Customer Service
Comprehensive strategies for implementing support ticket systems
Imagine you are facing a surge in user complaints, and you are having trouble keeping track of them all. If you fail to stay on top of all these inquiries and complaints, the fallout will be imminent and devastating – resulting in customer churn and revenue loss. Customer support ticket systems can get you out of the bind here, helping you streamline your customer service operations and turning the chaos into an organised system.
What is a support ticket system?
A support ticket is a record of a customer's query or complaint and the steps you took to resolve it. It is a handy tool for organising customer queries and complaints and managing issue escalations.
A support ticket system is a software application that can help you effectively organise, manage, categorise, and tag the issues or “tickets” to help your customer support team prioritise their work. A part of customer support outsourcing services, a ticketing system for customer service can help you track each ticket from start to finish, acting as a communication link between customers and the support team to centralise all the information and updates. It can also help you analyse support team performance, identify areas of improvement, and build a knowledge base to achieve customer support excellence.
Nine strategies for implementing support ticket systems
An adapt ticketing system is the key to delivering consistent, efficient, and excellent customer service. Leveraging customer support outsourcing services is one of the best ways to implement an effective ticketing system. Beyond that, here are nine ticketing system best practices that can help deliver excellent service for an enhanced customer experience:
Define service level agreements (SLA)
A service level agreement (SLA) can be an informal promise or a formal agreement outlining what customers can expect from you – from response time to resolution time – when they contact a customer service agent. Clearly defined SLAs help set expectations for the customers and set priorities for your agents. If done right, an SLA can improve the experience for everyone by holding the company accountable and providing peace of mind to the customers.
Set up tiered support
Tackling issues "first-in, first-out" may be suitable for a small team with a limited number of requests. But for larger teams and more complex issues, a tiered approach – with each succeeding tier of agents tackling more complex issues – will work best to effectively organise, prioritise, and resolve large volumes of requests.
Roll out self-service tools
Self-service tools can be a great addition to a ticketing system for customer service. They facilitate faster resolution times, allowing customers to find simple answers on their own while also freeing up the agents to focus on more complex issues. These tools can either direct the customers to the relevant sections of the product knowledge base or escalate the issue to the appropriate tier agents.
Use predefined ticket actions and message templets
Exceeding expectations of quicker response times can put pressure on customer service agents. Predefined ticket actions and message templates – across all channels – can help speed up the response time. Simple automation can not only ensure faster resolution times for the customers but also frees up the agents to focus on more complex issues.
Review and add ticket tags
Many ticketing system software automatically tags tickets to help prioritise and route tickets. But, new information may become available as agents continue to help the customers. Reviewing or adding tags based on such new information can help agents better understand and resolve customer issues.
Track ticket status and monitor progress
Monitoring progress and tracking ticket status can help you bring visibility to the process, making it easier for the team to complete their work. It also lowers the chances of a ticket slipping through the cracks, ensuring customer satisfaction.
Train new hires on the ticketing system
If your team does not know how to use your support ticket system, they cannot do their jobs efficiently. Prioritising training during onboarding can set your team up for success.
Keep an eye on your ticket backlog
A little ticket backlog may be healthy – especially if you are dealing with high volumes of complex issues. However, an unchecked backlog can result in stressed teams, unsatisfied customers, customer churn, and lost revenue. Diving into the data about your backlog to find where you are lagging and working on managing the backlog can help you optimise your ticketing workflow.
Collect and implement feedback from the team
Feedback from your team – through town hall meetings, internal surveys, or polls – can provide valuable insights into the inner workings of your support ticket system. You can use this feedback to implement improvements, making the everyday work feel personalised.
How can Infosys BPM help?
Infosys BPM is one of the leading customer service outsourcing services providers, helping you leverage digital transformation to achieve continuous improvements in your ticketing systems for customer service. From hiring and training to workforce and performance management, Infosys BPM can help analyse your support ticket system’s efficiency and improve it to achieve customer service excellence.
