Customer Support: Ticket System vs. Email
by Melody
There are several ways to offer customer support but two popular options are through email and online ticket systems. Though both have their benefits, I find that using a ticket system is a much easier and efficient way of doing it. Here’s why:
- Tickets are not caught in spam filters
- Ticket systems have options for using visual verifications to block spam, thus cutting the time spent on customer service
- Email programs crash causing information to be lost, creating chaos for weeks
- Ticket systems save everything in a history that you can search through with ease
- Emails accidentally get deleted. Ticket systems typically take two steps to delete
- Email addresses tend to be blacklisted therefore my reply doesn’t reach the customer
- My clients (or another assistant) can jump in and answer questions if I’m on vacation or get stuck on something.
- My clients can monitor my replies in the beginning to ensure I’m answering correctly.
- I handle multiple addresses for multiple clients & it can become overwhelming at times to have 20+ accounts set up. With a ticket system, I can manage multiple departments/addresses with a single log in.
- I can access it from any computer at any location and only have to remember one url and login detail.
Although ticket systems are my preference, there are times when email just makes more sense. These would be:
- When you cannot afford a ticket system
- When you need someone to jump in immediately and cannot wait for setup
- When you don’t receive enough customer support email to justify the price
- When you’re just getting started and need time to gauge the amount of service requests you receive
Regardless of which way you choose to handle your customer service, keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be permanent. If you start with one way and it doesn’t work for you, simply switch to something else and see if that works better. You may even find that a combination of the two works best.
If you are struggling to manage your customer support or simply dislike dealing with the public, we can help. We offer prompt, professional customer, affiliate and subscriber support.