6 Disadvantages of Using Ticket-Based CX Software

Gladly Team

Read Time

3 minute read

While legacy ticketing platforms have their advantages, the disadvantages of ticketing in customer service can leave your team without the tools they need to create personalized interactions and drive brand loyalty. This is especially true since loyalty and personalization are now considered key factors in the customer experience, with shoppers valuing their relationships with the brands that treat them like humans, not numbers.

Modern customer service solutions are designed to focus on people versus tickets, creating a more personal approach. Follow along as we compare the advantages and disadvantages of ticketing systems, and break down how you can upgrade your customer experience with a modern, people-first solution.

Advantages of Ticketing Systems

While ticketing systems are becoming outdated, they still have some benefits for customer service teams in need of organization. These systems provide structure for call centers with sorting, completion, and measurement capabilities.

1. Organized filing system

Through numeric filing, agents can find, track, and sort issues based on task type and entry time. Being able to easily find cases by number and type cuts down on agents’ time spent searching or miscommunicating, and provides structure to your request system overall.

2. Metric of success

One key advantage to using legacy ticketing systems is having the ability to measure completion rate. These systems provide you with a hard metric that’s usable during performance evaluations, process audits, and strategy meetings. However, they don’t provide insights into the true value of this metric by analyzing data like modern CX platforms do. Using this performance metric can also lead to agents cherry-picking tickets to boost their individual performance numbers.

3. Centralized data hub

Legacy ticketing systems help your team stay organized by providing a single point of access. All tickets are funneled in and out of a singular, traceable system that every team has access to, which reduces administrative bottlenecks.

4. Reduced hold times

Ticketing systems let customers submit their issues rather than waiting on the phone. This allows customers to wait for agents to reach out to them, rather than vice-versa. However, these systems do not offer self-service solutions, which leaves a backlog of tickets for your agents to handle.

Andie Swim Slashed Wait Times Across Channels by 35%

🛑 Popular women’s retailer Andie Swim is finally able to provide one-to-many service. Not only did they switch from a ticket-based platform to a conversation-focused one, but they also added Gladly’s self-service channel Sidekick to every page of their website. Now, their Fit Expert heroes can spend the time saved helping customers find their perfect swim fit.

Disadvantages of Using Tickets in Customer Service

Ticketing systems are becoming outdated, as customers expect support to enhance their experience rather than simply satisfy their needs. Although ticketing systems serve a necessary purpose, the disadvantages likely outweigh the benefits for your agents and customers.

1. Lack of personalization

Legacy ticketing programs are excellent at keeping cases organized. However, they don’t manage customers — they manage numbers on a screen. With 73% of shoppers wanting to be treated like a person, not a case number, this lack of personalization leads to a reduction in customer trust and satisfaction.

2. Not compatible with other systems

Depending on your tech stack, agents may have to use a number of different solutions simultaneously to do their job. Using multiple programs makes their work more complicated because not all systems work together. Software incompatibility can lead to inefficiencies and errors when your agents are forced to manually transfer data.

Using an all-in-one solution like Gladly saves your agents time while allowing them to provide excellent service. Modern customer service systems also feature integrations with popular solutions that let you get more from your current tech stack.

3. Single-customer interactions are separated

In a legacy ticketing system, tickets are organized as isolated issues, not by customer. This means your agents don’t receive any customer context, or information about a customer’s previous interactions, causing potential frustration for shoppers once they reach an agent.

[Read more: What Is Customer Context and How Can Brands Use It?]

Customers can also submit multiple tickets for a single issue, leading to confusion on the level of staff needed to handle incoming tickets. Meanwhile, a people-centric approach offers more accurate staffing estimations, sorting issues by customer, not by request.

4. Lack of knowledge base or customer preferences

Even though your agents are well-trained, it’s impossible for them to know every answer, every time. Legacy ticketing systems often fall short of supporting your agents with the resources they need to provide quick and effective solutions to customer issues.

A comprehensive knowledge base can help agents answer questions efficiently and accurately. Access to customer details also provides them with the opportunity to make personalized recommendations that build customer loyalty.

5. Increased costs

Most legacy ticketing systems — as well as a few modern systems — base their pricing on a baseline number of tickets per month, quarter, or year. And because customers can submit multiple requests for a single issue, this can pass along unnecessarily high costs to the client, especially during peak season. By contrast, Gladly offers pricing that includes all channels out-of-the-box, with no limit to the number of customers brands can service (and without using tickets).

Need to Cut CX Costs? Ditch Tickets.

🛑 Zeus Living's customer service team saved 30% on CRM costs by moving from a ticket-based support platform to Gladly. Read more about their successful transition from a ticket-based platform to a conversation-based one.

6. Risk of agent burnout and churn

Burnout is often exacerbated by agents who are forced to deal with repetitive tasks that clog their workflows and steer them away from more pressing assignments. In fact, it’s frequently cited as a top three reason for leaving a job.

With the inefficiencies inherent in ticket-based systems, CX leaders may struggle to find the time to allow their agents to work on more complex projects, or to develop skills in an agent’s area of interest. This can lead avoidable to customer service burnout and agent churn. Investing in software that supports agent efficiency and decreases repetitive tasks helps to mitigate this risk.

Wondering how Gladly stacks up against ticket-based CX platforms? Start here.

Shift to a Human-Centric Approach with Gladly

Gladly offers the advantages of a legacy ticketing system — without the disadvantages that damage your reputation with customers. Solutions like customer details, conversation timeline, knowledge base, and a number of other integrations fill in the gaps left by a legacy system and adjust your team’s focus toward improving your customer experience.

By shifting from a ticketing system to a customer-centric approach, businesses like JOANN have reduced their backlogs by 95%, improved their CSAT scores, and minimized wait times. Learn more about how an all-in-one customer service solution from Gladly allows your team to address shoppers by name, rather than ticket number 0203941.

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