Ticketing systems are crucial for managing customer support and internal service requests. With so many options available, businesses need to carefully evaluate ticketing systems to find the right solution for their needs. In this comprehensive guide, we will cover the most popular ticketing systems and help you determine the best choice for your organization.
What is a Ticketing System?
A ticketing system is software that allows your team to track, prioritize, and solve customer support tickets or internal service requests in a single place. Ticketing systems centralize the ticket lifecycle so that requests don’t fall through the cracks and customers don’t get frustrated repeating themselves.
Ticketing software is essential for contemporary customer service. It enables your agents to deliver efficient, personalized support across channels like email, phone, live chat, and social media. Beyond customer service, ticketing systems give departments a standardized way to handle internal requests and tasks.
Key features of ticketing systems include:
- Web-based portals for customers to submit support tickets
- Email integration to automatically convert messages into tickets
- SLA and escalation rules to prioritize urgent tickets
- Ticket assignment to route requests to the right agents
- Knowledge base to quickly find solutions to common issues
- Canned responses to speed up ticket resolution
- Customer communication history to provide context on past interactions
- Reporting and analytics to identify trends and opportunities
- Customizable workflows to match your processes
- Mobile apps so agents can manage tickets on the go
- Integration with other tools like CRM, billing and chat software
With these capabilities, ticketing systems enable responsive, streamlined support across departments. They provide the visibility and structure teams need for efficient operations.
Most Popular Ticketing Systems
The ticketing system market has exploded in recent years. There are now dozens of solutions catering to organizations of all sizes and industries. The most popular ticketing systems include:
Zendesk Support
Zendesk Support is the flagship product from Zendesk, one of the leading customer service software vendors. It is an intuitive, customizable cloud-based system designed for enterprise-level customer support.
Key features include:
- Omnichannel support across email, chat, phone, social media, and self-service
- Custom Agent Desktop with tabs, macros, and shortcuts
- Custom ticket fields, views, and workflows
- SLA monitoring and automation
- Robust reporting and analytics
- Integration with CRM, marketing, payments and 300+ other tools
Zendesk Support is ideal for large companies that need an advanced, secure, highly scalable system to manage high ticket volumes. It has an intuitive interface and extensive capabilities to customize to any use case.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is another leading cloud-based ticketing solution designed for customer support teams. It provides an all-in-one platform with a simple, approachable interface.
Key Freshdesk features include:
- Email, phone, live chat, self-service, and social media support
- Conversational ticketing across channels
- Team inbox for shared access to tickets
- Built-in knowledge base and community forums
- Ticket assignment rules and SLAs
- Canned responses and macros
- Gamification to motivate agents
- 300+ app integrations
Freshdesk is cost-effective and easy to use. It’s ideal for small to mid-sized support teams that want an intuitive solution with robust capabilities at a reasonable price point.
Jira Service Desk
Jira Service Desk is the service desk solution from Atlassian, the maker of popular tools like Jira and Confluence. It leverages the powerful Jira engine to deliver an advanced ITSM platform.
Notable aspects of Jira Service Desk include:
- Lightweight ticketing for agile teams
- Advanced request management workflows
- SLAs and OLA enforcement
- Service catalog for IT services
- CMDB to track assets and configs
- Integration with 50+ Atlassian apps and tools
- Highly customizable with 750+ add-ons
Jira Service Desk is designed for IT, ops, and technical support teams. It brings developer-friendly Jira workflows to IT service management for maximum flexibility.
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is the service desk solution from Zoho, the prolific developer of cloud business apps. It provides capable support software with deep integration across Zoho’s 40+ products.
Notable features include:
- Omnichannel support with contextual conversations
- Automation with macros, SLAs, and rules
- Chatbot integration and live chat
- Knowledge base and community portal
- Survey, forms, and testing tools
- CRM, analytics, and third-party apps integration
Zoho Desk is a cost-effective option ideal for growing companies that want an integrated desk with the broader Zoho platform. The UI is somewhat dated but it remains full-featured and affordable.
HappyFox
HappyFox is a mid-market customer support system known for its simplicity and ease of use. It provides straightforward, intuitive ticketing without overwhelming customization options.
Key HappyFox features:
- Email, web forms, live chat, call support
- Conversational threads across channels
- Team assignment rules and SLAs
- Knowledge base and community forum
- Canned responses
- Lightweight asset management
- 300+ third-party integrations
HappyFox is designed for growing teams that want an easy-to-use system at a reasonable price point. While it lacks enterprise-scale capabilities, it covers the basics well for a quality self-service customer portal.
Help Scout
Help Scout is a shared inbox platform popular with small businesses. It focuses on simplified email-based support with excellent collaboration capabilities.
Key features of Help Scout:
- Shared team inboxes with @mentions
- Conversational threading across emails
- Mailbox automation rules and custom views
- Doc editor for formatting responses
- Built-in knowledge base
- Light reporting and analytics
- 90+ third-party app integrations
With its emphasis on email support in a shared team workspace, Help Scout is ideal for SMBs that want an easy-to-use, affordable shared inbox solution.
How to Choose A Ticketing System
With so many ticketing systems on the market, it can be challenging to select the right one for your needs. Here are some tips on choosing ticketing software for your business:
Outline Your Requirements
Start by outlining your use cases, must-have features, and budget. Consider aspects like:
- Types of support (email, phone, chat, self-service)
- Expected ticket volume
- Team size and structure
- Essential capabilities like SLAs, automation, reporting
- Integrations with other tools you use
- Branding, security and compliance needs
- Pricing and total cost of ownership
Your requirements will help narrow down options to systems that fit your needs and resources.
Compare Leading Solutions
Research top tools like Zendesk, Freshdesk, Jira, Zoho, and HappyFox. Compare capabilities, strengths and weaknesses, pricing, and reviews. Consider consulting independent research like G2 Crowd or TrustRadius to see how actual users rate major systems based on use cases.
Sign Up for Free Trials
Don’t decide purely on specs and reviews alone. Sign up for free trials of your top contenders to evaluate the interfaces and experience firsthand. See how intuitive the system is to use for both agents and customers. Assess how well key workflows match your team’s processes. Running trials with support reps is hugely valuable for making the right choice.
Weigh Scalability
Make sure to consider long-term growth. The system you choose today may need to scale to double or triple your team and ticket volumes down the road. Opt for a solution with proven ability to handle enterprise needs if significant growth is expected. Tools like Zendesk are purpose-built to scale gracefully on the cloud.
Don’t Overbuy
A common mistake is purchasing more system than you truly need. Feature-rich solutions like Jira Service Desk and Zendesk Support provide amazing capabilities, but can prove complex and costly for early-stage teams. Opt for a lighter-weight system like Freshdesk or Zoho Desk if you just need simple workflow automation and analytics without sophisticated customization.
Consider Ease of Use
Adoption is crucial for success. Agents will resist using a system that feels cumbersome. Look for contemporary interfaces with intuitive navigation, configurable options and handy productivity features like keyboard shortcuts. Solutions like HappyFox get high marks for usability and user experience.
Prioritize Cloud Delivery
Lean strongly towards cloud-based systems over on-premise servers. Cloud platforms offeranywhere access, automated updates, scalability on demand and reduced TCO. Leading vendors like Zendesk are cloud-native for maximum reliability, responsiveness and agility.
Conclusion
The most popular ticketing systems as of 2023 are Zendesk Support, Freshdesk, Jira Service Desk, Zoho Desk and Help Scout based on market adoption, reviews and capabilities. There is no one-size-fits-all best ticketing system. The right solution depends on your team, customers, processes and budget. Following a thorough evaluation process is key to selecting ticketing software that aligns with your requirements for an optimal user experience.