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As your company expands, the need for the appropriate customer service ticketing software becomes inevitable. The right ticketing software for your business can simplify your service operations, improve customer experience, and reduce contact volume.
A robust ticketing software system should work like a well-oiled machine, providing a straightforward experience for your customers and team. However, with numerous ticketing software companies, finding the ideal solution takes time. This challenge goes beyond evaluating features and pricing alone.
To make an informed choice, it's essential to truly understand your customers and their preferred communication channels when they reach out to you. Are they contacting you through email, Slack, or by filling out a web form? With an intelligent customer management system like Thena, you can accommodate customers via various channels while managing everything through Slack.
If you want to learn about the essential factors to consider when choosing a ticketing software company, read on.
The ticketing software industry is an intricate web, with companies spanning across a wide spectrum of size, functionality, and clientele. In 2021, the worldwide market for help desk software stood at approximately $9.9 billion. Anticipating a steady CAGR of 9.4% over the upcoming decade, it's projected that by 2032, the market could be worth close to $26.8 billion.
Companies like Zendesk, Intercom, and Freshdesk are some of the big names in the industry. However, many specialized platforms are fine-tuning their features to fit particular business needs and use cases. The main point? These systems don't just simplify support tasks; they enhance the customer experience.
As the digital environment continues to evolve and customer demands grow, these ticketing tools become essential for successful business operations.
A decade ago, ticketing software was primarily seen as a tool for IT help desks and large corporations. Fast forward to today, most businesses across various industries now deploy ticketing solutions.
The evolution of these systems has been driven by the growing demand for streamlined customer experiences. Initially, they served as basic tools to track and manage customer queries. However, with the rise of omnichannel support, modern ticketing platforms began integrating with social media, chatbots, and CRM systems.Â
Studies show that 93% of customers connect with companies via email, 88% by phone, 86% in person, 76% through mobile apps, and 72% via online chat. Thus, ticketing software companies have pivoted to accommodate these diverse communication channels.
Furthermore, AI and machine learning have been game-changers. 70% of organizations are planning to invest in support automation that incorporates AI, according to a recent study by KlausApp. Automation enables ticketing software companies to develop tools that swiftly address customer inquiries, enhancing the efficiency of support operations.
Finally, we’ve got data that is critical to decision-making and process improvements.
Leading ticketing tools now do more than just streamline customer ticket management; they also capture insights into customer behavior, monitor agent performance, and offer predictive analytics.
Choosing the best help desk ticketing software for your business begins by ensuring that the solution encompasses several vital features:
Efficient ticket management is the foundation of any ticketing software. It includes aspects like ticket categorization, prioritization, and tracking.Â
In practice, it looks something like this. Say a customer has issues with the software they purchased yesterday. With efficient ticket management, their issue gets flagged as "urgent" since it's a recent purchase. On top of that, the system ensures their ticket goes straight to an agent skilled in that particular product area.
By automating the identification of critical issues and aligning them with the right expertise, businesses can significantly enhance customer satisfaction. Ultimately, it's about turning potential friction points into positive interactions.
Automation is another must-have feature. As a minimum, ticket software companies should provide automated ticket routing, ensuring each customer query is directed to the most suitable team or individual based on their expertise and availability. This expedites resolution times and ensures more accurate and targeted responses.Â
When this is integrated with workflow automation, the entire support process is further streamlined. Such automation manages routine tasks—from directing tickets and addressing urgent matters to updating customers—making the entire system operate seamlessly like clockwork.
An automated ticketing system must seamlessly connect with other essential business tools. Through integrations, you can obtain a comprehensive view of customer interactions across every touchpoint.
A robust ticketing software tool should gather data from places like your CRM, social media, and sales records to help you see the full picture of your customer's journey. This way, you can not only solve problems faster but also spot trends and even catch issues before they blow up. Integrations mean your team is focused on revenue-generating activities rather than wasting time switching between tools.
Reporting is an essential facet of any automated ticketing system. At its core, reporting is about turning vast amounts of data into understandable and actionable insights. The best ticketing software companies out there give you a clear look into things like how customers are feeling, how well your agents are doing, and how many requests you're getting.
With data, companies can identify what roadblocks their customers and employees are hitting, and when exactly. Then, they can use these insights to drive decision-making.
Finally, as your businesses grow, your needs change. Scalability in a ticketing solution ensures it can handle the increasing volume and complexity. Flexible solutions often are a better investment since you don’t have to purchase a new tool later down the line.
Thena is an AI-driven Slack ticketing software solution that seamlessly integrates conversational ticketing, helpdesk, and knowledge base.
With Thena, you can keep your customers and support agents happy, all thanks to its top-tier features:
Thena offers a centralized hub for service desk teams, streamlining ticket management from creation to resolution. With features that detect customer requests in Slack Connect channels, filter by priority and issue type, and understand customer sentiment, teams can swiftly address inquiries.
Additionally, an integrated Kanban board facilitates tracking and collaboration, while custom workflows and integrations ensure a smooth ticket lifecycle. On average, agents use 3 systems to support their customers. With Thena, they can just stay in Slack.
Another crucial feature when it comes to ticket software companies is automation. Thena seamlessly integrates intelligent automation into operations, benefitting service teams and customers alike.
Centralizing knowledge and promoting collaboration, Thena also enhances the customer experience. For scaled customer support, Thena auto-assigns tickets based on issue type or agent expertise and ensures SLA compliance with automatic reminders. This not only streamlines tasks but also boosts accountability and customer satisfaction.
61% of customers believe that most of their future interactions with businesses will be automated. Thena is already prepared for that thanks to its knowledge base functionality.Â
The integration with the knowledge base allows AI to formulate responses for customers using historical data. That means you can offer round-the-clock responses, ensuring automated assistance even when your team is off-duty.
What distinguishes Thena from the competition is its customer service analytics. While Slack gives a surface-level view, capturing user activity, active channels, and workspace-related metrics, it falls short of offering deeper insights into the efficiency of support operations or understanding customer behavior.
In contrast, Thena delves deeper with robust analytics that shed light on team performance, ticket trends, and customer satisfaction. It also aids in spotting potential churn and flagging breached service agreements. The best part? All of this data is centralized within a unified platform.
Apart from its core features, here’s why Thena sets a new bar for ticketing software tools:
Unparalleled flexibility: Thena adapts and scales with your needs. Whether you're managing 20 external channels or 100+, Thena consolidates all customer issues, ensuring you maintain full visibility into key metrics at all growth stages.
Most companies are already using a ticketing software system. But not all of them are happy with the results. Check out these customer case studies to discover how Thena changes the situation for the better.
Remember, we said that the best ticketing software solutions should integrate seamlessly with other tools you use. Mixpanel, a leading analytics platform, learned this the hard way.
Before Thena, the company struggled with multiple communication channels. Though Zendesk was their primary support tool, many customers pinged them on Slack.
The native integration didn’t quite work, meaning that response times were slow, customers were frustrated, and agents were upset.
Thena turned the situation around, thanks to its bi-directional Zendesk-Slack integration. As a result, Mixpanel saw resolution times cut in half and responses that were 95% faster.
WorkRamp, a platform dedicated to powering employee and customer learning, provides another example of how multi-channel support can lead to a disjointed experience for both customers and agents. With customer requests coming in from both Slack and Intercom web chat, managing inquiries in an organized fashion became nearly impossible.
With Thena’s Intercom-Slack integration, both channels were bridged together, resulting in more streamlined operations, a 30% increase in agents’ productivity, and a 60% reduction in response times.
Selecting the right ticketing software company is more than just a business decision. You must understand how and where your customers feel the most comfortable interacting with you.
In the B2B space, Slack is where cross-organizational teams speak every day. With Thena, you can manage customer inquiries all within your Slack workspace, whether they come from the Slack Connect channels, the web, or the email ticketing systems.
Try Thena for free to transform your support.
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