24 Ticketing Tools for Seamless Customer Request Management

Sep 25, 2024

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Customer service can be a tough job. You never know who will reach out or why. One moment, you could be helping a customer with a simple product question; the next, you could tackle a complex technical issue with a user who is frustrated and wants to talk to anyone but you. In addition to naturally varying customer requests, each team member has their own preferences for communicating and resolving issues. If your team uses different methods to solve customer problems, it can lead to clarity, communication, and even more frustrated customers.

Ticketing Tools like Hubspot Help Desk Software can help you sort and manage customer requests to bring order to the chaos of customer service. This article will explore the value of ticketing tools within HubSpot's AI customer support and how they can help you manage customer requests with minimal effort, ensuring seamless communication, faster response times, and improved overall customer satisfaction.

What Are Support Ticketing Tools?

When customers reach out for help, they want fast, accurate solutions. Ticketing tools help support teams deliver quick responses and resolutions, these IT management tools process and catalog customer grievances.

The ticketing software can adequately store a grievance (a ticket, case, or issue) and other relevant customer information. The ticketing tool should let representatives and managers access the correct information at the right time, helping them offer solutions to customers quickly and professionally.

What Are the Key Features of Ticketing Systems?

Ticketing systems have various features that help support teams organize, manage, and resolve customer inquiries. Here are some of the most critical components of a robust ticketing system:

Omnichannel Support

This feature allows a business to manage customer interactions across various platforms from a single interface, including:

Chat

Social media

Phone

It ensures a smooth customer process and supports agents regardless of who starts the conversation.

Ticket Management

At the heart of a ticketing system is its ability to:

Organize

Prioritize

Assign tickets

This includes sorting tickets based on issue type, urgency, and customer value and sending them to the right agent or team for resolution.

Automated Workflows

Automation tools streamline repetitive tasks, such as ticket routing and follow-ups, reducing manual work and speeding up resolution times. Workflow customization allows for creating specific processes around ticket handling, ensuring consistency and efficiency.

Knowledge Base Integration

Incorporating a self-service portal helps customers quickly find answers to common questions, reducing ticket volume and empowering them to address their needs independently.

Reporting and Analytics

Insightful reporting tools track key metrics such as:

Ticket volume

Resolution time

Customer satisfaction

This data is invaluable for making informed decisions to improve support services.

Scalability and Customization

The best ticketing systems can grow with your business and adapt to your needs. They offer customization options for:

Workflows

Ticket fields

User roles so the system remains effective as your company evolves.

Why You Need a Support Ticketing Tool

Customer support teams rely on ticketing systems to:

Organize daily workloads

Prioritize critical issues

Maintain high customer service standards

Efficiently Searching Archived Cases for Historical Information

Instead of tracking down an old email thread or call recording, reps can use a ticketing system to search archived cases and locate crucial historical information quickly. For example, when I worked on HubSpot's customer support team, I sometimes needed help to solve web page design problems.

Benefits of a Support Ticketing System for Customer Service

I used my support ticketing system to search for past cases to provide context and see how other reps solved similar issues in the past. A support ticketing system is an important customer service tool businesses use to deliver a consistent customer experience, improve efficiency, increase rep accountability, and streamline support workflows.

What Are the Different Types of the Ticketing Tools?

1. Help Desk Software: The Nucleus of Ticketing Tools

Help desk software acts as a database for all customer support queries. When a customer files a ticket, it’s logged into the help desk software, which remains until it’s resolved. This system allows support teams to track, manage, and organize customer requests to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

2. Customer Support Software: The Customer’s Hub To Manage Their Tickets

Customer support software, also called a customer portal, helps customers track their tickets with your business. This system gives customers a centralized location to:

Raise tickets

Track the status of their tickets

Ask for any other information they require

The software also allows customers to submit suggestions or feedback.

3. Call Center Software: Ticketing for Incoming Support Calls

Call center software is a ticketing software used when a customer calls the support center seeking information regarding:

An order

Technical issues

Billing issues

And others

This ticketing system logs calls made to your organization, helping you monitor the performance of your support team.

4. Live Chat Software: Ticketing for Real-Time Conversations

Live chat software helps agents chat with customers, offering them more real-time information about your product or services. This tool comes to aid with purchases or when you need to clarify any concerns related to:

Billing

Refund

Returns

Redefine Your Internal Operations with ChatBees' AI Customer Support Software

ChatBees optimizes internal operations, such as customer and employee support, with AI-powered software that offers:

Highly accurate responses

Seamless integration into workflows with low-code, no-code functionality

An agentic framework that automatically selects the best strategies for response quality improvement

Increased accuracy and predictability, enabling teams to handle higher query volumes

No need for DevOps support for deployment or maintenance

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Ticket Deflection

Reduce Support Tickets

Automate Support

Scaling Customer Support

Ticket Analysis

Ticket Queue Management

How to Implement a Customer Support Ticketing Tool

Integrate All Communication Channels

Customer queries or complaints come through various channels like:

Social media accounts

Website portals

Centralizing Communication Channels for Efficient Ticket Management

The first step while implementing a ticketing system must be integrating all these communication channels into a centralized channel that allows you to view all the tickets from a single portal. In addition to allowing you to manage tickets from all the communication channels in one place, this also helps to create tickets from customer requests received through different channels automatically.

For instance, configuring the support email address in the helpdesk ticketing system and setting up forwarding rules in the mailbox helps you access customer email requests as support tickets.

Set Up SLA Policies and Targets

Adherence to SLAs is essential in customer support. Configuring SLAs allows you to set deadlines and resolutions that the customer service team can follow to resolve customer inquiries or complaints quickly and consistently.

Defining different timelines according to the communication channel type, issue priority, or customer type helps establish clear SLA policies.

Assign Roles

Once the SLA policies are set, it is time to assign roles within the team. The team of agents must be added to the ticketing system by creating profiles for each agent. While creating agent profiles, you need to specify the supervisor and each member's access type. Advanced ticketing tools enable users to set up time zones and languages that the agent can work on.

Configure Support Workflows and Automation

Once the SLAs are set and roles are assigned within the team, the next step is to set SLA targets. A series of conditions and steps for different business scenarios under individual workflows within the ticketing system must be set clearly.

Creating Tailored Workflows for Different Ticket Types

Workflows can be built based on the urgency or type of customer request. For example, you can have a separate process or team for processing returns or payment-related requests. So, workflows for different types of tickets can be individual. You can automate agent notifications and create standardized reply templates at this stage.

Add Contacts and Integrate with Other Tools

Having complete information on the customer within the ticketing tool provides better context about customer issues. In addition to adding your customer base, connect other business tools with customer details.

For a comprehensive context on customer issues, tools that can be integrated with the ticketing system include:

Customer feedback tools

Payment portals

Define Support Metrics

Support ticketing systems generate a ton of data that provides insights on:

Response times

Volume of tickets resolved

Tickets resolved by channel split

Many more details

Data-Driven Insights for Better Team Performance

This data must be utilized to gain insights into the team's performance. Performance metrics derived from the data generated by the ticketing system can be shown on dashboards so that the entire team is aware of the requests. Managers can use the data to improve team performance and make better decisions regarding support strategy.

5 Key Benefits of Ticketing Tools

1. Organization: Ticketing Tools Bring Order to the Chaos

The first key benefit of using ticketing tools is for organization. Ticketing tools automate the collection of queries from different sources and organize them into one pool. They then take it further by organizing them into queues based on priority systems, saving the Support Team a lot of time and effort.

2. Customer Service Development: Ticketing Tools Help Your Support Team Help Customers Faster

Ticketing tools give a solid push for a business’ customer service efforts. The option of submitting support tickets makes customers confident that their queries are always documented and that the automation of the process resolves problems faster and more efficiently. This improves the quality of service the support team delivers and satisfies customers.

3. Service Improvement: Ticketing Tools Help You Get Better at Solving Problems

Automating processes ensures the proper organization of tickets into one central data path. Even after issues are resolved, the tool keeps the records in its central database. These records can be perused, and possible improvements to the operational model and product can be inferred from there.

4. Employee Tracking: Ticketing Tools Help You Monitor Your Team’s Performance

This is a vital part of running a business. Ticketing tools allow business owners to track the performances of their employees on the job, as well as issue targets and performance indicators. It collects data on support team agents and records of their interactions with customers so superiors can evaluate where employees need to improve and where they deserve commendation.

5. Automated Services: Ticketing Tools Can Instantly Reply to Customers

Good ticketing tools help give automated replies via integrated live chats. This ensures that

customers get replies without overloading support agents, while also giving status updates about support tickets.

Hubspot Ticketing System

Service Hub Hubspot

Hubspot Operations Hub

Hubspot Notion Integration

Hubspot Help Desk

Hubspot Tickets

Call Center Ticketing System

Best Ticketing Apps

24 Ticketing Tools for Seamless Customer Request Management

1. ChatBees: The AI Customer Support Software Built for the Internal Operations of Businesses

ChatBees optimizes RAG for internal operations such as:

Customer support

Employee support

Our AI customer support software provides the most accurate responses and easily integrates into existing workflows in a low-code, no-code approach. Key features include:

An agentic framework that automatically chooses the best strategy to improve response quality

Enhanced predictability and accuracy, enabling teams to manage more queries.

No DevOps is required for deployment and maintenance.

Try our AI customer support software today to 10x your customer support operations. Get started for free, with no credit card required. Sign in with Google and get started on your journey with us today!

2. HubSpot Service Hub: A Customer Support Hub That Integrates with Your CRM

HubSpot's service hub tools let you manage customer support tickets on one dashboard. Reps can view all communication on each ticket and oversee the case's progress throughout the troubleshooting process. Tickets are also linked to a customer’s contact card in the CRM, making it easier for customer service reps to reference past engagements with the company.

HubSpot's service hub provides ticket analytics that customer service managers can use to track their team's performance. This data includes essential metrics that can indicate whether a team is meeting customer demand, such as:

Agent response time

Ticket volume

If not, management can investigate individual rep workflow and identify critical roadblocks preventing the team from achieving business goals.

3. HappyFox: Help Desk Software Built Around Ticket Automation

HappyFox is help desk software built around ticket automation. Its support ticketing tools pre-fill ticket properties when created, saving customer service reps time in their workflow.

Standardizing Customer Communications with Templates

The software also provides templates businesses can distribute to their customer service teams. Companies can create a consistent tone and layout for customer-facing communications by sharing these ticket templates across the entire department.

4. Gorgias: The All-in-One Customer Service Ticketing System for Ecommerce Businesses

Gorgias is an all-in-one customer service ticketing system designed for ecommerce businesses. Like other help desk options, it organizes customer support requests from multiple channels into a unified inbox, including:

Phone

Web forms

Live chat

It also offers powerful automation features, AI-powered chatbots, and advanced analytics regarding service performance and its impact on sales.

5. Kustomer: An AI-Powered CRM for Omnichannel Support

Kustomer is an AI-powered CRM platform designed to deliver omnichannel customer support. It uses a unified timeline view to provide a comprehensive overview of a customer’s journey from the initial purchase to creating a support request, enabling agents to deliver personalized, informed support.

6. LiveAgent: A Simple Customer Service Ticketing Solution

LiveAgent is a customer service ticketing solution focused on simplicity. It may not feature all the fancy reports and AI-powered insights of other options on this list, but LiveAgent is a very capable help desk solution that will:

Unify customer support inquiries from all channels

Automate repetitive tasks

Integrate with your CRM

For the price, LiveAgent is an excellent option for companies with fundamental customer service needs.

7. Zendesk: The Original Customer Service Ticketing System

Zendesk is a help desk tool that provides various ticket management tools, SLA support, pre-built analytics dashboards, and AI agents that can solve customer issues independently. Its ticketing system:

Integrates all customer communication into the platform

Provides agents with a detailed history of past customer interactions

Automates everyday tasks

Automating Ticket Creation from Various Channels

It also offers automatic ticket creation that turns calls, messages, and texts into tickets, with no action needed from an individual agent. If you also have a forum on your website, Zendesk allows you to turn community posts into tickets if a customer raises a severe issue of them.

You can also share tickets across multiple Zendesk accounts. This is especially useful if a ticket can be used as a training opportunity for service reps.

8. Front: A Customer Communication Hub

Front is a customer communication hub that organizes customer requests from all channels into an intuitive interface. Automation features and built-in analytics help you maintain maximum efficiency so your reps can focus on solving for the customer instead of handling admin tasks.

9. ProProfs Desk: An Affordable Customer Support Ticketing System

ProProfs Help Desk is an affordable yet comprehensive cloud-based ticketing system designed to streamline your customer support operations. It offers multiple shared inboxes, live chat, a self-service knowledge base, and automated ticket routing to help you stay on top of incoming customer requests.

10. Spiceworks Help Desk: A Free Help Desk for IT Professionals

Spiceworks is a free, cloud-based help desk and network monitoring solution for IT professionals. It includes:

Ticket management

Knowledge base

Mobile app

Analytics features

Raising Tickets and Automatic Routing in Spiceworks

End users can raise tickets to Spiceworks via email, mobile app, or user portal. Tickets can be automatically assigned and routed based on your determined prioritization schema. Spiceworks differs from other options on this list because it is designed as an internal helpdesk tool, meaning employees use it to submit tickets to IT instead of external customers contacting your support team.

11. AzureDesk: A Budget Cloud-Based Help Desk With Essential Features

AzureDesk is a cloud-based help desk and ticketing system that offers all the must-have customer support features you expect from fancier systems at an affordable price. It includes features such as:

Ticket management and tracking

Reporting

Knowledge

Collaboration tools to involve colleagues directly on tickets where assistance is needed.

User Interface Considerations in Ticketing Software

To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with AuzureDesk’s UI. It felt like a more complex version of Outlook. Perhaps it was a purposeful move to associate it with Microsoft and its Azure cloud computing services. Regardless, other options on this list are easier on the eyes.

12. SupportBee: A Simple and Collaborative Ticketing System

SupportBee is a customer service ticketing system based on simplicity and collaboration. It features:

Shared inbox

Knowledge base

Ability to create your customer service portal where customers can send and track the progress of their support requests.

SupportBee is designed to be lightweight, easy to use, and get you up and running in under five minutes. SupportBee is an excellent option for small businesses looking to get started with a basic customer service ticketing system.

13. Zoho Helpdesk Ticketing System: An Affordable Help Desk for Small Businesses

Zoho’s ticketing system allows you to collect tickets from multiple channels, including:

Social media

Live chat

Web forms

And telephone

You can assign tickets automatically to your customer service reps and create assignments based on preset criteria. For example, if one of your service reps is well-trained in website design, all website help inquiries can be automatically routed to them.

Another helpful feature is its sentiment analysis tool, which helps you and your agents gauge the sentiment in a ticket before opening it. Reps then know which tickets to respond to quickly and de-escalate.

14. Freshdesk: A Cloud-Based Help Desk for Managing Customer Inquiries

Freshdesk is the cloud-based help desk offered by Freshworks. It is a centralized customer support hub for managing and responding to customer inquiries. Freshdesk will consolidate customer requests from multiple channels and neatly organize them in a shared inbox for your team to tackle, including:

Live chat

Social media

Freshdesk also boasts AI-powered automation and workflows to boost productivity, while generative AI assists agents in crafting accurate customer responses every time.

15. Help Scout: A Customer Service Ticketing System for Growing Businesses

Help Scout is a ticketing system for growing businesses. It can handle all aspects of customer support through:

Self-service

Live chat

Customer data

And more

In keeping with the increased demand for multiplatform work, Help Scout can integrate with 50+ apps, such as:

HubSpot

Google Apps

Shopify

16. Vision Helpdesk: A Multi-Channel Help Desk with Gamification

Vision Helpdesk is a multi-channel ticket management software that supports ticketing through:

Social media

Phone

Live chat

It allows you to manage customer interactions seamlessly in one unified dashboard. It also comes with automation and workflow rules, so the right tickets always end up in the hands of the rep most suited to handle them.

Vision also includes gamification features, which allow agents to set up “levels and quests” to increase productivity and efficiently close out customer tickets. In addition to task management capabilities that allow for:

Creating

Tracking

Assigning tasks

Vision Helpdesk makes these features available on Android and iOS devices.

17. Intercom: A Customer Support Platform With AI Features

Intercom is a leading customer service platform that emphasizes AI-powered features. It includes an AI Agent to answer customer questions 24/7, which it claims can resolve up to 80% of customer conversations without needing to loop in your team. It also provides an AI Copilot to assist agents and an AI Analyst to identify trends and areas for improvement automatically.

Intercom also offers the expected features of a help desk ticketing system, such as:

Shared inbox

Knowledge base

Automation workflows to manage ticket assignment and flow.

18. Hiver: A Multi-Channel Ticketing System Built Into Gmail

Hiver is a multi-channel ticketing system that lives inside your Gmail inbox. It’s a fully featured help desk with:

Shared inboxes

Collision detection

Knowledge base

Rule-based automation

SLA management

AI capabilities and more

Hiver: A Full-Featured Ticketing System Within Gmail

Hiver is a browser extension that alters the UI of your Gmail inbox and adds ticketing system functionality. Don’t let that fool you, though. Hiver is every bit as functional as other ticketing systems on this list. I initially assumed that a ticketing system built into Gmail must lack features compared to other options with their own dedicated UI, but I was wrong. Hiver is as fully featured and capable as most other options.

19. TeamSupport: A Customer Service Ticketing System for B2B Companies

TeamSupport is a fully featured customer service ticketing system designed to meet the specific needs of B2B companies. It includes:

Ticket management

Live chat

Collaboration features

SLA management

AI-powered chatbots

Integrations with many popular CRMs such as Salesforce and HubSpot.

Managing Customer Relationships with TeamSupport

TeamSupport is a unique offering because it focuses on customer relationships. Many other help desk tools concentrate on individual tickets, but TeamSupport enables the management of entire customer accounts, which often contain multiple contacts and complex interaction histories.

20. Tidio: A Customer Service Platform for Ecommerce

Tidio is an all-in-one customer service platform that includes a ticketing system for managing customer inquiries from multiple channels within a unified inbox, such as:

Live chat

Social media

A Popular Ticketing System for SMBs and E-commerce

It is popular among small and medium-sized businesses and is particularly suited to e-commerce companies. Tidio offers proactive messaging features to engage with visitors through automated messaging based on website activity. This feature is useful for mitigating support requests and initiating conversations that boost sales.

21. SolarWinds: A Comprehensive IT Management Software

With a diverse line of IT management software options, SolarWinds provides solutions to various business management needs, including:

Network

Systems and database management

SolarWinds offers extra layers of security with access rights, IT services management integrations and a patch manager that ensures all security processes stay updated to address the latest malware.

Efficient Database and Application Monitoring with SolarWinds

With query tuning and database advisors, monitoring databases is simple. With over 1,200 application monitoring process templates available, it’s easy to keep a close eye on your servers and applications. Tools like SolarWinds’ log analyzer and web performance monitor help you spot and resolve issues before user impact.

22. Oracle Service Cloud

Formerly known as RightNow customer service platform for enterprise organizations helps you:

Engage with customers

Resolve their problems quickly

Increase retention

It empowers customers to:

Conduct research

Purchase items

Resolve issues online without the assistance of an agent by leveraging your company’s knowledge and subject expertise.

23. Jira Service Desk

Jira possesses features such as:

Reporting

Self-service knowledge base

Among others

It is especially well renowned for its customizability for different departments to fit their context, and is not just relegated to Support.

24. WordPress Support Ticketing System

WordPress features rather decent ticketing tools. If you're using this host, you should appreciate the simplicity of the installation of its native instruments. Awesome Support is most frequently used as a help desk. It includes:

Ticketing system

Email notifications

Media upload software that accelerates and streamlines the workflow

SupportCandy is optimal for smaller customer support collectives. You'll get such functions as:

Unlimited tickets and agents

Custom fields

Private form fields

Email notifications

Opportunity to attach files

As your business scales, you'll be able to:

Buy reports

Satisfaction surveys

Other premium add-ons

Support Ticket System V2 is a premium plugin that supports an unlimited number of users, products, and tickets. Its well-organized ticket search system makes it perfect for larger organizations.

How To Choose The Right Ticketing Tool For Your Business

1. Assess Your Needs: The First Step Toward Finding the Best Support Ticketing Tool for Your Business

Not all support teams are created equal. So, before comparing customer service ticketing systems, take a step back and assess your unique needs. Different companies will have different support requirements.

Some things to consider are:

How large is your team?

What is your budget?

What is your expected ticket volume?

Which channels customers will be contacting you from?

Choosing the Right Ticketing System Based on Your Needs

If you have a smaller support team with only a few reps and minimal special requirements, you’ll be best suited to a more lightweight and cost-effective ticketing system solution. However, large enterprises with large support teams and needs for advanced customization will likely require a robust (and expensive) solution designed to handle hundreds of thousands of tickets.

2. Scalability: Choose a Support Ticketing System That Can Grow With You

You want to choose a tool that can grow with your business. If you anticipate growing your support team over time, you should seek a ticketing system to handle increasing reps and incoming tickets. Most of the options I’ll review below are cloud-based solutions that offer different tier levels that allow you to unlock more seats and advanced features as growth necessitates.

3. User-Friendly Interface: Your Reps Will Thank You for Choosing an Intuitive Ticketing System

Customer service ticketing systems are all designed to do the same thing and offer similar features. However, not all user interfaces are created equal. As a former support representative, I can attest to how crucial it is for your ticketing system to have an intuitive, attractive interface. Your reps will work inside your ticketing system daily, so navigating and accomplishing daily tasks should be seamless.

4. Automation and AI Features: Boost Efficiency and Productivity With the Right Tools

When choosing your support ticketing system, consider options that include features to automate routine tasks like:

Ticket assignment

Prioritization

Escalation

The Benefits of AI-Driven Ticketing Systems

You may not think you need it, but choosing a help desk to do some of the work can save you time and boost efficiency. In addition, AI-driven insights and suggestions can significantly enhance your support team’s productivity. I recommend seeking out a ticketing system that incorporates this emerging technology.

5. Integration Capabilities: Find a Help Desk That Connects With Your Existing Tools

When choosing your customer service ticketing system, you should also consider what other systems you currently use. Ideally, your help desk seamlessly integrates with your:

Whatever other platforms you use to run your business

Seamless Integration with HubSpot CRM for 360-Degree Insights

HubSpot’s ticketing system is natively connected with our Free CRM, so if you’re already a HubSpot CRM user, you can gain 360-degree insights into the customer lifecycle by uniting your sales and service data.

Use ChatBees’ AI Customer Support Software to 10x Customer Support Operations

ChatBees optimizes RAG with our AI customer support software for internal operations like customer support, employee support, etc.. It provides the most accurate response and easily integrates into workflows in a low-code, no-code manner.

ChatBees' agentic framework automatically chooses the best strategy to improve the quality of responses for these use cases. This improves predictability/accuracy, enabling these operations teams to handle more queries. No DevOps is required to deploy and maintain the service.

Try our AI customer support software today to 10x your customer support operations. Get started for free, with no credit card required. Sign in with Google and start your journey with us today!