What is issue tracking?

Issues are queries, problems, questions, or complaints raised by customers who are using your product or service. They can also be problems discovered during the development and deployment of a product.

An issue tracking system is a tool that allows agents to manage various cases and track their progress during the resolution process, from beginning to end. Issue tracking begins as a customer reaches out to report the issue, and is completed following the resolution of the issue, and the gathering of any relevant customer feedback.

An effective tracking system allows you to route issues, prioritise cases, add internal notes, create filters for easier searching, manage issues with dashboards, and capture customer feedback.

A majority of customers indicate that fast issue resolution is very important. In fact, 90% say that an immediate response is important or very important when customer support problems are being addressed (source: Hubspot). With this in mind, it’s crucial for businesses to track issues carefully and move quickly towards resolution, while still maintaining transparency.

To help facilitate this, issue tracking provides several benefits.

Tracking issues creates a process of acquiring customer issues, categorising them, sending them to the proper team, and tracking them to resolution.

Issue trackers record issues received from customers over different channels. Each time an agent interacts with a customer, they can review the customer’s history to better understand the issue and prior interactions.

Good issue tracking software records details from issues, such as resolution due dates, actions that need to be completed, and assigned responsibilities. This allows agents to conduct follow-ups once the issue has been resolved.

Agents have the ability to prioritise issues in order to address the highest priorities first, moving down the line to the less urgent issues.

Tracking software allows agents to view the progress of cases as they move towards resolution. Issue tracking is also capable of highlighting and prioritising outstanding cases, to help ensure that no issues or customers fall through the cracks.

Issue tracking tools should be omnichannel, allowing customers to report their issues or request features using a single solution that aggregates their preferred channels into one, real-time integrated experience. Channels can include web forms, email, chat, social media, or phone. Good issue trackers centralise each touch point, which empowers customers to move easily from channel to channel without any bumps.

Time tracking allows agents to measure the effort that software engineers use while researching, coding, testing, and resolving any bugs. This feature is useful for project managers who need to manage team members while also managing sprints that are centred around upcoming releases.

Consider how well your system implements with tools like Jira, Github, Bitbucket, Bugzilla, and other relevant IT and project management applications. Support agents and software engineers should be able to manage tickets and communicate across different systems, without having to interrupt the resolution or remediation process.

Issue tracking software should include the ability to create reports to ease the project management process by identifying trends. Reports refine how resources are being used for software projects, and provide updates to the roadmap for a company’s application. Managers can also track automated reports that are delivered to email inboxes while also creating helpful dashboards to track KPIs.

A thorough issue tracker should provide the ability to gather feedback from customers about their issues and resolutions. Agents should also be capable of reaching out to customers post-resolution to follow up and solicit feedback. Common tools include Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys.

It’s crucial to think about workflows within a software system. The service-level agreement (SLA) plays a significant role in how organisations respond to service requests, and SLAs are important to track in workflows.

Administrators may simplify issue tracking by setting up automations for more routine tasks. This may include assigning agents or closing cases after a predetermined amount of time.

Effective issue tracking software plays a big role in helping small businesses manage resources and productivity. It provides customers with self-service options to help them resolve more common issues without having to reach out to and interact with live support agents. As business grows, trackers offer complex tools to help customers receive excellent service, without having to bring on many new support agents.

Although options vary from provider to provider, most issue tracking solutions offer free trials where businesses can test-run the software before fully committing to it. The test periods can be helpful to assess if a tracker will provide efficiency while also providing real-time reports to help resolve issues more quickly.

It’s easy to reply to emails when all of your emails are in a single, accessible location. This is particularly essential when your organisation has several email addresses.

You can manage your organisation’s Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media platforms from a single location. See what your customers are saying and respond easily to questions and comments without having to constantly switch between platforms.

Agents can chat with customers to understand their issues and provide instant help. If the issue requires further attention, issue tracking software converts chats into cases with one simple action or click.

Ticketing tools allow you to answer and make phone calls with cloud telephony technology. Calls are logged and monitored, then converted into cases or attached to existing cases.

Embed a self-fill web form on your website. This allows customers to elaborate on their issue and submit the form. Automated tools convert the form into a case and then send it along to the relevant agent or team.