Issue Tracking Software
Issue tracking software relates to both project management and customer service management. These solutions provide users with end-to-end issue ticketing management. Core features include the ability to capture complaints and requests, organize them by severity, issue type, time frame, etc. and distribute those requests to the right personnel for quick and efficient resolution.
Moreover, issue tracking systems maintain a comprehensive database of all requests and complaints to help businesses and organizations identify key aspects of their product and/or service that requires improvement. This is especially useful for software development teams, open-source platforms and other similar cases.
Issue tracking software is used by a multitude of small and mid-sized businesses as well as large enterprises in different industries. Most SMBs generally have fewer than 50 individuals under their employ, therefore their biggest concern when it comes to issue tracking systems is affordability and the lack or absence of a large, dedicated IT team to handle support requests and complaints.
If you’re a small business owner who needs a ticketing system or an issue tracking tool, going with standalone cloud-based solutions might be a good option to help manage issues that your employees or customers can have. This type of tracking software generally boasts user-friendly features and tools, which are suitable for non-technical users and businesses with no dedicated IT department.
Larger businesses, on the other hand, generally prefer fully-featured issue tracking systems. Most of them already use CRM solutions and comprehensive project management software, which may already offer a built-in issue tracking solution to help identify and manage issues. Large businesses also use custom CRMs, which should also include issue trackers and other helpful tools. But, this type of software system can be costly and requires more thorough training on the part of the user.
Issuetrak provides a simple and affordable issue tracking solution that streamlines the management of complaints, help desk tickets, customer support requests, and tasks all in one central place.
Issue tracking software solutions offer a wide variety of features and tools businesses can use to enhance the efficiency of their issue ticketing. With these features, SMBs will be able to address employee and customer requests, concerns and complaints more quickly and effectively.
Take IssueTrak or JIRA by Atlassian, for example. Both these software solutions, besides having great issue tracking capabilities, offer far more than your standard ticketing system. JIRA, essentially a proprietary project management software solution, is touted as having one of the most extensive issue tracking systems on the market. It is one of the oldest and most widely used issue tracking solutions in the world.
IssueTrak, on the other hand, is designed specifically for help desk and customer support users. The platform offers knowledge management functionality as well as field service solutions on top of its core customer service and issue tracking modules. The best part about both of these issue tracking systems is that they can be deployed via the cloud or on local servers, which means they cater to a range of businesses.
Other functionalities and features available in an issue tracking software solution include ticket management, task management, an issue auditing tool, escalation management, knowledge base and customizable dashboards.
Ticket management is essentially a help desk ticketing system, which enables your support staff to create and assign tickets based on employee or customer requests and complaints. The task management feature allows you to create tasks directly from the issue tickets, thus providing other users the ability to monitor the status of their requests from start to finish.
Assignment management, on the other hand, is essentially the process of assigning specific tasks to the right individual based on the issues or requests submitted. The tool utilizes data from the tickets, as a way to effectively manage issues, so they can be assigned to the appropriate personnel based on their availability and their area of expertise. Some solutions can offer automatic assignment that prioritizes users based on their technical suitability and current workload.
Issue auditing is the functionality that allows users to perform audits on previous issues and complaints based on a specific category. This category may include the agent or customer support staff name, the time of the request and the type.
Escalation management is a function in your issue tracking software that lets users record and update the status of tickets and requests, so they can escalate requests higher in the business where relevant.
A knowledgebase feature is where you will be able to maintain and store information from all of your customer tickets. It is the information hub of your issue tracking software, useful to agents and customer support staff. They can simply access the database to find the solutions to previously resolved issues and complaints.
The dashboard is where users can view different aspects of the system, track request status and monitor the performance of all personnel through customizable charts and graphs.
Issue tracking systems are becoming quite popular among businesses across different industries. This kind of platform is especially becoming a staple in businesses that are trying to improve the quality of their customer service efforts. The following are some of the benefits of implementing a robust issue tracking software as part of your project management and customer support solutions.
When it comes to today’s business process software solutions, automation is one of the biggest factors in the majority of web-based products. As far as issue tracking systems are concerned, the automated issue capture and automated alerts functions are certainly beneficial to businesses and organizations.
There are a few different methods involved when capturing customer requests and complaints, which include online forms, live chat, phone calls and emails. With online forms, automation can be achieved by utilizing the custom fields to help categorize tickets so they can be routed directly to the right customer support staff.
Now, if you’re a company that receives a huge number of customer requests on a daily basis, missing a few tickets is probably a common problem for you. However, with automated alerts, you can minimize the chances of missing a customer request. The system ensures that once a ticket is created and assigned to a particular agent, that individual will receive an alert through text messages and email.
This feature will also make sure customer service personnel are constantly updated in real-time as to the status of customer requests until they are resolved.
There is a constant need to access customer information when it comes to providing quality customer support. Issue tracking tools generally come with customer database integration, which makes it easier for your help desk personnel to access the appropriate customer information to make the entire process go quicker and a lot smoother, especially if the help desk team has dealt with that particular customer on a previous occasion.
Robust issue tracking software allows your customers to provide your team with useful feedback, which you can then use to improve your product and/or service, as well as your customer support efforts. The bottom line is you will be getting valuable data directly from your customer base that you can analyze and use to improve the quality of your customer service.
