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Customer service plays a critical role in the ongoing success of any company. The internet has really changed the way that customers interact with companies.

The standards have been raised and customer expectations for customer support have never been higher. For that reason, it is critically important that all businesses are willing to invest to ensure that their customer support is not only meeting the needs of their customers, but exceeding them.

In order to exceed those expectations, there are a few basic features that any company should seek when choosing a support ticketing software. These features allow you to ensure that all tickets are serviced quickly and in a way that will be satisfying for the customer in question.

A few of the most important ticketing software features that all companies should seek when choosing a solution include:

Ensure Support Tickets are Assigned to the Appropriate Staff

One of the biggest roadblocks in workflow for support teams is an inability to ensure that tickets are automatically assigned to the appropriate staff. This is especially important for teams that do have support staff with specific specializations.

For some support issues, you will have to involve other departments to ensure that the problem is rectified quickly. If a customer is having problems with the checkout form or the software, involving a member of the development team is critical for a positive outcome.

If a prospect reaches out through the online chat form and is on the fence about buying your product, you want to ensure that you can quickly involve a member of the sales team to close the sale.

Customer support requests come in many forms. Ensuring that you can quickly assign or involve the appropriate team members is critical for long-term success.

Respond to Requests Through Multiple Popular Channels

In the same way that customer support tickets may address different issues, those requests can come from any channel. Sure, you can encourage customers to contact you through the appropriate systems, but there is nothing stopping them from sending a request for support to your Twitter account, team member’s email or over the phone.

You don’t want to have to handle requests through each channel differently. It is important that any customer support ticket software that you use includes multi-channel support so that requests through social media, email, phone, or other channels all result in a ticket being created within your system.

By ensuring that you have multi-channel support, you know that you are never letting a support request slip through the cracks – even if you receive it through an unofficial channel in the middle of the night.

Collaborate with Other Members of Your Team

Your support team will not know how to handle every situation. Sometimes, a customer will run into an issue that your support staff has never seen before and will need to run the issue up the chain.

Instead of getting up out of their seat and looking for the appropriate person around the office, choose a ticketing software solution that allows you to seamlessly involve other team members in a request for support. This way, you can forward the request to members of any team within your company.

This will not only speed up the time that it takes you to respond to unique requests, but it also encourages good will with the customer. Allowing the customer to see that they have been connected with the perfect person within your organization shows that you are not just trying to quickly move through the process and are actively trying to solve their issues.

Manage Support for Multiple Companies, Products or Websites

Not all companies use the same setup to sell their products or services online. If you have products that are spread out across multiple different corporate entities, have multiple products or offer products on multiple websites, it is important that you have a central system for your support team to work from without sacrificing the appropriate branding in the process. If your company operates multiple websites, choose a ticketing solution that allows your support team to respond to tickets for multiple products.

In-Depth Reporting for Proper Analysis

One of the most overlooked features for support ticketing software is in-depth reporting. In order to improve your support operations, you have to be able to effectively analyze your team’s efforts and identify areas for improvement.

Choose a ticketing solution that provides in-depth stats. Some of the types of metrics that provide helpful insight might include:

• Ticket response reports
• Client reports
• Staff time tracking reports
• Top performers on support team
• Ticket filtering options

Being able to effectively analyze your support data seriously improves your ability to identify areas where you could improve.

Conclusion

The support ticketing software that you choose will have a huge effect on your relationships with customers. As help desk solutions have become increasingly powerful, companies have set a new bar for customer’s support expectations.

Choosing a ticketing solution that allows for collaboration, support for multiple popular channels, and provides in-depth reporting will give your business the tools to create a successful support workflow. Additionally, giving your team the tools for success will keep them motivated and make them more productive.

At Vision Help Desk, our ticketing solutions contain all of these features, along with many others. We’ve worked with companies all over the world to improve their customer support workflows and improve response times to support tickets.