The Essential Role of Support Tickets

What is a support ticket?

Simply put, a support ticket is a notice to the responsible party that an issue has occurred that requires assistance. These tickets are often standardized across a company and can be used by businesses or organizations to track and manage employee or customer inquiries, issues, and requests for assistance. Suppose a user encounters a problem or has a question regarding a product, error, complaint, purchase, or other factor. In that case, they can submit a support ticket through a devoted channel or third party.

These channels can include:

• Email

• Web

• SMS

• Software applications

• 3rd third-party devices

Submitting a support ticket formalizes the action, serving as notice to the responsible party and creating a record for the organization. This digital paper trail provides reference throughout the process or in future reviews, varying in length depending on business size and issue complexity. It may involve a simple submission or a multi-step review, logging, and assignment process to ensure resolution.

Support tickets serve as a formal channel for customers or employees to communicate issues and request assistance, regardless of the process's digital or physical nature. They are widespread across industries, fostering accountability and structured issue resolution, although a lot of responsibility falls to the person or persons submitting the ticket, the two main examples being:

Timeliness: As a customer, user, or employee, promptly reporting any issues or concerns is crucial to prevent potential disruptions and mitigate costs. Creating a support ticket ensures that the problem is documented and addressed, initiating a record of accountability.

Information:  Not all support tickets are equal; providing adequate and accurate information is vital for swift issue resolution. Including details like involved parties, precise terms, and relevant context minimizes guesswork and ensures effective problem-solving. Like explaining a car issue to a mechanic, clear information in a support ticket speeds up the resolution process by enabling prompt action.

What is a support ticket system?

Above, we briefly mentioned the term “support system,” which can be interchanged with a “support ticket system,” — but what exactly does that mean?

A universal definition would be that a support ticket system is a structured and often automated process put in place by a person or business to manage and track inquiries, issues, and requests for assistance. 

Typically, but not always, these systems are maintained through specialized software or dedicated applications. At their core is the support ticket, which we define as a record of a request. The goal of the support ticket system is to streamline all of the following:

• Creation of support tickets

• Assigning support tickets

• Tracking of support tickets

• Conversion/Completion of support tickets

• Resolution notices

• Communication between parties

• Gathering of analytics

Support systems come in various forms, requiring ticket submissions via email, SMS, AI chat, or a support portal. Requests are logged to create a record, including user information, issue description, materials, category, urgency, and department, facilitating a comprehensive overview. The system notifies relevant parties, establishing direct communication and recording each step for future reference while also utilizing staging or ranking systems to track progress. Finally, the system delivers resolutions or escalates tickets to higher levels, providing updates to ticket creators accordingly.

Key elements of a support ticket

Customer request

The core of a support ticket lies in the request itself, whether it's for assistance, awareness, service, or a replacement. The key is to provide clear and concise information about the issue or concern you or your team members are facing.

You should aim to explain the problem comprehensively, using tools like bullets, examples, screenshots, or links to enhance clarity. If your ticketing process involves a phone call or in-person interaction, prepare the information beforehand for easy reference. If details are missed or changed later, don't hesitate to submit a new or updated ticket, ensuring all related information is grouped.

System information

Companies rely on various types of software to streamline operations, from sales and email tools to project management applications. These software systems can disrupt workflow efficiency when they encounter issues, whether individually or collectively.

Including the name, version, and description of the software in each support ticket is essential. Providing the version helps expedite the issue resolution by ruling out simple update-related problems, enabling IT to track recurring issues and provide quicker solutions based on past resolutions.

Customer information

Providing your details, along with relevant project information and urgency level, is crucial when submitting a support ticket. These details facilitate effective communication and ensure that the responsible party can keep you informed and reach out for additional instructions if necessary. Similarly, when submitting a ticket on behalf of others, including their information establishes clear communication channels, keeps all parties updated on the ticket status, and allows for the addition of further details if needed.

Ticket number

This idea may seem simple, but it is often very overlooked. A support ticket should not move forward without being assigned some form of a label. This allows you, and the recipient of the ticket, to track it manually through updates, separate it from other requests, or, in the case of those using a support ticket software, monitor its status in real time.

Ticket category

Similar to System Information, it's important to choose a category for your support ticket so it can easily be sorted, assigned, or ranked for priority. Depending on your support ticket setup, these categories may be high-level business silos, but they may also be more granular, such as:

• IT

• Finance

• Operations

• Project Management

• Software

• In-Office Equipment

• Process

• Sales

6 steps to build a customer support ticketing process

Building a customer service ticketing process requires planning and consideration to help ensure efficiency and effectiveness, here are six essential steps to guide you:

1. Define Your Objectives: Determine what issues you aim to address, such as resolving customer inquiries, tracking service requests, or improving response times.

2. Select the Right Software: Choose a ticketing software that aligns with your objectives and business needs. 

3. Create a Clear Classification System: Design ticket categories based on inquiry types and establish prioritization levels to promptly address urgent items.

4. Develop an Operating Procedure: Outline a step-by-step plan for handling tickets, including how to escalate and resolve issues.

5. Implement Automation: Set up workflow rules to automatically route tickets to the appropriate agents based on criteria such as category, priority, or skill set.

6. Gather Analytics: Track key metrics such as response times, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction scores to identify areas for improvement.

By following these steps, you can establish a ticketing process that effectively manages inquiries, enhances customer satisfaction, and optimizes team efficiency.

Types of support tickets

We’ve discussed what a support ticket is, why they exist, and the elements or information that make them up — but it is also important to understand some of the areas in which they may most popularly occur. Each of these is a day-to-day business function that depends on efficient systems to keep them going and to monitor and maintain those systems, businesses rely on support tickets. These areas include

Technical support 

Tech Support Tickets address a wide range of issues encountered by customers, users, or employees with products or services, spanning software, digital, or functional aspects. Common examples include software bugs, hardware malfunctions, and integration challenges, reflecting the diverse nature of tech-related business problems.

Billing and payment support

Encompasses issues related to billing, invoices, payment processing, or account access, frequently involving sensitive information and demanding internal or external resolution for challenges such as charges, payment methods, or billing discrepancies.

Sales support

This category covers lead software, marketing channels, sales assets, and field equipment. Understanding these ticket types enhances your role in the support system, improving accuracy and efficiency by enabling staff to categorize and prioritize inquiries effectively and provide personalized assistance based on provided details.

Why is a support ticket system important for your business?

Implementing a support ticket system goes beyond just streamlining efficiencies—it eliminates human error, reducing the risk of issues being overlooked, mishandled, or forgotten, which can be costly for businesses. These systems ensure prompt and accurate handling of issues by the appropriate party, maintaining workflow continuity and minimizing disruptions. Additionally, they alleviate frustration for employees and customers by providing reliable reporting and tracking issues, fostering trust and improving overall operational efficiency.

Best practices for managing support tickets

Managing support tickets efficiently is key to providing excellent customer service. Here are four best practices you can put into action immediately:

1. Implement a comprehensive ticketing system that allows for easy creation, categorization, and assignment. Ensure the system can handle omnichannel support requests, including email, phone, chat, and social media.

2. Establish clear ticket escalation paths for requests that require additional attention or expertise beyond frontline support. Set up criteria for escalating open tickets, such as unresolved issues, high-priority requests, or specific customer needs.

3. Create self-service options, such as an FAQ section, to empower customers to find answers to common questions or issues independently. Provide comprehensive and easy-to-access resources that address frequently encountered problems to customer queries. 

4. Regularly monitor and evaluate performance, such as response times, resolution rates, customer satisfaction scores, and support agent workload. Review data regularly to identify areas for improvement and optimize processes and customer expectations.

What is the best support ticket software for your business?

There are many support ticket software options on the market, with some catering to specific industries or business sizes. One such company is Freshworks above, which currently offers an AI-driven customer service suite within its house of software. Freshdesk brings several unique attributes that a wide variety of companies or users can leverage to achieve success in building, maintaining, or implementing a support system. 

Freshdesk offers a best-in-class interface, recognized for its intuitive features and user-friendly nature — like other Freshwork programs, it is designed to be quickly and seamlessly integrated into your current operating system. 

This quick adoption ensures a smooth transition with limited to no necessary training.

Some primary features of Freshdesk include:

• Efficient ticketing 

• Real-time collaboration 

• Routine updates

• Streamlined process management 

• Adaptive integration

Freshdesk serves as a potential option for businesses of all sizes, offering automation features that streamline ticket management. These features enable users to segment, categorize, prioritize, and assign support tickets efficiently, saving time and ensuring accuracy.

With scalability to accommodate startups, small businesses, and large enterprises, Freshdesk can meet your current needs and adapt to changes in size or organization.