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How Helpdesk Tickets Can Help You Generate Content

It’s not easy to meet the demands of a regular editorial calendar nor is it easy to generate content ideas. You can only do so much with keyword research until you run out of words and tangents. If this is the case, always start your content generation strategy with your customer in mind – and one way to do so is by looking at your helpdesk tickets.

So how can helpdesk tickets help you generate new content ideas? Well, these tickets essentially survey your customers’ most pressing needs and, in turn, can fuel relevant article topics. You can create a FAQs page, a webinar, ebook chapters, and a whole lot more.

Helpdesk Tickets as Sources of Inspiration

Sometimes the best sources for content ideas are right in front of us, we don’t even realize it. Helpdesk tickets tell you exactly what your customers want – what it is that they’re asking from you. Use this to your advantage by picking their brains for ideas.

1) Listicles

Leverage the information you get from helpdesk tickets by creating listicles, and articles written in a list format.

a) FAQs

Snag that organic traffic by creating an FAQ (frequently asked questions) page. This helps reduce frustration among your customers since they would know where to look if ever they encounter a common problem with your product. 

Use categories to organize the answers. Make the experience seamless for the customer by arranging the categories from most frequent to less common issues. If possible, show your customers the solution – don’t just tell them. Visual explanations can sometimes be more effective at explaining a process. 

b) How-to guides

If your clients’ problems are more complex, you could create a step-by-step guide on how to resolve the issue. 

You could go the extra mile by making a help desk manual. This downloadable pocketbook should provide in-depth guidelines on how to solve typical problems with your product or service.

2) Case Studies

Helpdesk tickets could also come in the form of a social poll. Using customer data and demographics, you’ll be able to put together valuable insights for a case study.

You can go about this in two ways: send an email blast or broadcast a survey on social media. Ask your customer basic information (e.g., profession, pain points, common problems, the specific product or service that they avail from you) and recommendations on how to improve your business. From there, you’ll have data points that can inform your business decisions.

This would also help increase engagement because you’re directly asking your customers to share their experiences and opinions.

3) Roundup Posts

Once you’ve done listicles, case studies, and surveys, you have enough content for a “roundup” newsletter, i.e., a newsletter that gathers relevant content pieces on a specific topic. If done right, this could get you truckloads of website traffic. Here are 3 examples that you could do for your next email campaign:

a) Type

You could send an email to your subscriber list every 30th of the month that contains links to every blog post that you posted that month. This could also apply to social media posts, videos, new questions about your product, another solution, and the like.

b) Theme

The roundup newsletter may revolve around a specific theme. Maybe your MSP offers multiple services – one being helpdesk queries. Show your subscribers how a helpdesk ticket cascades: key features of an effective helpdesk ticketing system, how your support team manages tickets, and how helpdesk tickets play a role in product upgrades.

c) Updates

If you have any new products, locations, hires, or features, give your subscribers the full scoop.

4) Webinar Topics

A simple pull of a report in your helpdesk ticketing system can tell you any trending “issue types” at the moment. Dump all the data into one excel sheet and create a formula that identifies the most frequently occurring terms. 

Once you have a list of terms, use it as inspiration for webinar topic ideas. To get the most out of your webinar, host it as a live event and record it. You can then upload the recording to your website or other video sharing platforms like YouTube. This way, you’ll be able to engage with customers that weren’t able to attend. 

5) Ebook

Once you have a goldmine of content – from case studies, blog posts, to webinars – combine them into a well thought-out ebook. It gives your readers a deeper understanding about your niche. If the process seems too tedious, you can look up ebook templates on the internet. Remember: It’s more important to create something useful rather than perfect.

Pro tip: Long-form written creation, like ebooks, is an effective lead magnet. It gives your leads something more valuable than a simple listicle or infographic.

Ebooks also show your authority and cements your position as a thought leader. If someone regularly reads your content, they are more likely to tell someone else about you. And word of mouth is the most trusted source of brand information.

If you want to put a spin to your ebook, you could transform it into a workbook that includes FAQs, checklists, worksheets, prompts, and the like.

6) User-Generated Content

Banking on the concept of word of mouth marketing, user-generated content (UGC) is the most authentic form of promotion. It naturally builds trust in your brand. Sometimes your customer doesn’t give their time of day to file a support ticket. If they love your product or service, they might post it online and influence other people to follow suit. If not, they might head straight to social media and complain about your business.

One way to utilize UGC is to create a roundup post on the best UGC pieces in the past month (with consent, of course). You could also incorporate UGC into advertising materials or promotions that you’re having. Say, for instance, you’re going to discount one of your best-selling services. You could search your social media mentions to find clients who’ve raved about your service and repost their testimonials.

You could also make use of the innovative features social media platforms offer. Use the Q&A feature of Instagram stories or perhaps livestream your promotions. From the comments alone, you’ll be able to get real-time feedback from prospects. Furthermore, there’s no harm in increasing the amount of social proof for your business.

7) Repurpose Content

Everyone consumes content in different ways. Some of us prefer binge watching YouTube videos, others mindlessly scroll through their feed, while there are those that have the attention span to read back-to-back blog posts. Hence, repurposing your content helps you make the most out of one topic.

Use one of your best-performing blog posts to spin off multiple pieces of content: 

  • Infographic
  • Slide deck
  • Video
  • Carousel post
  • Webinar

Why Bother Looking at Helpdesk Tickets?

Your customers are the backbone of your MSP business – without them, you would have no one to sell to. When you listen to their feedback, through your support team, you’re providing a window of opportunity to manage customer experience and to improve your offerings.

1) No More Wasted Time on Repeat Support Tickets

Do the math. Your support team has an 8-hour work day. How many hours are being spent on repeated helpdesk tickets? Chances are, there are a lot of similar queries, and your employees are spending too many hours tackling the same problem across the board. This work dynamic negatively impacts important metrics like response time and ticket resolution time.

Customers want answers immediately – if possible, in ten minutes or less. If they’re encountering a common issue, they wouldn’t have to spend hours (or days) waiting in line for a helpdesk ticket response if they could just search for the answer. The more time spent on redundant tickets, the longer it takes for your support agents to answer other pressing issues.

Another often overlooked factor of helpdesk ticketing systems is excess spending; a redundant ticket could have been a huge saving. Tickets that could’ve been deflected en masse inevitably increase the agents you need, the time it takes to resolve it, and the amount of effort each support has to put in. This, in turn, decreases customer satisfaction.

But why is that? When your support agents do not address helpdesk tickets in a timely manner, the customer ends up waiting, becomes unhappy, and leaves. The result is no revenue.

With all these said, it would benefit your business if you redirect your spending and efforts into avenues that are efficient and practical. 

2) Customers Feel Listened To

Every problem has a root cause. As an MSP, you need to be aware of which root causes are causing a wave of customer concerns and resolve it as soon as possible. It’s critical to actively listen to them so that they know that they are truly heard, understood, and served. When you have an effective helpdesk ticketing system, you treat each customer as an individual instead of just another request or query you need to answer.  

3) Employees are Satisfied

Not to exaggerate, but a helpdesk ticketing system also improves the rapport of your support staff. A functioning support team is vital for a successful business; however, putting one together is easier said than done.

You’ve already pictured your support staff troubleshooting the same concerns day in, and day out. As they log in for work the following morning, they know that the process – and the added pressure of keeping clients happy – will just repeat. But how are they meant to keep clients happy if they themselves aren’t happy with their work?

Support agents can handle about 21 tickets a day. If they are handling more than this, you can either hire more agents or automate some tasks. But again, if doing so is not feasible due to budget constraints, creating an FAQ page or a product manual goes a long way.

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