Introduction
How well you manage your clients’ website support requests is the number one reason that will dictate how long they remain a client.
Not how you update plugins. Not how often you take backups. Not whether you track security vulnerabilities.
All of those things matter, of course. But none of them trump support.
So, how do you handle website support requests in the most efficient way?
While email might seem like a simple and familiar tool for handling support requests, it falls well short when compared to ticket systems.
Let’s take a look at 11 reasons why …
1. Much easier to work with your teammates
Email is already a bit messy when there’s multiple people in a thread.
Some people using “Reply all”. Other people not using “Reply all” and then sending a reply only to some of the people in the thread.
Not good.
And the client experience is even worse, especially when there might be more than one person in your team who needs to take a look at the specific issue in question.
With a ticket system however, everyone is on the same page, literally.
It’s pretty common when you’re working in a team that a particular support request will be better handled by a particular person. The request might even need 2 or 3 people at various stages. Whatever the situation, it’s easily done in a ticket system, where you can quickly assign tickets (and notify those people) between teammates.
2. Instantly know which website a ticket is in relation to
Unless this is very clearly labelled in the email subject, which 9 times out of 10 it isn’t, then it’s often a challenge to quickly identify which website a particular email support request is related to.
And that’s pretty important when it’s a website support service that you’re providing!
When you’re using a support ticket system that’s built specifically for handling website support requests however, the website a particular ticket is allocated to is all handled automatically.
No confusion. No ambiguity. Just clear information that helps you and your team know exactly which client you’re looking after.
3. Very easy to view the status of a support request
Support ticket system have status options for a reason: so you can very quickly understand the progress being made on a particular request.
Emails don’t have this and they never will.
As your business grows and you start managing more websites and therefore more support requests from clients, being able to quickly identify and change the status of a support request will become more and more important.
This is a non-negotiable. To deliver the highest level of client support, you have to be able to quickly know the status of each request.
4. Easily view the time your team has spent on this ticket so far
You take your website support service to the next level when you combine a support ticket system with time tracking software.
If you want to grow your business profitably (which I really hope you do), then you need get an understanding on the time you’re taking to service client accounts.
By being able to quickly track time spent on support requests right from within your ticket system, you’ll be able to easily assess things like profitability per client and whether you need to increase your prices.
In email, you can’t do this and it’s not as easy to link it with time tracking software to get the above data.
5. Automatically bring all ticket info into your client reports
If you’re using a WordPress management tool to create and send client reports, chances are you’ll want to include information about the development work you’ve completed on your clients’ websites.
This makes sense, as it’s a great way to consistently prove the value of your service.
However if you’re using email to manage client support requests, you’ll need to manually add that development work information to your client reports.
This takes time and honestly, in my experience, it mostly just doesn’t get done. Therefore weakening the overall effect of your client reports.
To be honest, even when you’re using a ticket system that’s separate to your WordPress management software, this often still doesn’t get done because the two systems are separate and many WordPress management tools are limited in their ability to integrate with ticket system software.
The best setup is to use a WordPress management product that has an in-built support ticket system, like Glow.
6. Set priority levels to indicate urgency
Yes, priority levels can occasionally get abused by clients.
We’ve all seen those requests labelled as ‘urgent’ by clients that we review and think: “This ain’t urgent!”
They’re still helpful though and something that can’t be used if you’re managing support requests by email.
Having priority statuses help you as a team to decide on which tickets to work on and when.
If every support request had no indication of urgency, you could be working your way through low priority work while other clients are getting seriously worried about your lack of attention to their genuinely urgent request, such as a hacked site.
7. Really easy to keep track of interactions between you and your client
Email threads are nasty. And they get nastier the more people that are involved and the longer they go on for.
In contrast, threads in support ticket systems are very easy to track.
This is really important when you’re working in a team and need to quickly understand the progress on a support request.
8. Zero confusion over whether or not a ticket has been handled yet
Emails get read. They also get marked as unread, even after they’ve been read.
They get starred and unread. They get unstarred and read.
When you’re in a team managing multiple WordPress sites and requests from different clients, this confusion is not just unnecessary, it’s harmful to your ability to deliver outstanding levels of support.
Why would you even want to risk having that potential confusion?
With a support ticket system, there is literally never any confusion over whether a ticket has been handled or not. It’s right there in front of you, every time.
You’ll easily see replies from teammates and statuses (see number 6 above) add an extra level of clarity to establishing what the current state of play is.
9. Immediately see the ticket history for any client
This is particularly useful when you’re reviewing a client’s account and looking at how you’re currently servicing them.
It’s also helpful when you need to go back and see how a particular support request was handled previously.
With email, this is challenge. The best you could do is keep emails from the same client in a folder in your inbox. That’s at least more organised than not doing any kind of categorisation.
With a ticket system however, it’s all done for you. You don’t need to remember to move emails to different folders and you don’t need to setup the folders in the first place. Everything is automated.
Then you can just access that support request history when you need to.
10. No change for your client: they can continue raising tickets to you from their email
As much as support ticket systems beat email for teams handling website support requests, the best ones actually do a great job of integrating with email for the benefit of the client.
It’s never easy trying to educate your clients on using a new system you’ve introduced into the business. Behaviour changes can take ages and frankly, sometimes just never happen.
So whilst I’d always recommend using a ticket system to handle requests, I’d also always recommend that it be one that allows clients to raise tickets by sending an email.
On the whole, clients don’t want to change their behaviour. And when you use a ticket system like this, they won’t have to.
You still get all the benefits that come with a ticket system and they can still quickly fire off an email to you when they need to.
11. Quickly login to the website from the ticket
Generic support ticket systems won’t have this feature.
But ticket systems built specifically for handling website support requests, like Glow, will do.
It’s only a small thing but it’s powerful.
Generally, in the process of handling a website support request, you’ll need to login to the client’s website to fix or change something.
If the login to that website is right there in the ticket, it just saves you some time, instead of having to open a new browser tab, find the login information and then login.
1 click versus 3. No brainer.
Conclusion
Switching from email to a dedicated support ticket system will have a positive impact on how efficiently you manage website support requests and, ultimately, on the lifetime value of your support and maintenance clients.
With features that improve organisation, accountability, collaboration, and response times, ticket systems offer a level of service that emails simply can’t match. You’ll be better equipped to meet your clients’ needs, manage requests efficiently and ultimately provide a much better support experience.
So, whether you’re managing 20 sites or 200, a support ticket system helps you stay on top of every request. Hello ticket system, bye bye email.
