Small business ticketing systems

What is a small business ticketing system?

A small business ticketing system is a software solution designed to help manage customer support requests and internal inquiries efficiently. These platforms organize customer interactions into ‘tickets,’ which are individual records of requests made by customers. They then allow companies to track, prioritize, and resolve customer issues in an organized manner, ensuring that no request is overlooked.

By centralizing all support requests, ticketing software helps small businesses maintain a high level of customer service, even with limited resources.

Why is having a ticketing system important for your small business?

Without a structured ticketing platform, customer requests can easily be lost or delayed, leading to frustration and potential loss of business. These solutions ensure that every customer issue is recorded, tracked, and addressed in a timely manner, allowing small companies to provide consistent and reliable support.

Additionally, smaller businesses are often tasked with quickly and effectively resolving customer issues despite limited personnel and resources. Ticketing systems can be leveraged to automate various tasks that would normally require manual intervention, such as creating, categorizing, prioritizing, and assigning requests. These softwares are often highly scalable as well, empowering organizations to manage increasing volumes of support requests without a proportional increase in staffing.

8 best small business ticketing systems

1. Freshdesk

Freshworks’ Freshdesk acts as the market’s premier all-in-one helpdesk software, offering a powerful ticketing system, extensive omnichannel capabilities, wide-ranging automation features, and much more.

Its ticketing system serves as the cornerstone of the platform, providing a plethora of useful tools such as a unified team inbox, SLA management, and the ability to automatically convert emails into trackable tickets. Our suite of AI-driven features also work non-stop to help gather and analyze vast amounts of information, allowing companies to leverage data-driven insights to adjust their strategies over time.

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Key features

• Team inbox helps track and manage incoming support tickets from multiple channels with one inbox

• Agent collision detection ensures that multiple agents don’t wind up working on the same ticket by accident

• SLA management allows teams to set deadlines for ticket resolution based on different business hours or categories

• Ticket field suggestor automatically recommends fields to categorize, prioritize, and route incoming tickets

• Canned responses provide quick, consistent responses to common questions by creating preformatted replies

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Pros

• Ability to create custom statuses that suit your workflow to identify what stage a ticket is in

• Handy thank-you detector prevents reopening of tickets when customers respond with a ‘thank you’

• Representatives can perform multiple actions on a ticket with a single click by automating repeated actions

• Resolve complex, multistage issues faster by splitting them into smaller tasks with parent-child ticketing

• Easily share ownership of tickets with other teams without losing visibility into progress being made on the issue

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Why customers rave about Freshdesk

Freshdesk’s ticketing system helps verify that requests from all channels, whether sent by email, phone, social media, etc., are all consolidated in a single, unified location for quick resolution. AI steps in to streamline processes where applicable, ensuring that categorization, prioritization, and routing are all automated to get tickets to where they need to be as quickly as possible. Customers can also help themselves before needing to create a ticket through our self-service resources such as a knowledge base, community forums, and our Freddy AI-driven chatbot.

Thought admittedly, we may be a bit biased, so take it from one of our satisfied clients instead. Brandon G. lauds Freshdesk’s ticket management and integration capacity, saying, “We appreciate the simplicity and ease of use that Freshdesk offers. Its performance is also great for large ticket loads. The various third-party app integrations available allow for seamless workflow management, and the Omniroute feature paired with automation helps distribute the customer support workload efficiently.”

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2. Zendesk

Zendesk is a cloud-based customer service software platform that helps businesses improve the CX and provide support to both employees and customers. Its Zendesk Support solution revolves around a robust ticketing system that helps track, prioritize, and solve customer requests.

Key features

• Intelligent AI assistant can take action by offering response suggestions and actions to agents based on specific business policies

• Automatic notifications alert customers to confirm your support team received their ticket and that help is on the way

• Robust customer profiles provide reps with all the context they need—including order history, loyalty status, and web activity—to provide a more personalized experience

Pros

• Automatically route incoming interactions based on what the customer wants, how they feel, and the best agent for the job

• Offer support on any channel like email, messaging, social, help center, voice, bots, and community forums

• Powerful workflow automations serve to improve agent bandwidth and produce faster resolutions

Cons

• Not ideal for small businesses, as its feature set and pricing is geared toward enterprise-level organizations

• Steep learning curve that requires lots of time and extensive training to become accustomed to

• Lack of internal communication tools makes it difficult to collaborate with colleagues to resolve tickets faster

3. ZohoDesk

Zoho Desk is a cloud-based customer service software that allows organizations to better manage customer queries and feedback. It excels in automating the process of assigning tickets to agents, which can help save time and ensure faster responses.

Key features

• Automatic sentiment analysis helps agents prioritize and work on tickets that have a negative sentiment, giving them more context at the first look

• Auto-suggest identifies keywords in the customer's request and pulls up the relevant articles from the help center

• Agent collision prevention alerts teams when someone else is working on the same ticket

Pros

• Automatic routing of tickets helps reduce resolution times while round robin setting can distribute the ticket load evenly to reduce any bottlenecks

• Team feed enables employees to see all important announcements in a single, unified location

• Detailed reports assist in understanding your team's performance, where they need to improve, and how they can rectify any issues

Cons

• Many of the most useful features are reserved for the most expensive package

• Users report that excessive notifications can overwhelm agents and cause urgent issues to be overlooked

• Non-intuitive layout requires excessive scrolling and searching to get from one feature to the next

4. HelpScout

Help Scout is a customer communication platform that offers a variety of tools to help public-facing teams. Some of its core functionalities include AI-driven assistance, a self-service help center, and a shared team inbox.

Key features

• AI drafts use information from past conversations and help articles to generate on-brand responses

• AI summarize condenses long email threads into a few bullet points in a matter of seconds

• Agent collision detection enables teams to see who’s working on which conversations so you don’t duplicate efforts

Pros

• Easily tag in team members using mentions to make it super clear who needs to jump in and help

• Individual and team assignments ensure all your conversations end up in the right place

• Private notes allow agents to get input, share updates, and improve overall collaboration

Cons

• Lacks integration with many popular third-party applications

• Attachments are often lost when copying a new email to an existing chain

• Restricted customization capacity, particularly in the knowledge base and ticket fields, can make it difficult to tailor to unique organizational needs

5. Hiver

Hiver is a customer service and email management tool that allows businesses to manage support channels from their Gmail inbox. It’s designed to improve internal collaboration and communication across email, live chat, chatbot, knowledge base, and voice.

Key features

• Turn emails into actionable tasks, give them designated owners, and deliver quick resolutions with team inbox

• Conversation followers empower supervisors to follow email threads of interest to stay up to date on progress made

• Conversation IDs are mapped to each email interaction, making it easy to track all threads 

Pros

• Enable customers to seamlessly submit issues and track their resolution status with a customer portal

• Offers ability to create and save canned responses as email templates with rich media attachments

• Easily collaborate within your team by using @mention to tag a colleague and write a note

Cons

• Restricted to Gmail interactions only and can’t build any third-party integrations

• Limited workflow actions and triggers result in heavier manual workloads for live agents

• Weak search functionality makes it difficult to reference past tickets and find specific information

6. Front

Front is a customer support solution that enables teams to communicate with customers across multiple channels, automate tasks, and gain insights into team performance. It combines emails, apps, and teammates into a single view to enhance cohesiveness and ensure retained context across all customer interactions.

Key features

• Real-time collaboration features like shared drafts and comments help keep multiple teams and stakeholders in lockstep

• Omnichannel inbox aggregates every customer conversation from different channels into a one platform

• AI-assisted drafts and summaries serve to increase agent productivity and efficiency

Pros

• Robust reporting features can provide insights into response time, customer satisfaction, busiest times, and much more

• Easily build, scale, and maintain custom workflows without any coding

• In-thread comments replace the extra internal emails or DMs with real-time, behind-the-scenes chat

Cons

• Can be prohibitively expensive for some businesses, especially for the higher-tier packages

• Lack of onboarding support and training, which can limit employee buy-in and make it challenging to acclimate to the platform

• Moving a conversation to a different inbox causes everyone who’s not assigned to the second inbox to fall off of the interaction

7. HubSpot

HubSpot Service Hub is a cloud-based platform that empowers businesses to manage and monitor customer service interactions. It aims to streamline engagement and improve the CX by bringing customer success and support teams together under one hub.

Key features

• Breeze Customer Agent acts as an AI-powered expert that’s available 24/7 to provide immediate answers to a wide range of different user questions

• Skills-based routing ensures that customer conversations are assigned to the right support rep every time

• Knowledge base analytics enable teams to learn what customers are looking for and identify gaps in their base

Pros

• AI-powered, omnichannel, and connected to marketing and sales data on a unified customer platform

• Brings the best of HubSpot’s Smart CRM and AI-first customer platform together to provide a unified overview of the entire customer journey

• With service level agreements (SLAs), you can set working hours, build in automation, and report on attainment

Cons

• Overabundance of features and complex user interface (UI) require a steep learning curve to utilize to maximum potential

• Limited reporting and analytics features can make it difficult to improve over time

• Knowledge base customization is rather limited—for instance you can’t have knowledge articles appear in multiple locations

8. HappyFox

HappyFox is a cloud-based help desk software that helps organizations manage customer support and tickets. It acts as a centralized system for tracking and managing customer issues, while also providing a plethora of self-help resources.

Key features

• Tickets queue can be used to create custom queues by adding one or more rules to filter requests based on priority and responsibility

• Pinned tickets act as daily to-do lists, helping teams set priorities and organize their time better

• Bulk action allows agents to quickly select related tickets and apply actions on them all to streamline processes

Pros

• All incoming tickets are automatically sorted into categories like customer support, sales, marketing, and billing

• Use quick actions to save time by automatically changing priority, ticket status, due date, or assignees

• Craft easy-to-read replies with the rich text editor while the composer auto-saves edits in real-time

Cons

• Limited social media integration restricts omnichannel engagement capacity

• User reviews mention frequent bugs and glitches that can hinder the UX

• Lack of automated alerts can result in some tickets being overlooked, leading to customer frustration

Choosing the right ticketing software for your small business

Determining the best ticketing system for your small business requires a clear understanding of your specific requirements and objectives. Start by identifying the key challenges your organization faces in managing customer support or internal requests. Consider factors such as the volume of inquiries, the number of support channels you manage, and the size of your team. Then, look for a ticketing solution that aligns with these needs, slowly narrowing down your list of potential providers as you go along.

For small companies, automation potential and scalability are often two of the most desirable features in a ticketing platform. Automation tools, such as chatbots, auto-prioritization, and auto-assignment, serve to save significant time and resources, which is often invaluable for businesses operating with limited resources. Meanwhile, scalability ensures that the software can accommodate any future growth an organization may experience, acting as a long-term solution that can evolve alongside them.

Benefits of small business ticketing systems

For small businesses, delivering exceptional customer service can be a key differentiator that helps drive growth and customer loyalty. A ticketing system serves as a powerful tool to assist in these efforts by optimizing the way customer inquiries are handled. From ensuring timely responses to enabling improved communication within the support team, ticketing solutions provide a plethora of benefits that can elevate the entire customer experience (CX). 

Improved customer satisfaction, loyalty and experience

Through features like multi-channel support and basic automation, a ticketing system allows customers to reach out through their preferred communication methods and receive prompt, consistent service. By centralizing these inquiries, the platform ensures that no request is overlooked and tickets are prioritized and assigned efficiently, streamlining the support process.

Furthermore, with the ability to track user interactions and maintain detailed records of past issues, businesses can offer tailored solutions and follow up on recurring problems. Ticketing solutions also support the creation of self-service portals, empowering individuals to find answers on their own, which often enhances the overall CX. As customers experience consistently reliable and personalized support, their trust in a company grows, leading to stronger loyalty and positive word-of-mouth, which are crucial for long-term success.

Enhanced efficiency and productivity

Small business ticketing system features like automated ticket routing and categorization help verify that each inquiry is directed to the most appropriate representative without manual intervention. This expedites the support process, allowing employees to focus on resolving issues rather than managing the flow of incoming requests. Additionally, basic automation, such as canned responses for frequently asked questions (FAQs), reduces the time spent on repetitive tasks, enabling small business teams to handle more tickets in less time.

Ticketing software also acts as a centralized platform where all customer interactions are logged and tracked, improving collaboration within the support team. This empowers employees to easily access the history of a customer’s previous issues, ensuring that they have all the context needed to provide a quick and effective solution. Internal notes and ticket assignment features can further enhance collaboration, allowing team members to share insights and divide tasks efficiently.

Faster service and issue resolution

When leveraging a ticketing solution, small business support teams can easily categorize and prioritize issues based on their nature and urgency. This organized method verifies that similar problems are grouped together, enabling agents to identify and address common issues more quickly. Additionally, by systematically recording each step taken to resolve an issue, the system creates a clear path to follow, which reduces the time spent troubleshooting and ensures consistent responses.

Moreover, when teams are able to track the progress of each ticket, they can collaborate more effectively, ensuring that everyone involved is aware of the latest developments. This shared visibility minimizes delays caused by miscommunication or duplicated efforts, as team members can quickly see what has already been done and what still needs to be addressed.

Helps create accountability

In small business ticketing systems, every request created within the platform is documented with details such as the time of submission, the nature of the inquiry, and the actions taken to resolve it. This comprehensive record allows both the support team and management to track the progress of each issue in real-time, ensuring that everyone involved is aware of the current status.

Even more, as each ticket is linked to a particular individual or team, there’s always a clear line of responsibility, making it easier to track who’s handling what. This reduces the likelihood of issues being neglected or forgotten, as the software provides a visible reminder of pending tasks.

Lower costs

By centralizing and organizing customer inquiries, ticketing platforms minimize the time and resources required to manage support requests. This efficiency allows a smaller team to handle a larger volume of tickets without needing to hire additional staff, which directly reduces labor costs.

Ticketing solutions can also lower costs by improving first-contact resolution (FCR) rates. Providing support teams with easy access to customer histories and previous interactions empowers agents to address issues accurately and effectively on the first try, reducing the need for follow-up interactions. 

Key features of small business ticketing systems

A well-designed ticketing system is more than just a tool for tracking customer inquiries; it’s a comprehensive solution that can transform how a small business handles its support processes. Understanding the core features that these platforms offer is crucial for choosing the right solution for your business. 

Let’s dive into some key attributes that contribute to a well-rounded and effective ticketing software:

Easy to use online portal

Customer portals serve as a self-service platform where individuals can submit support requests, track the progress of their tickets, and access helpful resources like FAQs or a knowledge base. When users encounter an issue, they can log into the portal to create a new ticket by filling out a form that captures the necessary details about their problem. 

Once submitted, the ticket is automatically logged into the system and customers receive a confirmation that their issue is being addressed. Throughout the resolution process, individuals can view the status of their tickets in real-time, reducing the need for them to contact support multiple times for updates.

Leverage automation and AI

Automation features, such as auto ticket assignment, prioritization, and workflow triggers, streamline the support process by handling routine tasks without the need for manual intervention. For instance, when a ticket is created, the system can automatically assign it to the appropriate team member based on predefined rules, ensuring that the right person handles each issue. Automated responses can also be sent to acknowledge receipt of the ticket, keeping customers informed while the support team works on a resolution.

AI tools further enhance the capabilities of small business ticketing systems by offering advanced functionalities like predictive analytics and chatbots. Predictive analytics can help forecast ticket volumes and identify potential issues before they escalate, allowing the support team to be more proactive. Meanwhile, AI-powered chatbots can handle simple inquiries or guide customers through troubleshooting steps, resolving issues without human intervention. 

Centralized communications 

In a small business ticketing system, whether individuals reach out via email, social media, phone, or live chat, all inquiries are captured and converted into tickets within the software. This integration ensures that no communication is lost or overlooked, allowing the support team to manage all issues from one central location.

Additionally, when all customer interactions are logged in a single system, it becomes easier for employees to share information and collaborate on resolving issues. Ticketing software’s ability to store and track communication histories allows team members to quickly get up to speed on ongoing cases, reducing the chances of miscommunication or duplicated efforts. 

Personalize experiences

When a customer submits a request, ticketing systems automatically pull up their past interactions, allowing support agents to view previous issues, resolutions, and any ongoing concerns. This comprehensive view enables reps to tailor their responses based on an individual’s specific needs and history rather than offering generic solutions.

Ticketing solutions can also store personalized data, such as customer preferences, product usage, or specific account details, which can be referenced during support interactions. This information allows support teams to engage with users in a way that feels more personal and attentive. By remembering details like preferred communication channels or specific product configurations, agents can provide a more seamless and customized service.

Analytics and reporting capabilities

Small business ticketing platforms typically offer robust reporting and analytics capabilities that serve to provide valuable insights into the performance of customer support operations. These systems can generate detailed breakdowns on key metrics such as ticket volume, response times, resolution times, and customer satisfaction levels. By analyzing this data, businesses can identify trends, such as peak times for customer inquiries or common issues that frequently arise.

Utilizing reporting tools enables customer service managers to monitor how quickly and effectively issues are being resolved as well. This ability to assess performance and drill down deeper into specific data points, such as the types of tickets that take the longest to resolve, enables companies to target problem areas and implement improvements.

Scale your small businesses support capability with Freshdesk’s ticketing software!

Freshdesk serves as the preferred helpdesk solution for small businesses across the globe, providing an impressive array of powerful features at a manageable price point.

To help expedite internal workflows, Freshdesk can automatically create, categorize, prioritize, and assign tickets, while features like time- and event-triggered automation perform specific actions on tickets without manual intervention. Additionally, self-service tools, like our knowledge base, community forums, and Freddy AI-driven chatbot, are on hand 24/7 to help individuals resolve common issues independently, thus freeing up human reps to work on more value-added initiatives.

But with all of these amazing attributes, there must be a huge price tag to go along with them, right? Not with Freshdesk! Businesses can take advantage of our free plan for up to two agents, while our Growth package runs just $15 per user per month. As your organization grows, there are additional options available as well, providing you with the opportunity to scale up as your needs evolve.

Any features your company desires that Freshdesk doesn’t offer? Don’t worry! Simply browse our extensive Freshworks Marketplace for access to hundreds of popular third-party apps and systems that can significantly extend the scope of the platform.