Efficiency and organisation are crucial in the modern, fast-paced world of customer service. The ticketing system is a vital tool for businesses, no matter their size. Simply put, a ticketing system is software designed to streamline and monitor the handling of customer service requests, issues, and questions, known as “tickets”. Your customers may not know whether you have a Ticketing system or not, but they will definitely feel the difference in both efficacy and “professionalism” between you and competitors without a Ticketing system.

What is a ticketing system?

At its core, a ticketing system is aimed at making the process of dealing with customer queries and issues smoother. When customers need your help, for purchases, questions or complaints, they submit a ticket by contacting you in any way you and they see fit. This ticket is then tracked from the initial contact until it is completely handled and closed. Each ticket contains specific details about the customer’s issue, including the problem, customer information, ticket status, and any communication with your agents. This centralised information allows for efficient handling and resolution of issues.

Each ticket in the system is unique and holds clear information about the customer’s case, including the type of issue, the customer’s details, how far the ticket has progressed, and any communications between the customer and support staff. Often, this would also include communications with 3rd parties about key elements of the case. This centralised stack of information allows for efficient handling and resolution of issues.

Key Benefits Of a Ticketing System

• Better Customer Service: Ticketing systems ensure that no request goes unanswered and all issues are systematically tracked and resolved, leading to better customer service.
• Better Prioritisation and Management: Tickets can be prioritised based on urgency, ensuring that critical issues are addressed promptly. This prioritisation helps in better resource allocation and time management.
  
• Better Organisation and Efficiency: Ticketing systems organise requests in a transparent, centralised manner, making it easier for agents and managers to manage them. This increases efficiency and makes it easier to respond and resolve matters effectively, and it makes it easy to see whether there are staffing challenges across your organisation (comparing response times in different divisions may make you move staff members from team A to team B, for instance).
  
• Transparency and Accountability: With a ticketing system your agents have a clear view of the status of each ticket. This transparency helps set realistic expectations and holds agents accountable for their responses and resolutions.

How does a ticketing system work?

The process typically begins with the customer reaching out to your company – a new customer enquiry, a complaints case or a multitude of other reasons. This creates a new ticket, getting its own unique identifier, and gets queued to the individual or team that needs to respond.

Agents can then evaluate and prioritise the ticket based on its contents and urgency. The system may also automatically allocate tickets to the suitable team or individual based on preset criteria, such as the importance of the customer or keywords within the mail, or many others.

As the ticket undergoes resolution, all engagements, updates, and measures taken are documented within the ticket. The ticket will only be closed once the issue is successfully resolved, and the log of interactions exist in the system for future reference and analysis.

A ticketing system isn’t just about answering customer questions; it’s about making the whole support process faster and better informed. By instating a structured approach to handling customer issues, organisations can assure heightened levels of customer satisfaction, increased operational efficiency, and invaluable insights into agent workflows. In today’s digital world, having a solid ticketing system isn’t just a choice; it’s an imperative for companies striving to deliver unparalleled customer service.

Customers communicate on all channels

Imagine that you are running a travel agency. Your customer first reaches out to your agency via Facebook. With the information provided to them they decide to book a trip through you via email. When they arrive at the airport, they note that the plane is delayed and they will miss their connecting flight, so they call your emergency hotline. You find a solution, but they have to call you again from their layover destination. Having no local sim here, they choose to call you via a web based service instead.

For successful companies in all types of business, the reality is that the customer may contact them in a plethora of different ways, and expect the agent at the other end to almost instantly locate all the relevant information about them and their case. A modern ticketing system therefore needs to meet the customers where they are and keep track of communications with the customer across any and all channels that the customer chooses.

An omnichannel solution would be able to collect all customer interactions and communication channels in a single location, so that customers can experience a seamless exchange with your agents. Check out FocalScope’s Customer Card for an example of personalised customer experience. 

The three agents of systematic customer journeys.

Chances are, if you have heard of a ticketing system, you have also heard of CRM systems and BI systems. All three focuses share a strong focus on being data-driven and combining information into more holistic pictures. Most systems are not purely one or another of these three, but do combine elements of the others into their system. But the focal point of the systems differ, so it is useful to think about what you need in your organisation.

What is a CRM system?

While both Ticketing systems and CRM systems on the surface aim to improve customer relations, the approach is fundamentally different in that CRM systems try to gather any and all information about a customer, whereas a Ticketing is focused on the current case. In direct terms, a CRM system is interested in the entire customer journey on a high-level, whereas a Ticketing system is planned around customer experience with their current case. Usually, this means that for any team focused on sales and marketing, the CRM system holds valuable data. But for teams focusing on customer experience and solving cases for the user here and now, this is not an approach that holds considerable value – what is relevant is what has happened thus far in this subject-centric interaction.

What is a BI system, then?

The Business Intelligence Systems are characterised by accumulating data from several channels and combining them into a bigger picture. If you have several large customers, which ones are actually providing most value with less hassle? Which parts of the organisation seem to be more or less cost-effective? What type of customer relations seem more beneficial to target as future engagements. These high-level accumulated questions do not look at the individual customer journey, but rather looks for common denominators in data accumulated from several points.

The table above shows a somewhat simplified version of what characterises Ticketing systems, CRM systems and BI systems. A lot of software is of course not sharply in one category or the other. For instance, FocalScope comes with strong analytical tools that could be used for strategic focal point allocation and high-level business operational information. But at the core of it, the tool you need depends on the issue you have.

Start with a Ticketing System if your concern is the efficacy of the customer journey in day-to-day interactions. If your focus is less on return customers and customer retention and more on customer group expansion, a CRM System might be a better vantage point. And if your goal is to get top-level business insights throughout an organisation, a BI System might be where your journey starts.

Of course, a BI System would be highly reliant on getting good outputs from every subdivision, and FocalScope has built-in reports that can be fed to any BI system, so you will have all the information available that is collected within FocalScope. Powerful reports can be made on ticketing within FocalScope alone, but if you want to combine it with, say, economic data for sales per customer to see whether the high-turnover customers are also the most support requiring customers, a BI system and a Ticketing system could be combined.

Combined platforms and their perils

Some platforms try to combine the needed actions within a CRM system and a Ticketing System, maybe even including BI elements. From a purchase viewpoint this makes perfect sense; why have several systems when you can get everything combined in one large package? The trouble is that the needs of a sales division and the needs of support troubleshooting division are vastly different; one needs to accumulate all communication in briefs, whereas the other needs to see all the details in the current user case alone. There is a real danger that a tool that tries to do both does neither optimally, and leaves both sales and support wanting. Combining sales’ wish to keep cases open with support’s desire to close subjects and move to the next requires very different tools, after all.

As illustrated, the ticketing system works by seamlessly managing customer inquiries and issues from initiation to resolution. It ensures that all interactions are documented and tracked, facilitating effective communication and problem-solving. Moreover, with the rise of multichannel communication, modern ticketing systems must adapt to meet customers wherever they are, whether it’s through email, social media, phone calls, or other platforms.

While ticketing systems focus on managing individual cases, CRM systems aim to gather comprehensive customer information, and BI systems analyse data for strategic insights. Each system serves distinct purposes, catering to different organisational needs. It’s crucial for businesses to evaluate their requirements and choose the right system or combination of systems to optimise their operations effectively.

However, caution must be exercised when considering combined platforms that attempt to integrate CRM, ticketing, and BI functionalities. While it may seem convenient to have all functions consolidated into a single system, there’s a risk of compromising functionality tailored to specific departments. Sales and support divisions have distinct requirements that may not be adequately addressed by a one-size-fits-all solution.

When to choose a dedicated ticketing system?

Ticketing systems prioritise the seamless management of customer inquiries and issues, from initiation to resolution. It ensures that all interactions are documented and tracked, facilitating effective communication and problem-solving. This is especially important with the rise of multichannel communication; modern ticketing systems must adapt to meet customers wherever they are, whether it’s through email, social media, phone calls, or other platforms.

If the priority for your organisation is delivering exceptional customer service, streamlining operations, and gaining valuable insights into customer interactions, then you should consider investing in an omnichannel ticketing system like FocalScope. By embracing this new standard, businesses can stay ahead in today’s competitive landscape and ensure long-term success in meeting customer expectations. 

Contact us for a free demo or to learn more about ticketing systems.