Work orders, phone calls, broken equipment, people complaining about ...... IT support moving at supersonic speeds. Your company could be losing a lot of money if your IT professionals have to manage everything using Outlook, etc.
Pair an email client with the high salaries typical of the industry, and you're in a "spend it all" situation. The cost to resolve a single technical support case can range from $2.93 to $49.69, and if you offer tiered IT support, expect to triple the price each time an issue is escalated.
In short, it's best to help your IT support staff be as productive as possible. As you read this article, you probably know the solution to this problem is an IT ticketing system. It's true. Such software can save up to 670 person-hours per year.
In general, what IT support work order systems do is automate manual tasks and help IT staff manage the lifecycle of each request.
As the name implies, the core of an IT support work order system is work order management. Each time a new case is submitted, the system creates a work order to which all relevant customer and incident data is appended. Some systems also have advanced tools for asset management. IT change management, network diagnostics, problem and incident management, and more.
Note that the terms "IT help desk" and "IT service desk" are sometimes used interchangeably, although they are strictly speaking two separate entities. Unlike the help desk, the service desk emphasizes the user. As the ITIL framework defines it, the service desk is "the point of communication between the service provider and all its users. By contrast, when IT service desks first emerged in the 1980s, they were an ad hoc way to report and resolve incidents.
When your IT department doubles as a customer service department, the terminology becomes even more confusing. Fortunately, most IT ticketing software is available for both employee support and customer support. Therefore, you can avoid using the wrong terminology.
IT Ticketing System Features: What to Look For
When looking for a help desk ticketing system, it's essential to consider the customer's needs and the agent's workflow. Not all plans offer a full suite of features, and you may use a combination of tools to get the desired results.
The following are things to keep in mind when selecting IT ticketing software.
Self-Service Portal
You want to use a self-service portal for your customers and help desk agents. The reasons are.
1. For customers. By providing a customer self-service portal, you will allow your customers to resolve common problems, which means fewer tickets for your help desk ticketing system and agents with lower priority.
2. For your help desk agents. By using a knowledge management portal, you allow agents to find answers quickly when helping customers.
One of the most common self-service options you can offer is through knowledge base software.
External Knowledge Base
External knowledge bases create a rare win-win (yes, it's a triple-win) situation for customer support. Customers are happy to resolve issues themselves, which reduces the number of work orders and your company's overall support costs.
In addition, you can use the external knowledge base to publish customer FAQs, product and service updates, and troubleshooting guides. Customers can browse or search the knowledge base by category, which helps you shift work order creation while keeping them satisfied - they can find the information they need immediately.
Internal Knowledge Base
An internal knowledge base helps your IT team work more efficiently because it empowers employees to serve themselves. Busy users will appreciate being able to find the answers and instructions they need without having to wait.
The internal knowledge base is also handy for agents when handling service requests. It can store SOPs for processing requests as well as how-to's, technical documentation and best practices.
Not all help desk work order software comes with a knowledge base, but you can use third-party solutions.
Unified Smart Inbox
A key feature of IT work order systems is the ability to create help desk work orders from various sources (e.g. email, live chat, social media, phone calls, etc.). Your team will be more efficient if there is a dashboard to view and manage all incoming work orders.
Here are the actions that the Unified Inbox should enable you to perform.
Create work orders manually.
Use quick pre-populated templates to resolve common issues
Send an autoresponder to the end user when she submits a problem so she can respond
Attach files
Save all past conversations in the same ticket to provide context
Prevent two agents from responding to the same ticket at the same time (collision detection)
Enable agents to collaborate on work orders, for example, by leaving internal comments
Automation
Most work order systems allow you to define triggers and rules to automatically change work order status, priority, category and other work order attributes. Some even give you the ability to define custom workflows, eliminating most manual work. Here's how it works in practice.
Suppose your ticketing system software allows you to set up rules to automatically sort and automatically prioritize tickets based on an email address, subject line, ticket category, and other criteria. You can create a rule to flag all issues from a specific email (important customer or C-level executive) and assign the ticket to your most experienced IT support professional.
Automation benefits companies that need to tie a custom set of products and services to each customer, such as MSRs.
Security
Customer details are often attached to service tickets. Passwords are sent back and forth, etc. Ticketing system software should be able to protect your sensitive data.
Some companies choose local installations to eliminate all potential threats. Some prefer a cloud-based ticketing system. There are pros and cons to both, but in all cases, security is an issue.
Here are some essential security features for IT help desks to be aware of.
IP restrictions to ensure only your staff can log into the back end
Message encryption to protect sensitive data
Access control to define user groups and permissions within your organization
Virus scanning to ensure no harmful file attachments can be sent
SSL URL encryption for cloud-based systems
Incident and Problem Management
Incident management is like putting out a fire. First, incidents are identified and logged, diagnosed, and resolved as quickly as possible.
If you look at the incident management lifecycle below, you'll see that almost all work order management software provides the functionality you need.
Problem management, however, can be a bit tricky. It's about understanding the root cause of one or more incidents and taking action to prevent further incidents from occurring. If you need problem management, you need an IT support system that allows you to
Perform incident analysis and identify trends
Detect repeat and recurring problems
Identify future risks associated with current events
Analyze information from external sources such as vendors, partners, internal development teams, etc.
Insights
Speed is essential in IT support, which is why most teams must adhere to SLAs (Service Level Agreements). This is why analytics and insight are essential aspects of ticketing system software.
The best ticketing system will help you immediately understand how your team is performing according to your SLA. It will provide real-time data on agent performance, such as closed work orders, the average processing time to resolve issues, and more.
In addition, the ticketing system software should also enable you to collect customer feedback and measure customer satisfaction - whether through NPS surveys, CSAT surveys or some other method.
Integration
If you work in a large organization, integration with other software will be a significant consideration when looking for a help desk ticketing system. Here are some situations where this may be necessary.
Integration with your CRM gives you a better understanding of your customers - their purchase history, web browsing activity, preferences and interests, etc. With this insight, your IT support team can provide personalized support.
Integration with your IT asset management system can help you identify faulty equipment that needs to be repaired or replaced, allowing you to improve problem management.
Integration with your issue-tracking system can help you prioritize software bug fixes.
Scalability
When choosing service ticketing software, you may want to consider scalability.
Will this work if your company grows?
How much will it cost if you double or triple your team?
Some top scalability issues include the maximum number of user accounts, data storage capacity, and the number of teams and customers you can manage on the same platform. Note how pricing changes as your team grow.
Compliance
Last but not least, you must consider regulations and standards. If you work in a healthcare facility, you need a HIPAA-compliant help desk. If your company must be ITIL compliant, you will need a help desk system that meets ITIL requirements.
Therefore, it is a good idea to take note of any standards and regulations your organization must comply with and add them to your list of IT ticketing systems.
Pair an email client with the high salaries typical of the industry, and you're in a "spend it all" situation. The cost to resolve a single technical support case can range from $2.93 to $49.69, and if you offer tiered IT support, expect to triple the price each time an issue is escalated.
In short, it's best to help your IT support staff be as productive as possible. As you read this article, you probably know the solution to this problem is an IT ticketing system. It's true. Such software can save up to 670 person-hours per year.
In general, what IT support work order systems do is automate manual tasks and help IT staff manage the lifecycle of each request.
Use customer support software which contains an efficient knowledge base, ticketing system and Live chat. Minimal cost to enhance customer experience.| BClinked
Rapid deployment, simple enough but effective customer support system
As the name implies, the core of an IT support work order system is work order management. Each time a new case is submitted, the system creates a work order to which all relevant customer and incident data is appended. Some systems also have advanced tools for asset management. IT change management, network diagnostics, problem and incident management, and more.
Note that the terms "IT help desk" and "IT service desk" are sometimes used interchangeably, although they are strictly speaking two separate entities. Unlike the help desk, the service desk emphasizes the user. As the ITIL framework defines it, the service desk is "the point of communication between the service provider and all its users. By contrast, when IT service desks first emerged in the 1980s, they were an ad hoc way to report and resolve incidents.
When your IT department doubles as a customer service department, the terminology becomes even more confusing. Fortunately, most IT ticketing software is available for both employee support and customer support. Therefore, you can avoid using the wrong terminology.
IT Ticketing System Features: What to Look For
When looking for a help desk ticketing system, it's essential to consider the customer's needs and the agent's workflow. Not all plans offer a full suite of features, and you may use a combination of tools to get the desired results.
The following are things to keep in mind when selecting IT ticketing software.
Self-Service Portal
You want to use a self-service portal for your customers and help desk agents. The reasons are.
1. For customers. By providing a customer self-service portal, you will allow your customers to resolve common problems, which means fewer tickets for your help desk ticketing system and agents with lower priority.
2. For your help desk agents. By using a knowledge management portal, you allow agents to find answers quickly when helping customers.
One of the most common self-service options you can offer is through knowledge base software.
External Knowledge Base
External knowledge bases create a rare win-win (yes, it's a triple-win) situation for customer support. Customers are happy to resolve issues themselves, which reduces the number of work orders and your company's overall support costs.
In addition, you can use the external knowledge base to publish customer FAQs, product and service updates, and troubleshooting guides. Customers can browse or search the knowledge base by category, which helps you shift work order creation while keeping them satisfied - they can find the information they need immediately.
Internal Knowledge Base
An internal knowledge base helps your IT team work more efficiently because it empowers employees to serve themselves. Busy users will appreciate being able to find the answers and instructions they need without having to wait.
The internal knowledge base is also handy for agents when handling service requests. It can store SOPs for processing requests as well as how-to's, technical documentation and best practices.
Not all help desk work order software comes with a knowledge base, but you can use third-party solutions.
Unified Smart Inbox
A key feature of IT work order systems is the ability to create help desk work orders from various sources (e.g. email, live chat, social media, phone calls, etc.). Your team will be more efficient if there is a dashboard to view and manage all incoming work orders.
Here are the actions that the Unified Inbox should enable you to perform.
Create work orders manually.
Use quick pre-populated templates to resolve common issues
Send an autoresponder to the end user when she submits a problem so she can respond
Attach files
Save all past conversations in the same ticket to provide context
Prevent two agents from responding to the same ticket at the same time (collision detection)
Enable agents to collaborate on work orders, for example, by leaving internal comments
Automation
Most work order systems allow you to define triggers and rules to automatically change work order status, priority, category and other work order attributes. Some even give you the ability to define custom workflows, eliminating most manual work. Here's how it works in practice.
Suppose your ticketing system software allows you to set up rules to automatically sort and automatically prioritize tickets based on an email address, subject line, ticket category, and other criteria. You can create a rule to flag all issues from a specific email (important customer or C-level executive) and assign the ticket to your most experienced IT support professional.
Automation benefits companies that need to tie a custom set of products and services to each customer, such as MSRs.
Security
Customer details are often attached to service tickets. Passwords are sent back and forth, etc. Ticketing system software should be able to protect your sensitive data.
Some companies choose local installations to eliminate all potential threats. Some prefer a cloud-based ticketing system. There are pros and cons to both, but in all cases, security is an issue.
Here are some essential security features for IT help desks to be aware of.
IP restrictions to ensure only your staff can log into the back end
Message encryption to protect sensitive data
Access control to define user groups and permissions within your organization
Virus scanning to ensure no harmful file attachments can be sent
SSL URL encryption for cloud-based systems
Incident and Problem Management
Incident management is like putting out a fire. First, incidents are identified and logged, diagnosed, and resolved as quickly as possible.
If you look at the incident management lifecycle below, you'll see that almost all work order management software provides the functionality you need.
Problem management, however, can be a bit tricky. It's about understanding the root cause of one or more incidents and taking action to prevent further incidents from occurring. If you need problem management, you need an IT support system that allows you to
Perform incident analysis and identify trends
Detect repeat and recurring problems
Identify future risks associated with current events
Analyze information from external sources such as vendors, partners, internal development teams, etc.
Insights
Speed is essential in IT support, which is why most teams must adhere to SLAs (Service Level Agreements). This is why analytics and insight are essential aspects of ticketing system software.
The best ticketing system will help you immediately understand how your team is performing according to your SLA. It will provide real-time data on agent performance, such as closed work orders, the average processing time to resolve issues, and more.
In addition, the ticketing system software should also enable you to collect customer feedback and measure customer satisfaction - whether through NPS surveys, CSAT surveys or some other method.
Integration
If you work in a large organization, integration with other software will be a significant consideration when looking for a help desk ticketing system. Here are some situations where this may be necessary.
Integration with your CRM gives you a better understanding of your customers - their purchase history, web browsing activity, preferences and interests, etc. With this insight, your IT support team can provide personalized support.
Integration with your IT asset management system can help you identify faulty equipment that needs to be repaired or replaced, allowing you to improve problem management.
Integration with your issue-tracking system can help you prioritize software bug fixes.
Scalability
When choosing service ticketing software, you may want to consider scalability.
Will this work if your company grows?
How much will it cost if you double or triple your team?
Some top scalability issues include the maximum number of user accounts, data storage capacity, and the number of teams and customers you can manage on the same platform. Note how pricing changes as your team grow.
Compliance
Last but not least, you must consider regulations and standards. If you work in a healthcare facility, you need a HIPAA-compliant help desk. If your company must be ITIL compliant, you will need a help desk system that meets ITIL requirements.
Therefore, it is a good idea to take note of any standards and regulations your organization must comply with and add them to your list of IT ticketing systems.
Use customer support software which contains an efficient knowledge base, ticketing system and Live chat. Minimal cost to enhance customer experience.| BClinked
Rapid deployment, simple enough but effective customer support system