As an MSP, you have to track the status of open tickets, quickly assess the priority of new tickets, and provide ongoing progress updates for clients. Without a process for managing all of that, technicians might lose valuable time to administrative tasks. That’s why an ITSM ticketing system is a necessity.
In this post, we’ll talk about how ITSM ticketing systems improve efficiency, boost customer satisfaction, and help MSPs continuously improve their processes.
What are the advantages of ITSM ticketing systems?
Ticketing systems improve IT service management in several ways:
Efficiency
ITSM ticketing systems let technicians create support tickets from emails and phone calls, ensuring all customer requests are captured and managed from within a single platform. That’s an efficient alternative to manual ticket management, and most ticketing systems include workflow automation that further enhances efficiency.
A ticketing platform also allows technicians to create change orders, track incidents, and see the history and outcome of every task.
Better customer experience
A ticketing system that has a customer portal gives customers more insight into their requests. They can access their portal to submit a ticket, check the status of a previous request, view service estimates, and manage invoices.
Offering a better customer experience means you’re more likely to improve retention rates, which is important for small MSPs.
Reporting
Ticketing systems simplify the process of creating IT reports, because once you set up a report, you can configure it to run automatically. For example, if a customer generally asks to see the number of resolved and unresolved tickets per month, you can set up a report that tracks that monthly and automatically pings the customer when it’s ready.
Features to look for an ITSM ticketing system
Automation
ITSM ticketing systems can include a wide range of automation, such as:
- Status alerts — If no one acts on a ticket within a certain time, the system can send an automated alert.
- Email-to-ticket conversions — You can set up rules in your ticketing system that automatically convert emails into tickets.
- Patch management — A ticketing system can automatically scan for Windows patches and apply them (or you can manually install them).
- Ticket workflows — Set up rules that automatically route tickets to assignees, based on the customer, the type of issue, or other factors.
- Billing — A ticketing system with PSA functionality can pull unbilled ticket charges and add them to a customer invoice.
Live chat
Sometimes technicians need more info about a specific ticket. With live chat, you can talk to customers within your ticketing system and gather the details you need.
Integrations
Before choosing an ITSM ticketing system, make sure it integrates with other essential tools — Acronis, Microsoft Teams, and Cloudrail, for example.
Asset management
MSPs need to keep up with multiple endpoints, operating systems, users, and software platforms, which is why asset management is an important feature. If you need to access a user’s machine or device to resolve a ticket, a single-click remote access feature can help you work quickly.
Support
A platform with a knowledge base, user community, and online support will help you get up to speed quickly and find information when you need it.
Transparent pricing
Some ticketing systems have tiered pricing, with the best features available only through the premium tiers. Look for ticketing software with a clear pricing structure, unlimited endpoints, and no minimums.
Product development
A ticketing system should evolve along with its customers. Look for evidence of continuous software improvement, new features, and technology partnerships that improve the customer experience.
Security
With remote access to critical systems and endpoints, MSPs need assurance that their ticketing system is secure. Choose software that details how it upholds industry standards for security, manages data backups, and responds to any product vulnerabilities.
Powerful scripting
You’ll get the most ROI from your ticketing software when it includes a scripting engine that lets you automate maintenance tasks overnight and resolve tickets.
FAQ
How does a ticketing system back up data?
Some ticketing systems — like Syncro — back up data to a secure offsite server and let customers download their data in a CSV format anytime.
What compliance certifications does Syncro have?
Syncro is GDPR- and CCPA-compliant, HIPAA-certified, and achieved SOC 2 compliance in 2023.
How does Syncro determine new features for its software?
Our job is to help MSPs be successful, so we continually solicit feedback from customers about how we should grow our product. We even have a Community-Driven Development Track, where we ask users to submit ideas for QOL improvements. Then we’ll pick two ideas for our engineering team to scope and launch approved enhancements within a month.
Get started today
Try Syncro for free today. We think you’ll agree that it’s the best all-in-one solution for MSPs.