Jessica for quicker resolution. This is how smart ticketing works.
Key Elements of Smart Ticketing
A good ticketing system comes with many features and tools to help streamline the ticketing process. Here are a few of the essential elements of a good ticketing system:
Ticket Categories
Categorizing tickets based on the nature of the issue helps simplify the ticketing process. For instance, when a customer is reaching out to customer support regarding their recent purchase stating the product is not working as it should, the ticket should automatically be categorized under “technical issue”.
This organizational method helps identify the expertise required to resolve a query. It also helps prioritize urgent issues, ensuring high-impact tickets are resolved quickly.
Omnichannel Integration
Your customers are across all the communication channels. It only makes sense that you take them all into account when addressing their issues.
Your customers can reach out to you from your website, email, social media, customer helpline, or through a chatbot. Omnichannel integration ensures you have a unified window to access all customer interactions from different channels in one place.
This helps you gain quick and easy access to all the open, pending, and resolved tickets in one place. With a single reference point for all the tickets, the customer support team will be able to improve response time and streamline customer service operations.
Knowledge Base Integration
Knowledge-based integration refers to a feature within the ticketing system that can enhance the representative’s ability to provide timely and accurate resolution. Knowledge Base is an extension of a curated collection of information that agents can refer to when facing challenging queries.
Essentially, agents can dive into a reservoir of corporate and product knowledge without leaving the customer service interface. With access to the knowledge base, customer representatives?can significantly improve their ability to address customer issues in real-time.
Real-time Alert
Since we are on the topic of real-time assistance, here’s another essential element of a smart ticketing system: Real-time Alert. If you deal with a large number of calls on a daily basis then a real-time alert feature is something you must have in your ticketing system’s arsenal. With real-time alerts, you can ensure the entire ticketing process and resolutions are in sync.
Self Service Portal
Sometimes your customers prefer solving their issues on their own. And you must be ready to give them that opportunity. 77% of respondents said they have a positive perception of businesses that provide self-service options.?
You can also employ self-service portals to cater to your customers’ needs for quick resolutions. For instance, issues with installing software, troubleshooting basic technical issues, making a purchase, or learning more about a product can all be a part of the self-service portal.
According to a 2021 report by Gladly, 60% of customers prefer to resolve issues on their own. It’s time you capitalize on this need and give your customers what they want.
Help your customers solve issues on their own and you have yourself a complete customer service process.
Chatbot
Chatbots can be categorized as an extension of self-service. Chatbots also allow customers to raise tickets on their own without the need for an agent. You can also develop a chatbot to gather and respond to some of the most asked customer queries.
If you plan your bots right, they can handle about 70% of the entire customer communication.
Here are some of the ways a chatbot integration can help your ticketing system:
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Skill-based Routing
Skill-based routing can’t be stressed enough in a ticketing system. Skill-based routing helps customers connect to the right agent. For instance, if a customer is calling regarding a technical issue, skill-based routing will ensure the call is redirected to a technically proficient agent. Similarly, a customer who prefers a particular language will be assigned to a representative who is fluent in that language.
The idea behind skill-based routing is to allocate the agent with the right skill for each communication.
Coming to the Gist…
So far, we have talked about the essential features of a good ticketing system. Now, let’s get into the gist of the matter: Why the Customer Service Industry Needs Smart Ticketing.
So without further ado, we will now get into the necessity of smart ticketing in customer service.
Efficiency and Speed
This goes without saying that a smart ticketing system renders unparalleled speed and efficiency to your customer service. When tickets are created, categorized, and routed automatically, your customer service team becomes incredibly effective at their jobs. Moreover, a smart ticketing system also reduces resolution time significantly.?
Enhanced Customer Experience
Of Course faster and more efficient customer service processes directly translate into enhanced customer experience. Customers receive timely updates on their ticket status, which in turn helps improve their satisfaction score and loyalty to your brand.
Agents are also able to provide personalized responses based on customers’ historical data and profiles, further enhancing the overall customer experience.?
Resource Management
With smart ticketing, you can make the most of your customer service agents. Smart ticketing helps you allocate workload evenly and based on expertise. So, the entire customer service process is not only efficient but your agents are also best poised to handle everything that comes their way.?
Smart ticketing systems also reduce redundancy by ensuring that similar issues are grouped and handled efficiently.
Data Analytics and Insights
A good ticketing system goes beyond the tasks of streamlining tickets. It also offers you valuable insight into common customer issues, agent performance, and service bottlenecks. Using such analytics can not only help you identify areas that need attention, it can aid you in driving continuous improvement in customer service quality.
Not to mention, a comprehensive picture of your customers’ profiles and agent performance gives you the right set of tools to deliver personalized resolutions across the board.
Cost Reduction
With automation and efficient resource allocation, you can cut down on your overall operational cost. Much of customer service costs arise from managing customer communications across different channels. Thus an omnichannel ticketing system can greatly help in this regard as well. Reduced resolution times translate to less time spent per ticket, further cutting costs.
Moreover, tools like live chat support, self-service, and chatbots also greatly help the burden of customer representatives and reduce customer service costs.?
Improved Accountability and Transparency
Accountability can make or break your business. When a customer reaches out to you regarding an issue with your product or service, what they want from you before anything is to take accountability. Of course, the addressing of the issue and resolution are priorities. At first, you are going to have to show your customers that you take accountability for the issue. Clear tracking of ticket history and actions taken improves accountability among customer service agents. Customers also get a transparent view of the progress on their issues, cultivating trust.
Enhanced Collaboration
With priority setting, role assignment, and a shared knowledge base, the chances of collaboration within teams improve dramatically. These tools together encourage coordination, ensuring smooth teamwork. When everyone knows their roles and is assigned tasks well suited to their expertise, the team can collectively do a better job and maximize productivity.?
With shared information and updates within the system, you can ensure everyone is on the same page and at their best to take on any and every customer service task.?
Conclusion
There you have it, a brief understanding of the importance of smart ticketing for customer service. A smart ticketing system provides a more reliable and flexible way of handling customer queries and issues in one place.?