In this blog, We will examine Conversational ticketing, shedding light on its role, advantages, and how it's redefining customer support within Slack.
We'll break down the core concepts of conversational ticketing, discuss its key benefits, and guide you through the best tools available today.
Ready to revolutionize your customer support approach with conversational ticketing? Let's dive in!
What is Conversational ticketing?
Conversational ticketing is the real-time support between a support professional and a requester over a chat platform. Both internal and external support teams can benefit from Conversational ticketing.
What makes this concept different from other support practices is that;
- For requesters, getting support is easy, fast, and human.
- For support professionals, the context of requests is clear, resources are readily available, and a switch to another platform is not required.
Conversational ticketing is also known as Conversational support, Conversational service, Slack ticketing, or Slack-first ticketing.
Why Conversational ticketing?
Conversational ticketing is a part of the broader concept of conversational support by leveraging the capabilities of chatbots and human agents in tandem. And there are several reasons why you should go with it:
People want to speak with people
We’ve mentioned that conversational ticketing refers to real-time information exchange between support professionals and requesters. And according to a survey conducted by HubSpot, 59% of requesters prefer human support.
Save business money
Conversational support offers a live chat experience, saving you up to 50% on support costs compared to other methods. So, while resolving tickets faster, you’re also spending less– which is the ultimate goal.
Bring support to where people already are
With its 20 million active users, Slack is a major part of the workday. Ask any company where their internal teams are asking questions and getting real-time help, and these days, the answer is overwhelmingly Slack.
Given that your users are already on Slack, nothing makes more sense than bringing support there.
And in terms of your customers, they probably reach out to you from multiple channels, through email, Instagram, Facebook, your Slack community, or directly from your own Slack workspace if you’re using Slack Connect.
Since it’s hard to be present in all those channels, you prefer to have a central place to communicate with them. Slack is again the best choice for getting requests and providing customer support for omnichannel support operations since you’re already there.
Then, you gather them all in the same place. You just need an optimal solution to track and manage tickets right in Slack– because you don’t want to leave there.
There comes; Conversational ticketing.
It is the most effective method that makes it easier (not to mention faster) for your support team to reach out, get resolutions, and respond quickly to follow-up questions in Slack—all of which improve time to resolution.
How can Conversational ticketing benefit support teams?
Utilizing a Conversational ticketing tool offers several significant benefits; your team can enhance customer service and streamline workflow processes.
The incorporation of automation allows for the efficient handling of repetitive tasks, freeing up human agents to tackle unnecessary time consumption.
They also ensure transparency and accountability, with every interaction recorded and easily traceable. They are designed to serve as a bridge between communication platforms like Slack and traditional ticketing systems.
Here are some reasons why as part of a support team, should consider implementing Conversational ticketing:
Managing the entire ticket lifecycle:
Leveraging the capabilities of conversational ticketing system, you can now seamlessly manage the entire ticket lifecycle within the familiar interface of Slack.
This revolutionary system allows support requests to be raised, tracked, and resolved directly within Slack.
Support teams can effectively triage and respond to inquiries using dedicated channels while maintaining full transparency and easy communication.
Furthermore, these systems enable performance tracking regarding request volume, Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), and first response and resolution times.
They also provide the ability to automate workflows, ensuring real-time updates on ticket status within Slack.
This method redefines efficiency in issue management, integrating an all-encompassing solution into a single platform.
Streamlined and fast resolution:
With Slack-first ticketing, support operations are taken to the next level. It aims to make support more engaging, responsive, and efficient.
Conversational ticketing helps you streamline the ticket resolution process. You’ll have all the necessary information at your fingertips, enabling you to address the issue more effectively.
Such systems supporting Conversational ticketing allow you to;
- Open requests, create tickets, and update ticket status right in Slack
- Assign tickets to relevant agents–either manually or automatically
- Quickly address the requester's concerns by receiving instant Slack notifications with the required context
- Communicate with the requesters in real-time, share resources and provide solutions under a Slack thread
- Use emojis or follow-up buttons to run workflows automatically
- Easily take follow-up actions in Slack, such as assigning or updating the ticket
- Provide and access screenshots, recordings, etc.
- And bring ticket resolution faster.
In addition to all these, as your business grows, so will the volume of customer support inquiries.
Conversational ticketing systems can easily scale to handle higher volumes, allowing you to maintain high support levels without a proportional staff increase.
Best Conversational ticketing tools
In the modern age of customer service, the best conversational ticketing tools seamlessly integrate with your company's existing communication channels, fostering efficient and effective customer interaction.
The strength of these tools lies in their ability to turn every conversation into a trackable ticket, ensuring every customer query is solved.
With the right tool, you can deliver a truly omnichannel experience, providing support wherever and whenever your customers need it.
Halp
Halp is a Conversational ticketing system integrated into Jira Service Management (JSM). It's designed to work with Slack and Microsoft Teams to create a modern, lightweight help desk experience.
P.S.: Before Halp was integrated into JSM, it was an independent tool that could be integrated with other ticketing applications. Halp originally started as a Slack application that turned conversations into trackable tickets. But, as of May 9, 2023, Halp plans will no longer be available to new subscribers. And the functionalities it provide will only be available to Jira Service Management Cloud customers.
After Atlassian acquired Halp, it was integrated into JSM to enhance its capabilities. Still, before that, it could be used in conjunction with other ticketing systems to streamline the process of handling support requests and internal communication within Slack.
Actioner
With Actioner's Conversational ticketing for Zendesk, you can effortlessly integrate Zendesk with Slack, allowing your support team to manage the entire ticket lifecycle within Slack.
Actioner enhances your communication by enabling requesters and support agents to interact within Slack, saving you time by reducing the need to switch between platforms.
➡️Check out Conversational ticketing use cases
💡 Actioner’s Conversational ticketing is not limited to Zendesk; it can be integrated with other ticketing tools with an open API while offering greater flexibility and adaptability. Or you can build a ticketing tool from scratch using Actioner Tables– a built-in database of the platform.
Slack apps and bots built on Actioner are highly customizable through the Workflow canvas, allowing you to adjust the bot, hint messages, and default channels dedicated for different purposes.
Conclusion
Well, Conversational Ticketing is more than just a buzzword – it’s a transformative strategy that enables customer support teams to be faster, more efficient, and more human.
Businesses can deliver high-quality service by seamlessly integrating customer support with Slack while streamlining their internal operations.
With the right tools, like Actioner, businesses can transform their approach to customer service, manage support tickets more efficiently, and ensure every customer interaction is handled promptly and professionally.
Want to revolutionize your customer support operations? Get instant access to Conversational ticketing with Zendesk app.
Join Actioner's Slack community, share your thoughts, and ask for help whenever needed!
Blog
