A Guide to Using A Google Ticketing Tool

Google Workspace doesn't have a ticketing system built in, but you can create your own DIY ticketing system using Google Forms and Google Sheets. Get out your duct tape!

Andrew Rivers

Last updated: December 29, 2023

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5 mins read

As a business grows, it’s common for customer service to become more chaotic and unmanageable. If you don’t have a system in place to manage these requests, it can even result in a loss of customers and decrease in revenue for your company.

How can you delegate the customer service work so everyone on your team can help? How can you tell if a request has already been resolved? The solution is using a Google ticketing tool to manage your customer support efforts. Here’s what you need to know:

What is a Google ticketing tool?

The term “ticketing tool” refers to an app, program, or software that serves as a help desk for customer support issues.

Every ticketing tool may be different, but in general, these tools are designed with ticket management features that allow teams to assign tasks to other team members and track the status of each task until it has been resolved.

If you are using a Gmail account to field incoming customer support requests, a ticketing tool would help you manage and track these issues from the time they are received to the time they are resolved.

Why do you need a Google workspace ticketing system?

There are many reasons why your business needs a ticketing system to manage customer support requests in your Gmail inbox. Some of these reasons include:

More responsive customer support. If you use a ticketing system, every incoming request will be immediately assigned to someone on your team, which means the customer will receive a response quickly. If you don’t, response times may vary. Sometimes, a request may sit in your inbox for days before someone notices it has not been addressed.
Creates a better experience for the customer. You may need to exchange multiple emails with a customer to resolve a specific request. If you are using a ticketing tool, you can ensure that every email from this customer goes to the same member of your team. This way, the customer won’t have to explain the issue over and over again every time someone new gets added to the email chain. This creates consistency and improves the entire experience for the customer.
Keeps customer support requests organized. Using a workplace ticketing system will make it easier for your team to keep track of incoming requests. This will prevent requests from slipping through the cracks.
Turns customer support into a team effort. As your company grows, it can become increasingly difficult to manage customer support efforts on your own. Using a ticketing system allows you to get other members of your team involved. You can assign tasks to your team to ensure everyone is handling their fair share of the workload.
Prevents duplicated efforts. If you aren’t using a ticketing system, you won’t have any visibility into what your team is working on. As a result, you may end up working on a support request that someone else is already in the process of resolving. Not only is this a waste of time, but it can confuse customers who may receive multiple responses from your team. A ticketing tool can prevent this problem by providing transparency and visibility into what your team is working on.

As you can see, using a Google ticket system to manage your customer support requests in Gmail can benefit both your customers and your business.

Is there a Google apps support ticket system?

Google Workspace, formerly known as G Suite, is a collection of dozens of helpful communication and productivity tools. Unfortunately, there is no ticketing tool in the Google Workspace. Google does not have its own Google apps support ticket system for companies that are using Gmail to manage customer support requests.

In fact, Google suggests using other Google apps to provide customer support. For example, Google recommends using Google Meet and Google Chat to provide live support to customers via video and instant messaging.

However, most businesses simply don’t have the resources to provide live customer support to customers. Furthermore, there’s no way to keep track of support requests or customer contact information if you are only providing live support via Google Meet and Google Chat.

How do you create your own Google ticket system?

Because Google does not have its own ticketing tool, some businesses choose to create their own system instead.

For example, some customer support teams use Google Forms, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Script to establish a DIY ticketing system. Here’s how each incoming customer support request would be handled using this system:

When a customer support request arrives in the shared Gmail inbox, you would need to open Google Forms to start a new ticket for the request.
Then, manually enter the data from the email into the Google Form.
You can assign the task to another team member by choosing their name from a dropdown menu on the Google Form.
Email the ticket number and other details about the request to the appropriate member of your team.
The team member will then need to open Google Spreadsheets to see all of the information about the request that you manually entered into the Google Form.
After researching the issue, the team member will need to communicate with the customer via email to reach a resolution.
Once the issue has been resolved, the team member will need to go into Google Forms to manually close the ticket.

Pros and cons of DIY ticketing systems

The main advantage of this DIY ticketing system is it is free to use. Anyone with a Google account can access Google Forms, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Script to set up a DIY ticketing system. Your team may be familiar with Google Forms and Google Spreadsheets, so they may already know how to use these two tools.

There are a number of drawbacks to this type of DIY ticketing system. First, this system is incredibly complex. To set it up, you must create multiple Forms and Spreadsheets. You must also know how to use Google Script to automate certain tasks and adjust the functionality of Google Forms. If you make even one minor mistake when setting it up, it could make the entire system unusable.

The system also involves a lot of manual work. For example, your team will need to manually convert every incoming email into a ticket in Google Forms. Not only is this time-consuming, but it also leaves a lot of room for error. Your team may accidentally invert numbers, omit information, or fail to accurately describe the customer’s problem. Issues like these can complicate your customer support efforts.

If you use this system, your team will need to open three different programs to manage customer support requests. They will need Gmail to send emails, Google Forms to manage the status of the ticket, and Google Spreadsheets to see more information on the request. Switching back and forth between multiple programs can overwhelm and frustrate your customer support team.

Finally, this system does not give your team access to all of the features they need to effectively manage your customer support requests. Although it allows your team to assign tasks to one another, it does not include reporting, templates, notes, or other features your team needs to work efficiently.

The cons of a DIY ticketing system far outweigh the pros, which is why you should not rely on this type of system to manage your customer support requests.

What is the best Google ticketing tool?

The best Google ticketing tool is Keeping, which is a third party tool that allows you to turn your shared Gmail inbox into a help desk. Keeping works directly within Gmail so your team won’t need to use multiple tools to manage customer support requests.

Unlike other ticketing systems, Keeping is easy to use and designed with all of the features your team needs to work efficiently, including:

Task assignment: Turn every email in your shared inbox into an assignable task. You can quickly delegate tasks to other members of your team to ensure everyone is pitching in to help with customer support requests.
Status updates: Keep track of every issue in your shared inbox by changing the status to Open, Closed, or Pending.
Notes: Use the notes feature to provide background information on a specific request, or follow up with a task.
Collision detection: Keeping will tell you when someone is already working on a request so you don’t waste your time duplicating their efforts.
Reporting: Keeping gives you access to data on incoming customer support requests so you can evaluate how well your team is performing.
Templates: Create custom templates that contain answers to the most frequently asked questions. Then, share them with your team so they can insert them in emails with the click of a mouse.

Keeping makes all of these features available to you directly within Gmail. Start your free trial today to see for yourself why Keeping is the best Google ticketing tool.

Andrew Rivers

Andrew leads customer success at Keeping, and he's helped hundreds of companies streamline their customer support operations. When he's not helping customers, you can find Andrew exploring New York City's vibrant restaurant scene.