According to Microsoft’s recently released figures, Teams hit more than 280 million monthly active users in the Q2 of fiscal year 2023.
With so many users, it may come as a surprise that Teams can function in a way that many aren’t aware of: as a ticketing system. Teams can host its own ticketing system or integrate with a third-party system to provide a robust help desk experience.
Read on for everything you need to know about Microsoft Teams ticketing systems and how they can help you slash ticket resolution time using the fan-favorite app.
Teams, established in 2017, is Microsoft’s business communication platform that enables collaboration, sharing, and messaging. In addition to its traditional uses, if you have a ticketing system, you can integrate with Teams and use the application as your ticketing system.
In other words, you can manage, route, and solve requests using an application many businesses already use daily along with your third-party ticketing tool.
While this isn’t the only Microsoft property that can host a ticketing system (SharePoint is another), a Teams ticketing system is just as intuitive and can be incredibly powerful when paired with an external ticketing automation solution.
While there are a few ticketing systems available that can integrate with Teams, we’re a bit biased toward DeskDirector (of course!), which has a brand-new Teams app to make your ticketing processes even simpler.
Any small, medium, or large organization that uses Microsoft Teams can implement a Teams ticketing system, and it can benefit every department:
Smaller organizations can create a Teams ticketing system in a matter of hours, while mid-sized and large organizations usually need a few days or weeks to develop their comprehensive system. Regardless of organization size, a Teams help desk ticketing system can benefit departments across the entire company, ultimately leading to increased efficiency and enhanced productivity for all.
Teams has somewhat limited capabilities as a ticketing system because that’s not the original intention of the application. When integrated with a robust automation and ticketing tool explicitly designed for tickets, Teams has various capabilities, including the following:
A Microsoft Teams help desk ticketing system provides a centralized location to prioritize and categorize incoming tickets. This can help:
Team members can use tags or labels to categorize tickets based on urgency, complexity, or other factors. This lets agents quickly identify high-priority tickets and ensure they are addressed first.
Additionally, team members can collaborate on tickets within the Teams platform, adding comments, sharing files, or even escalating the ticket to a higher level of support if necessary. All of these actions can be tracked within the ticketing system, providing a clear history of the ticket and its resolution.
2. Turn Teams Messages into Ticket
With a third-party app, you can set up rules that automatically convert Teams messages in a specific channel into tickets based on certain criteria, such as the presence of specific keywords or phrases. For example, you could configure the app to create a ticket whenever a message includes the word "bug" or "error."
Once a Teams message has been turned into a ticket, it can be triaged, categorized, and prioritized like any other ticket in the system. This ensures that all incoming requests are properly tracked and managed, regardless of where they originated.
A Microsoft Teams ticketing system can let you reply to tickets directly in Teams by integrating with your ticketing software or using a Teams app with built-in messaging capabilities.
With integration, when a new ticket is created or updated, you can:
Alternatively, you can use a Teams app with built-in messaging capabilities. Some ticketing systems offer their own Teams app that allows you to view and respond to tickets within the Teams interface. Apps can simplify providing quick and efficient support, as you can collaborate on tickets and respond to inquiries in real time.
Replying to tickets directly in Teams lets you keep all communication in one place, streamlining your support processes and improving overall efficiency.
With Teams, you can assign tickets automatically using rules-based automation or setting up routing workflows.
With rules-based automation, you can set up triggers automatically assigning tickets to the appropriate team member based on specific criteria. For example, you could create a rule that gives all tickets with the "hardware issue" tag to a particular tech or assign all tickets originating from a specific customer to a specific support representative.
Routing workflows allow you to set up a series of steps that tickets must pass through before being assigned to a team member. You could create a workflow that automatically routes all tickets to a first-level support team. If the ticket remains unresolved after a certain period, it can automatically escalate to a second-level support team.
In both cases, the advantage of automatic ticket assignment is that it helps ensure that the right tech or team handles tickets promptly and efficiently. This can improve response times, reduce errors, and provide end-users with appropriate support for their issues.
When a ticket is submitted, it can:
Using queues to manage your tickets can improve overall efficiency and ensure that all incoming requests are tracked and managed systematically.
6. ESCALATE TICKETS & CHANGE TICKETS TYPE
If a ticket has been open for a certain period of time, you can set parameters so that it’s automatically flagged as a higher priority and escalated. Managers will get a message informing them that a ticket has passed a certain threshold so all relevant parties understand the ticket’s status.
Additionally, if you change the information field of a ticket, such as the specified Product or Custom Field, you can enable those shifts to trigger a change in the ticket type or group.
With these two features, a ticket will always be categorized the way you want and will never fall through the cracks because of automated escalation.
A Microsoft Teams ticketing system can automatically respond to users through the implementation of automated workflows. This intelligent system is designed to understand and interpret user queries or issues and provide predefined responses or actions.
These workflows can be triggered based on specific events or conditions, such as ticket creation or status changes. When triggered, the workflow can perform predefined actions, including sending automatic responses to users.
For example, when a user submits a ticket, an automated workflow can instantly send an acknowledgment email or Teams message, reassuring the user that their request has been received and is being reviewed.
If a user sends a question or message that includes a specific keyword, they can get an automated response with tips that might help answer their questions.
These automated responses can provide basic information, set expectations, or offer additional instructions to users while the ticket is being processed, all without agent involvement.
With the capabilities listed above and a whole lot more, you can use your Teams ticketing system to:
For many companies, especially those already using Teams, integrating with a third-party ticketing system comes with several benefits for all stakeholders, from the company owner all the way to the end-user.
On its own, Teams has limited customization and minimal reporting and analytics. Once integrated with a third-party tool, Teams is an incredibly effective ticketing system and is valuable for many organizations.
Want a clear process for how to bring your ticketing system and Teams together in harmony? Check out The Integration of Ticketing Systems and Microsoft Teams Explained for a step-by-step process on making this happen.
Like we said before, we wholeheartedly believe that DeskDirector is the best ticketing system to integrate with Microsoft Teams, and we’re here to answer the most common questions we get about this capability:
A Microsoft Teams ticketing system can be worthwhile, especially for organizations already comfortable with Microsoft properties. But of course, Teams itself is a bit more limited when it comes to ticketing capabilities. For a truly comprehensive experience, you can integrate with ticketing software to enhance your Teams environment, streamline ticket resolution, and improve employee engagement.
Looking for a ticketing solution that integrates seamlessly with Microsoft properties? Sign up to try DeskDirector and learn more about the new DeskDirector Teams App!