Help Desk Ticketing Systems: Your Ultimate Guide

Aug 15 2024
Now more than ever, your business needs to be as efficient as possible in resolving its IT issues. Today’s hyperconnected commercial environment moves quickly, so maintaining productivity and ensuring seamless operations are key factors for optimizing your organization’s workflows

A help desk ticketing system can be the linchpin in this equation, offering a structured and efficient way to handle service requests and avoid downtime. This guide will do a deep dive into all things related to IT help desk ticketing, including what these systems are, how they benefit you, and how to choose the right one for your company.

What Is a Help Desk Ticketing System?


A help desk ticketing system is a software tool used by IT support teams to manage and document the resolution of customer service issues, IT support requests, or other types of inquiries. It enables users to create, track, and manage tickets — individual records of requests or issues — throughout their lifecycle, from initial report to final resolution. These systems help streamline communication, prioritize tasks, and ensure timely follow-ups, improving overall service efficiency and customer satisfaction.

 Screenshot of a Help Desk Ticketing System dashboard preview, courtesy of Revelation helpdesk

What Is a Ticket?


A ticket in the context of a ticketing system is a digital record of a customer or user’s request for support or report of an issue. Each ticket typically includes details such as a description of the problem, the date and time it was reported, the person or team responsible for addressing it, and any actions taken to resolve it. Tickets help organize and manage tasks, ensuring that issues are properly documented and addressed in a timely manner.

Screenshot of a help desk ticket, breaking down individual elements including description of issue, record of actions taken so far, and unique identifier number. Courtesy of Revelation helpdesk

Why Use a Help Desk Ticketing System?


Using a help desk ticketing system offers many benefits for your business, including improved organization, enhanced communication between users and support teams, and valuable data and reporting insights to identify trends and areas for improvement. A help desk ticketing system addresses many major pain points commonly faced by organizations:

Pain Point: Lack of Accountability


In an ideal world, every ticket that gets submitted will be resolved quickly, efficiently, and accurately — but that’s not always the case. Whether an unforeseen issue pops up during the resolution process or a team member misses a deadline, mistakes happen. Your job is to ensure that those mistakes are documented, corrected, and communicated to your team to ensure they do not occur again. The problem is, when there’s so much data involved with every issue, it’s difficult to keep track of who did what, making accountability that much more important when coming up with a solution.


Solution: A ticketing system assigns clear responsibility for each issue, ensuring support staff accountability and timely resolution. In addition, many ticketing systems include reporting features that let administrators review and identify recurring issues, trends, and other data points associated with the problem. For instance, if a critical issue remains unresolved by end-of-day, a manager can review the ticket’s history to learn more about the delay and take corrective action, ensuring team members are responsible for their tasks.

Pain Point: Inconsistent Internal Evaluation


Making informed decisions about resource allocation, equipment needs, and process improvements within your organization requires a consistent and data-driven approach to internal evaluation. Without a standardized method for analyzing and leveraging the wealth of information contained within support requests, your assessments may be inconsistent, leading to suboptimal decisions and inefficient use of resources.


Solution: A good help desk ticketing system can help you develop and analyze this data. Every ticket contains valuable information, such as issue types, resolution times, technician workloads, and recurring problems. With powerful reporting and analytics capabilities, you can consistently analyze this data to identify trends, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement. This data-driven approach enables you to make well-informed decisions about resource allocation, equipment upgrades or replacements, training needs, and process optimizations. A ticketing system empowers your organization to make strategic, evidence-based decisions by leveraging insights from your data that can enhance operational efficiency, optimize resource utilization, and ultimately drive continuous improvement in your support operations.

Pain Point: Disorganized Communication


When working on any kind of support issue, one of the most important elements to a successful resolution is communication. It becomes especially important when dealing with external clients and end users — when face-to-face interaction is not possible, clear communication is key in delivering the best possible service. Having multiple email threads and points of contact can quickly become confusing for an end user, impacting the perceived quality of your service.


Solution: When handling tickets in a help desk ticketing system, all communication and updates regarding an issue are documented within the ticket, reducing miscommunication and ensuring everyone involved is on the same page. A ticketing system also improves visibility into the overall support process, eliminating missed action notes and communications which results in more accurate call resolution times. With a ticketing system in place, a user can submit a detailed ticket outlining their issue, receive automated status updates, and communicate directly with the support team through the centralized platform. This approach fosters efficient resolution by eliminating confusion and promoting transparency throughout the support process, ultimately enhancing the overall quality of your service delivery.

Pain Point: Overwhelmed IT Staff


Chances are, if you’re working with more than one client, the members of your IT support team are often juggling several issues at once — sometimes multiple issues from the same source! When the support request workload increases, your staff takes on more work, which means more juggling and readjusting of priorities. An overwhelmed IT team can lead to longer response times, increased frustration for users, and potential risks to your organization’s operations. When IT staff members are stretched thin, they may struggle to keep up with the influx of requests, leading to a backlog and a reactive approach to problem-solving rather than proactive maintenance and optimization.


Solution: With a help desk ticketing system, requests come to your IT team as tickets, which are organized and prioritized based on urgency and impact to ensure critical issues receive prompt attention while less urgent tasks are handled systematically. Additionally, many ticketing systems have a knowledge base and/or self-service portal to empower users to resolve minor issues independently, which often includes viewing FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and common solutions. This dual approach can reduce the workload for your IT staff, allowing them to focus on more complex matters and fostering a proactive approach to IT support. This enables your team to stay ahead of potential issues and optimize systems for maximum productivity.

Pain Point: Lack of Transparency


Organizations often lack visibility into the performance of their IT support operations, making it challenging to identify areas for improvement, optimize processes, and make data-driven decisions. Without comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities, it becomes difficult to track key performance indicators such as ticket volumes, response times, resolution rates, and resource utilization. This lack of transparency can lead to inefficiencies, missed opportunities for improvement, and an inability to effectively allocate resources or address bottlenecks in the IT support process.

Solution: A help desk ticketing system can capture data from every ticket and generate reports that give you visibility into key metrics like ticket volumes, response times, and technician workloads. With this level of transparency, you can identify bottlenecks, optimize processes, and make data-driven decisions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your IT support.

ITSM vs. Ticketing System: What’s Best for My Company?
When looking for a ticketing solution that fits your business, there are many options to choose from. As technology advances, ticketing solutions can do more and more, which means you have more and more to consider when making your decision.

There are two distinct types of software that you should know before you jump into research: Ticketing systems and IT Service Management (ITSM) systems. Once you know which is which, you’ll be better equipped to start your search and figure out what works best for your business.

ITSM (IT Service Management)


An IT Service Management (ITSM) system is a software solution that helps organizations manage and deliver their IT services efficiently. It provides tools and processes to handle tasks like service requests, incident management, problem resolution, and change management. By using an ITSM system, IT teams can track and resolve issues more effectively, improve service quality, and align their services with the business’s needs. Essentially, it helps ensure that IT support is organized, responsive, and continuously improving.

You should invest in an ITSM if:
  • You’re a large enterprise. Organizations with complex IT environments often require structured processes and comprehensive management, which ITSM tools specialize in.
  • You’re a business with regulatory requirements. Industries like finance, healthcare, and government where compliance with standards is critical are often in need of bigger, more complex IT management, which is what an ITSM is.

Ticketing System


Unlike ITSM systems, which are designed to have a wide-ranging reach for a business’s IT needs, ticketing systems are built with one goal in mind: ticket management. A ticketing system is specifically designed for tracking and managing individual service requests and incidents — while all ITSM systems have some form of ticketing included in their product, it is not always their central feature. A ticketing system provides a streamlined way to handle technical issues without the broader strategic processes (and complexities) of an ITSM. Additionally, ticketing systems specialize in named user assistance, meaning that tickets are submitted by customers and end users that you work with, whether directly or indirectly. ITSMs can, and often do, operate with anonymous, userless tickets.

You should invest in a standard ticketing system if:
  • You’re a Small to Medium-Sized Business (SMB): Organizations with simpler IT environments where a full ITSM suite may be overkill are best suited to a ticketing system.
  • You have an IT Support Team: IT Support Teams need a straightforward tool to manage and resolve IT issues, which is where ticketing systems excel.
  • You’re a non-IT department looking for internal organization: Teams outside of IT (like HR or facilities) that need a way to manage service requests can use a ticketing system for logging and tracking incidents.

What Are My Options?


You’ve made it this far — which means you’re probably ready to decide on a help desk ticketing system that’s right for you. The key to this next step is to have a firm idea of what you’re looking for and what you want, because there are a lot of help desks on the market to choose from. When you start browsing, keep your core needs at the forefront of your mind. Sure, bells and whistles can be fun and flashy, but how quick is the actual ticket logging process? Does it integrate with your existing services? Ensuring that your core needs are met is crucial when deciding on your future ticketing system.

Once you’ve identified the fundamentals, your list of possibilities will narrow down substantially — but in the meantime, if you’re looking for a place to start, here are some of our recommendations.

Zendesk
Zendesk is a widely recognized help desk ticketing system that offers an impressive array of features designed to enhance customer support operations. It provides multi-channel support, enabling agents to manage tickets from email, chat, phone, and social media seamlessly. The platform’s customizable workflows and robust reporting and analytics capabilities make it easy to monitor performance and identify areas for improvement. Additionally, Zendesk integrates with a broad range of apps and services, enhancing its functionality and flexibility.

Despite its strengths, Zendesk can be relatively expensive, especially for larger teams or those requiring advanced features, which are available only in higher-tier plans. While the interface is user-friendly, the extensive customization options may be overwhelming for some users. Though a strong contender in the help desk arena, Zendesk’s high cost and complexity can be limiting factors for some businesses.

Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a commendable help desk ticketing system that stands out for its affordability and user-friendly nature. It features email ticketing, automation tools, team collaboration capabilities, and multi-channel support, including phone, chat, and social media. The system also offers a self-service portal, allowing customers to find answers to their questions independently, thus reducing the support team’s workload. Freshdesk’s strong automation features help streamline repetitive tasks, enhancing efficiency.

However, Freshdesk has its limitations. Customization options are somewhat restricted compared to other systems, and some users have reported occasional performance issues. Despite these minor drawbacks, Freshdesk remains a solid choice for small to medium-sized businesses seeking a cost-effective and powerful help desk solution, though it may not be the optimal choice for larger or more complex needs.

Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a context-aware help desk ticketing system that leverages automation and AI to improve support operations. It offers multi-channel support, enabling agents to handle tickets from email, phone, chat, and social media. The platform includes a robust reporting system and customizable dashboards, providing managers with clear insights into performance metrics. Integration with the Zoho suite and other third-party apps further extends its capabilities, making it a versatile tool for customer support.

While Zoho Desk’s comprehensive feature set is a significant advantage, the user interface can be complex and may take time to master. Additionally, some advanced features are only available in higher-tier plans, which can be a drawback for smaller teams. Despite these challenges, Zoho Desk offers strong automation capabilities and good value for money, making it a solid choice for businesses seeking a powerful, integrated help desk solution, though perhaps not the best for everyone.

Finally, we might be biased, but this one is our favorite:

Revelation helpdesk
Revelation helpdesk stands out as the premier choice among help desk ticketing systems, combining simplicity, affordability, and robust functionality. With its intuitive interface, comprehensive tracking, and customizable workflows, Revelation helpdesk revolutionizes IT support operations. The system also includes comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities, allowing managers to monitor performance and identify trends with ease.

What sets Revelation helpdesk apart is its seamless integration with Microsoft 365, Teams, Outlook, and Power BI. Revelation is a multifaceted tool: you not only get the power of a traditional ticketing system, but you can also leverage the tools and accounts your organization already uses, maximizing your existing productivity while benefiting from a robust ticketing system. Revelation is designed to work the way you do — it just doesn’t make sense to change your existing processes for one piece of software.

Start Your Revelation Journey Today


Implementing a help desk ticketing system is a crucial step for your business to streamline support processes, enhance customer satisfaction, and improve overall efficiency. By understanding the fundamental components of a ticketing system, recognizing the drawbacks of not having one, and exploring various software options, you can make informed decisions that best suit your needs.

Among the myriad of choices available, Revelation helpdesk stands out as the premier solution. With its user-friendly interface, robust features, and exceptional customer support, Revelation helpdesk is designed to meet your demands, ensuring that your support team can operate at peak performance. Invest in Revelation helpdesk today and experience a transformative improvement in your help desk operations.
Business EfficiencyCustomer ServiceHelp Desk ticketing systemHelpdeskIT ManagementIT SupportITSMService DeskTech SolutionsTech Support