Best Help Desk Ticketing Software

Ticketing Management Software: A Buyer's Guide

When a customer files a demand for assistance in any aspect of your business, he/she is given a ticket number that specifically adheres to their query number. This helps them check the details of their query effectively and facilitates greater ease of response from the help desk stand.

Ticketing software is a virtual helpdesk that assists a customer in generating query numbers while tracking their progress to generate a better response from any aspect of your business’s manual desk. The ticket management system is a standard digitalization of communication, supporting the leaking taps of dissatisfaction. Moreover, the procedure of ticket management software is simple. Each customer’s filed demand receives a reference number with an automated response ensuring an ultimate contact point. Furthermore, as a ticket number given to an individual, this identity cuts down on unnecessary traffic on the helpline numbers, seeking an immediate answer. Hence, IT ticketing systems make things easier for businesses or services to streamline only a handful of employees and enhance their capabilities to help scale the impact and maintenance of compliance, accessed through top-notch technology.

The standard digitalization of this procedure is brought about by ticket management software and help desk software. This software specifically provides exclusive ticket generation and management for greater ease of functional operation for both the customer and the business end. There have been quite a lot of innovative improvements in the field of software development concerning this aspect.

The nature of the issues raised can vary greatly from business to business and across the range of end-users. Henceforth, it gets really difficult to segregate and organize the same. Manually, it is heavier on the pockets and gets cumbersome. That is why all organizations need a way to efficiently deal with the issues and requests raised by their customers and other users of their services/products.

Why Should You Use Ticket Management Software in Your Business?

1. The increasing digitalization demands automation of this manual task for a better economic stand.

2. Have greater consistency in dealing with the queries of the clients

3. Reduce the time complexity and provide for the smooth functioning of the help desk department

4. Highly essential for large-scale businesses that involve massive ticket generations

5. Provide detailed analysis reports for the business outputs in terms of the tickets generated

6. Provide greater customer satisfaction and client retention

Reasons to Invest in a Support Ticket System

It is possible to address issues related to ticketing without using appropriate ticketing software, but they won’t be dealt with efficiently and effectively. This is why a fit-for-purpose ticketing system is essential, as it captures all the issues, matches them, monitors them, and records them.

1. Ticket tracking tools help efficiently assemble and assign queries/complaints.

   • Ticket software is the utmost prerequisite for amassing a high-end database to manage daily data generated effectively.

   • Best ticketing systems actively involve customization features for different functionalities per business requirements.

   • This ticketing software envelops greater categorization levels for handling various issues better.

   • Ticket software focuses on an automatic ticket generation facility and issues the complaints/queries to the corresponding authority in charge while providing creative and smart solutions - implemented as per user specifications.

2. IT ticketing tools save time and resources for the business

   • Support ticket system generates real-time updating of data. It ensures a non-duplication of the same with unique identification numbers assigned to each query/complaint only for better business management.

   • A ticket management software generates a detailed daily report regarding incident/issue tickets and assets, a cross-platform integration for better compatibility standards.

   • On-location and active management of the tickets become redundant with remote incident tickets and session generation as the apt feature for better time complexity. This is indeed one of the best advantages of ticketing software.

3. Online ticketing software declutters your email with automated responses

   • Response to individual emails is forgone with push-button custom alerts and email notifications for enhanced query handling and communication. This is one of the main reasons for investing in the ticketing system.

   • The automatization of received inbound email conversions and attachments to a new ticket makes it easier to monitor.

   • Increased performance with continuous feedback

   • The ticket management system provides the facility for customer feedback and analysis of the performance of the help desk department.

   • It is built on a highly effective, user-friendly interface for better navigation facilities.

4. Support ticket system benefits your customer to the maximum

   • The facility of ticket management tools adds transparency to your processes and keeps the customers and the employees in the loop. It helps employees as they get to know what prior information has already been passed to them by another operator.

   • Integrating this ticketing software with other tools, such as live chat, is easier to integrate and ensures a holistic support system for dealing with technical glitches.

   • In the ticketing software, there is a full-time availability of ticket tracking status facility – for both parties.

   • With these features giving you ample reasons to opt for the best ticketing software, buying this software would still require a few elements.

5. The reliability quotient of the support ticket system should be high

   • The user interface, more so if it is 100% web-hosted, with an extremely thorough recovery plan, should be in place. It should be easy to handle both for the authorities as well as the corresponding end-client. And also be able to handle the data in servers without crashing often.

6. IT ticketing tools integrate with your current tools and systems

   • For the sake of accuracy, select a ticketing software that integrates well with the tools you are currently using. These tools include a help desk, existing mail, a live chat system, and a website.

What are the Features of the Ticketing Management System?

Best ticketing tools allow you to assign tickets and create labels by checking the availability of the various modules to decide whether the software is worth the investment. We believe that information is power! And the installation details and the necessary maintenance steps in this ticketing software are to be known to entrust a better performance of your business in the future.

In business, the consistency and communication ability offered to allow for faster expansion and retention of already established benefits. Therefore, ticketing tools ensure the same through a single, integrated mechanism, reducing reliance on individual staff skills, experience, and knowledge.

Without a ticket management system, driving service requests and other routine communications may hinder, making many end-users uncomfortable. Hence, to increase commitment towards addressing the issues, an organization/business or a company needs to renew capacities to deal with customers/clients exercising their rights and voicing their opinions – on an organized platform. Online ticketing software creates a better scope to understand each requirement and expectation.

Suitably established and maintained, a ticketing system can provide all this and more. The ticket management system can form a standardized basis for continual product/service improvement. Apart from that, it also benefits the expansion of an organization.

A ticketing management system is unbiased support software that manages users, irrespective of which side of the coin do they lay!

1. Reporting and Analysis

   It is possible to solve vital business problems that affect daily operations by identifying the root causes of common issues. You can generate reports to investigate ticket progress and study group performance. By understanding what IT spends its time on, what kinds of issues are reported, and how to enhance the systems, you will be able to sustain smooth processes in the future.

2. Routing, Categorizing, & Tagging Tickets

   To provide the best customer service, larger enterprises shouldn't just centralize communications. Agents need to know the status of a ticket and what steps they should take, such as routing it to another agent or handling it themselves.

   In addition to categorizing and tagging tickets, ticket management systems allow users to filter support tickets by skill and knowledge. These categories and tags enable large, siloed teams to place tickets with the agents who are most likely to respond.

3. Self-Service Portal

   Self-service is popular with customers, especially with 40% of them preferring it. Customers and helpdesk agents will benefit from a self-service portal because by offering a self-service portal, customers will be able to solve common problems themselves, resulting in fewer lower-priority tickets for your helpdesk ticketing system.

   Also, a knowledge administration portal allows teams to find solutions to customer questions quickly.

4. Multi-Channel Support

   Service requests should be easy to submit. Users must be able to report problems through numerous channels and obtain support through the medium that fits them best. Multi-channel support improves the support experience while maintaining your IT team organized. 

   It includes email, social media, live chat, phone, or the help desk, depending on what is most convenient for your users.

5. Security

   The best IT helpdesk ticketing system should protect your sensitive data, as customer details are often attached to service tickets, passwords exchanged, and so on. Both ticketing systems have benefits and drawbacks, but security remains a concern in all cases. 

How to Choose the Best Ticketing Management Software?

We know there are lots of solutions available in the market, and to help you get through it, we have created the following easy-to-use software guide to help you select the best IT support ticket system:

1. Decide on the Budget

   If you are a small business, don't underestimate yourself by assuming that you cannot afford a good ticketing Management software. There are lots of solutions available in the market that are reasonably priced and available within your limited budget.

   Many SMBs ignore Ticketing Managementsolutions while allocating their technology budget, presuming that an email address and a phone number will suffice. The truth is ticketing software has a lot of benefits that will positively affect your bottom-line results.

   Many software solutions have hidden charges or limitations on the plan you want to try. Beware of such pitfalls and find a ticketing management software that fits all your requirements and provides you with all the features needed at the best price possible.

   If you are a small team, first start with a free plan. As your team expands, you can add the features you want to run the support shown by switching to a higher plan to suit your business needs.

   Choose software that is compatible with the software used by other departments. For example, your ticketing Management software should retrieve the payment details from your payment software while addressing the customer complaint.

2. On-premise and SAAS solution

   There are two types of ticketing management software,

   a) On-premise

   b) SaaS solution

   Both have cons and pros, which we will discuss in this section. The ultimate choice is yours.

   a) On-Premise

   It is the software you install locally on a server that you will need to purchase separately.

   Pros: If data security is your biggest concern, then it is best to keep your data in-house so that the service providers cannot take advantage of the economic scale. Your data is way too secure when managed on your server.

   Cons: Not only does it require a server, but it also needs an IT professional who will manage it in the long term.

   b) SAAS Solution

   It is both hosted as well as managed on the cloud.

   Pros: SAAS solutions are cheaper, easier to use, and not required to be installed on your server.

   Also, if your support team uses smartphones to access customer information, then SAAS-based solutions offering cross-platform support can be like a cherry on the cake.

   Cons: A cloud-based solution requires an internet connection to function, and if you are planning your data on off-premise servers, data security, and governance becomes a big concern.

3. Features

   Create a list of features and divide them into "essential" and "Nice to have" features.

   A good option is to ask your customer support teams to write down all the features that come to mind and divide them into either of the two buckets.

   Essential Features: If your IT service desk doesn't do X, you cannot provide the customer service you want.

   Nice-to-have Features: If the help desk provides the X feature, then you can use it best to create a better customer experience.

   Keep the former list as short as possible to give you the best opportunity to satisfy your customer needs. Use this list when comparing different solutions and check which one best suits your business needs.

   Some of the channels through which the customers can reach you:

   - Team inbox

   - Chat Support

   - Phone support

   - Forums

4. Security

   In many cases, your ticketing system will pass your client data back and forth. This data may contain important information such as name, contact number, user ids, emails, passwords, addresses, and other sensitive information you would not want outsiders to know about.

   To avoid such circumstances, ensure the tool you select is secured both in data transfer and environment. Say, for example, if you are using an email-driven ticketing system, make sure you have SSL or some other form of encryption to secure the ticketing Management software.

5. An Up-to-Date Knowledge Base

   It is a self-service tool that will help your customers find information about your product. It will allow you to answer the FAQs, publish information about the product features and their pricing, and everything else you would like your customers to know about your product.

   Using this knowledge base, your customers and users can find the answers by themselves without any requirement to make the call to the helpdesk.

   Not only this, a knowledge base will help you optimize content for the search engine. They are available in many forms, such as Word docs, spreadsheets, etc.

   Based on the software you provide, your customer can access the database from their mobile device or search it via social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The knowledge base should be good enough to help your customers resolve their queries without creating a ticket.

   The more detailed and comprehensive your knowledge base is, the less call you will receive.

6. Evaluate the Ticket Management Feature

   Reliable ticketing management software is the most basic feature of your helpdesk Ticketing software. It is a key to solving issues promptly. All the ticketing Management software is equipped with assigning, re-assigning, escalating, resending, closing, and canceling capabilities.

   However, this is not true, as some software offers more control over ticket management than others. So, before looking for software, know how much authority you want. Don't settle down for software that does not offer the control they need.

   You can initiate tickets in ticketing Management software in various ways

   - Directly within the system by the users or the staff

   - By having designated email ids to which when any emails are sent, they automatically get converted into tickets

   - The third way is to generate support tickets through social media accounts such as Facebook or Twitter.

7. Scalability

   Will the software you are considering work as your business grows? This is when scalability comes into the picture. When you start, you are a small team and plan to succeed. So choose a solution that grows with your company over time.

   Some of the factors that can affect the ticketing Management software scalability are

   - The maximum number of user accounts

   - Data storage capability

   - New verticals in your organization

   - Single or multichannel system

   - New CRMs or other integrated systems.

8. Personalize your Email Templates

   If you are using email for ticket submission, there are more chances that you will be replying to emails with auto responses. A generic template will make your clients feel they are not taken care of properly and are just another number for you.

   And since loyalty is important to you, make sure you spend some time prioritizing those templates so that the reputation of your business is reflected well.

9. Create a Ticketing Management Software Evaluation Team

   If you have just started or are a very small team, then the evaluation team can be just you. The following mix will work perfectly for you if you are a big organization comprising huge groups.

   - A manager or a senior officer

   - Some help desk power users

   - One junior-level customer service person

   Their different perceptions, needs, and backgrounds will give you a perfect picture of whether the ticketing software is an ideal fit for your organization.

10. Try the Shortlisted Ticketing Software

    You must now be ready with some shortlisted customer support software. So let's directly jump to the next and final step of your journey. Sign up for a free trial of this software and check which one best suits your support requirements.

    Most software vendors do not provide free access to all the features, so be very careful while taking the final call. You can ask your support team to test the software once, as they will be the ones who will be heavily dependent on the software.

    If you are not one who is up for a free trial, you can sign up for a free demo and see what they offer your business. If they are not up to the mark, strike it off the software list and start with the next one lined up in the list.

    A good piece of advice is to go with simple ones rather than those that require a lot of engineering help to get started

11 Best Ticketing Management Software

Potential challenges and complaints can be turned into positive customer experiences using a ticketing system. Help desks aren't just for support professionals; managers and business leaders also use them to assess and improve customer experience. Here are 11 of the best ticketing systems for help desks:

1. Zendesk

Zendesk is the best IT helpdesk ticketing system in the market. With Zendesk, your customer support team will be able to communicate seamlessly across all channels, including email, messaging, and more, with your customers. As well as improving customer satisfaction, Zendesk ticketing software gives managers and admins access to prebuilt dashboards and reports to see how their team is performing.

Key Features

• Automated Response
• SLA Management
• Attachments/Screencasts
• Ticket Collaboration
• Customer/Contact Database

Pros

• The interface is user-friendly and organized.
• It seamlessly integrates with other platforms.
• Phone support integration and ticketing.
• Documentation of tasks and incidents.

Cons

• Zendesk is quiet on the expensive side.
• Automation needs improvement in Zendesk.
• It doesn't track down the progress of the ticket easily.

Pricing

• Suite Team - $49/month
• Suite Growth - $79/month
• Suite Professional - $99/month
• Suite Enterprise - $150 user/month

2. Zoho Desk

If you have a smaller, customer-facing support team and want a platform that you can grow with, Zoho Desk can help you. It gives your IT team the tools they need to resolve tickets effectively. You can sync your Zoho CRM database with Zoho Desk to view your users' ticket history, activity, and happiness rating if you already use Zoho CRM to organize user data.

Key Features

• Auto-tag tickets
• Ticket management
• Instant messaging
• Multi-brand help center
• Email & telephony

Pros

• Zoho Desk is extremely user-friendly and easy to use.
• Zoho Desk is very affordable.
• The Zoho reporting system is extremely powerful.
• It integrates well with other Zoho products.

Cons

• No desktop application is available.
• The system requires a lot of customization.
• Customer support needs improvement.

Pricing

• Free
• Standard - $14/month
• Professional- $23/month
• Enterprise - $40/ month

3. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is the best helpdesk ticketing system that includes all the necessary IT support features in one place. There are varied elements in Freshdesk's ticketing software, but each plan has ticket management, social ticketing, and reporting. You can easily manage communication by using the contact management hub in Freshdesk.

Key Features

• Ticketing
• Omnichannel Helpdesk
• Automations
• Self Service
• Field Service Management

Pros

• User-friendly UI.
• Provide communications history with each customer.
• Feature-rich application.
• Great online documentation & training

Cons

• Limited storage.
• Default SMTP is not the best.
• Interaction at the ticket view level is poor.

Pricing

• Growth: $15 user per month
• Pro: $49 user per month
• Elite: $79 user per month

4. Help Scout

Dedicated customer service platform Help Scout helps growing teams deliver outstanding customer service. By signing up, you get access to a suite of tools designed to help you create the best customer experience possible — including shared inboxes, knowledge bases, and live chat. As well as its ticketing system, Help Scout offers robust reports and built-in knowledge bases.

Key Features

• API
• Access Controls/Permissions
• Archiving & Retention
• Automated Routing
• Cataloging/Categorization

Pros

• It has a great interface for tracking emails & replies.
• The tagging system is fantastic.
• Automated workflows and seamless integration.
• Easy to onboard new users.

Cons

• It is slow sometimes.
• Many network errors.
• There is no spam filter.

Pricing

• Standard: $20 per user per month
• Plus: $35 per user per month
• Company: $60 per user per month

5. Jira Service Desk

Jira is software tool from Atlassian that offers a wide range of tools for IT and development teams, including asset management, transition management, incident administration, and project management. Jira Service Management represents the request management aspect of the tool. Jira is ideal for business and e-commerce companies seeking to support customers via live chat, phone, and email.

Key Features

• Customer satisfaction reporting (CSAT)
• Service desk
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
• Reports and metrics
• Self-service

Pros

• Customization & integration options are amazing.
•  Protection/security is top-notch. 
• Jira is incredibly user-friendly.
• It allows sending updates to requesting parties easily.

Cons

• You won't retrieve the file if a ticket is deleted by mistake.
• The mobile app needs improvement.
• No Integrated knowledge base.

Pricing

• Free
• Standard - - $20/month
• Premium -$40/month
• Enterprise - Custom Pricing

6. HubSpot Service Hub

HubSpot's Service Hub manages service contracts, enables seamless onboarding, and helps customers expand their relationships. You'll have access to customer feedback tools to survey and measure customer sentiment through HubSpot's Service Hub, which delivers efficient, end-to-end service that delights customers at scale. In addition, all incoming requests are converted to tickets and managed via a drag-and-drop pipeline.

Key Features

• Automation & Routing
• Live Chat
• Customer Portal
• Conversational Bots
• Knowledge Base

Pros

• Built-in live chat.
• Extremely easy setup.
• It integrates seamlessly with Hubspot CRM in the timeline view.
• It allows configuring workflow authorities.

Cons

• Automation features are lacking.
• The main inbox is confusing for new users.
• The HubSpot service hub is expensive.

Pricing

• Free
• Starter - $45/month
• Professional - $360/month
• Enterprise - $1200/month

7. Intercom

The Intercom help desk platform helps you improve customer satisfaction by offering a conversational support tool. The Business Messenger, along with different support features, allows you to provide personalized and efficient support without the need to telephone or email. Using Intercom Inbox, you can respond to conversations wherever they happen - on your website, on social media, in emails, and so forth - so you never have to leave it.

Key Features

• The Messenger
• Next-Gen Inbox
• Tickets administration
• Outbound Messages
• 2-Way SMS

Pros

• Bots are very customizable and reusable.
• Extensive and detailed documentation.
• The inbox is effortless to use and intuitive for customers.
• It is a fantastic medium for speaking with users.

Cons

• Their customer service needs major improvements.
• There are limited update options.
• Bulk comms can be made easy.

Pricing

• Start - $59/month
• Grow - $119/month

8. ProProfs

In ProProfs Help Desk, tickets are assigned by a round-robin, so they are evenly distributed across departments and agents. Using shared inboxes, all customer-facing email accounts can be combined so that agents can work together efficiently. With the help of parent-child ticketing, teams can attach files to support tickets and settle complex tickets. 

Key Features

• Live chat
• Knowledge base
• Parent-child ticketing
• Multi-channel support
• Survey maker

Pros

• Customer support inboxes.
• Round-Robin ticket assignment feature.
• The customer satisfaction survey allows you to identify how you can improve your customer support.
• Tracks customer service metrics.

Cons

• Unable to personalize messages.
• No integrations to social media platforms.
• Limited features in the free plan.

Pricing

• Free
• Essentials- $10/month
• Premium - $15/month

9. HappyFox

With HappyFox, agents can submit tickets through email or a customizable support center, allowing you to handle issues regardless of where they have been reported. Your agents can view tickets on the "Ticket List" page, which has layout options such as "Card View" and "Kanban View," so they know what's going on. The premium plan allows you to manage assets within your organization and link them to tickets as needed.

Key Features

• Ticket Management
• Tickets Overview
• Pending Tickets Count
• In-app Custom Domain & SSL module
• Unlimited custom reports

Pros

• It has easy-to-use and clean interfaces.
• Automatic reminders.
• It allows users to easily create tickets on behalf of customers.
• Case management feature.

Cons

• Reports can be a bit lacking
• No campaign/ email management.
• It lacks performance metrics.

Pricing

Custom Pricing

10. Freshservice

A Freshworks service desk for ITSM is designed to help support teams deliver timely IT services. In addition to incident management, SLA management, asset management, and self-service, Freshservice's dashboard provides an in-depth view of your team's performance, enabling you to pinpoint opportunities for improvement.

Key Features

• Service Desk Software
• Incident Management
• Asset Management
• Change Management
• Project Management

Pros

• IT Inventory is self-updating and very detailed.
• Easy to associate with tickets and assets.
• Ticket management is detailed & customizable.
• Tracking Agent Performance.

Cons

• The Knowledge base could be more satisfactory.
• Configuring support media is not manageable sometimes.
• Bulk ticket creation.

• Pricing

• Starter - $19/month
• Growth - $49/month
• Pro - $89/month
• Enterprise - $109/month

11. SolarWinds

The SolarWinds IT service management platform empowers your support teams to manage and deliver services consistently. Workers can submit proposals and document incidents quickly with a customizable service portal. In addition to developing automation rules for ticket routing or service permissions, you can also set up procedures to address problems.

Key Features

• Automated Ticketing Management
• Incident Tracking
• SLA Reporting
• Asset Management
• Remote Support Integration

Pros

• Easy to implement and navigate.
• Excellent Network Reporting.
• It offers great performance monitoring with different KPIs.
• It is fairly simple to add or dismiss a network device.

Cons

• Drag and drop functionality in reporting needs improvement.
• NPM is very slow.
• Upgrading the software can be tedious.

Pricing

• Team - $19/month
• Business - $29/month
• Professional - $69/month
• Enterprise - $89/month

Why Need Online Ticketing System?

The best customer support comes from logging the problems, prioritizing, tracking, and solving these problems to maximum satisfaction. Ticket management software eases these functional operations, irrespective of your scalability. Also, the ticketing software is not all jazz, which needs to be an acquired taste. Ticketing software comprising ticket tracking tools is a necessity that has greater consistency in dealing with and retaining your core: clients. As an economic stand with an increased dependency on automation, it exchanges for better output, support, and management than manual tasks. This IT function, producing detailed analysis reports, looks to serve customers at a reduced time complexity of an issue resolution.

But ticketing software is not enough to recognize for a small-scale organization/company or a business as their customer handling is personal. But impartiality and unfavoured response are what the best ticketing tools offer. Moreover, ticket management tools ensure that a delay doesn’t affect or create a setback in a business’s continuous process of manufacturing and delivering quality products or services and keeping up the good work.

Related Articles of Time Tracking Software:

• 10 Tips to Improve and Manage your Ticket Queue Effectively