Call Center Ticketing System: The Ultimate Guide (2025 Edition)

A call center ticketing system is a tool that helps support teams manage customer conversations across phone, email, WhatsApp, and more, all in one place.

Every time a customer tries to contact your system, a ticket is created. This ticket acts like a digital case file: it captures all the details, tracks progress, and assigns responsibility to someone on the team.

That’s just the starting point. What really makes a difference is how those tickets are managed. A call center ticketing system keeps your customer service organized. Each ticket is tracked from start to resolution, with ownership clearly defined. The system keeps a full history of conversations, route queries to the right agents, and maintain accountability across the board.

In short, good customer experience is hard without the right system in place.

Why Do You Need a Modern Call Center Ticketing System

Sometimes, the issue isn’t the support, it’s the fact that customers have to start over every time they switch channels. They explain the problem in chat, then on the call, and again over email.

More than half of customers (56%) get frustrated by having to repeat the same issue over and over. That’s where a good call center ticketing system comes in. It keeps the entire conversation in one place, so your team always has the full context, even in different channels.

And when you don’t have that kind of system?

Here’s what tends to go wrong when there’s no proper call center ticketing system in place:

Too many channels, too little control

Customers reach out on WhatsApp, start live chats, and comment on social media. All these conversations live in different places without a proper system. It gets hard to keep track, harder to respond on time, and nearly impossible to get a complete picture of what’s happening.

Things fall through the gaps

You think someone responded. They think you did. Meanwhile, the customer’s still waiting. When your team has no clear way to assign and track queries, messages get missed, replies get delayed, and customers leave frustrated.

Handoffs are messy and confusing

“Let me transfer you to the right team,” and boom, the customer has to explain everything again. If the context is not carried over, every handoff feels like starting from scratch. It slows everything down, and you lose trust.

🤔Did you know?

About 70% of customers expect agents to know their full inquiry history instantly via voice, email, or chat. Missing this context harms experience and trust.

No way to prioritize what matters

Not every query is equal. But it’s hard to know what’s urgent when you’re constantly flooded with calls and messages. When there’s no clear way to organize tickets, your team ends up chasing the wrong things, and the important ones often get overlooked.

Support feels inconsistent

Support starts to feel all over the place when your team isn’t working from one system. One agent replies via email, another jumps in on a call, and neither has the full picture. And the customer ends up confused (or worse, angry).

You’re stuck reacting instead of improving.

Without proper data, all you see is what’s happening right now. You can’t spot patterns. You can’t see which channels are overloaded. You don’t know which issues keep recurring. So instead of improving your support, you’re constantly putting out fires.

Agents are overwhelmed

Your agents are doing too much. Switching tabs, copying notes, tagging things by hand, following up over and over. It adds up. Without the right system, even small tasks feel like a struggle. Things slip. The team gets tired. And when that happens, your customers feel it too.

How a Call Center Ticketing System Works Across Channels

Most support teams today deal with more than just phone calls. You’ve got emails, chats, WhatsApp messages, and sometimes even DMs from Instagram or Facebook. A ticketing system software brings all of this together and makes it manageable.

Here’s how that works:

All channels, one system

Messages from every channel, email, voice, live chat, WhatsApp, and social automatically turned into tickets and funneled into a single view. That means your team doesn’t have to switch between five tabs to keep up.

Each ticket comes with full context: who reached out, what they said, and where it came from. So no matter the channel, it enters the same workflow.

For example, with Hiver, every incoming call is auto-logged as a ticket – along with call notes, agent comments, and the full recording – so follow-ups are faster and nothing gets missed.

That’s how agents stay informed, without asking customers to repeat themselves.

One conversation, even if the channel changes

Let’s say a customer starts a chat and then follows up with an email. Instead of creating two disconnected threads, the system links both to the same ticket. Agents see the entire conversation without context, even if it spans multiple platforms.

Workflows stay consistent

Once a message becomes a ticket, everything else runs on logic:

It’s assigned to the right agent
Tagged with the proper labels
Prioritized based on channel or topic

The rules stay the same whether it’s a WhatsApp message or a support call. That’s what keeps things fast, organized, and scalable.

🤔Did you know?

78% of consumers are more likely to stick with a brand, even after a mistake, if the support experience was good. Improving retention by just 5% can grow profits by 25%–95%.

Sources: Salesforce Research, “State of the Connected Customer”; Bain & Company research

Channel-agnostic by design

A call center ticketing system doesn’t treat channels differently – it applies the same logic, automation, and accountability to every query, no matter where it comes from. Agents can use the same internal notes, tags, SLAs, and workflows across phone, chat, or social, without needing separate processes.

This unified structure simplifies training, minimizes confusion, and helps managers track performance and resolution times with one set of metrics. It also allows teams to build consistent automation rules – like auto-assigning high-priority queries or triggering follow-up reminders – regardless of the channel.

Key Features to Look For in a Call Center Ticketing System

Not all call center ticketing systems are built the same, and let’s be honest, some are more of a headache than help. If you’re evaluating options, here’s what actually matters (and what will save your team hours of grunt work down the line):

☑️ Call Metrics Mixed with Other Channels

Make sure it’s not just email and phone. The right tool should help you manage conversations from email, live chat, WhatsApp, voice calls, SMS, and even social media, all from one place. No switching tabs. No copy-pasting chats into spreadsheets.

💡 Pro Tip

If calls and chats use different workflows, you’re making support harder than it needs to be.

Choose a ticketing platform (like Hiver with Aircall) that applies the same automation, SLA rules, and routing logic across all channels, including voice. This will save time and reduce mix-ups.

☑️ SLA tracking

You’ll want built-in SLAs (Service Level Agreements) to track how quickly your team is responding and resolving tickets. Even better? Automatic alerts when you’re about to breach an SLA, so nothing slips through the cracks.

With Hiver, you can filter conversations by SLA policy, assignee, status, tags, type, and violation status for deeper analysis and reporting.

☑️ Team collaboration tools

Look for features that make it easy for agents to work together – especially when handling complex or multi-step queries. Inside Hiver’s Shared Inbox and Built-in tools like internal notes, @mentions, shared drafts, and conversation tags your teams can coordinate without switching platforms or forwarding emails.

For example, agents should be able to loop in a teammate, ask for help privately within a ticket, or escalate issues, without disrupting the customer thread. This reduces back-and-forth, speeds up responses, and improves accuracy.

☑️ Smart automation

Great ticketing systems do the busywork for you. It will:

Auto-assigning tickets based on topic, team, or customer type
Tagging and categorizing incoming requests automatically
Routing tickets to the right agents based on skills, load, or history

Bonus points if the system uses AI to triage, prioritize, and even respond to common queries.

☑️ Integrated knowledge base

The best systems help customers help themselves. Look for one that lets you build a searchable knowledge base or FAQ center. It’s even better if it integrates with live chat so customers can get answers instantly without talking to an agent at all.

☑️ Powerful analytics

What gets measured gets improved. You’ll want an analytical dashboard that tracks:

Volume of incoming requests
First response time
Resolution time
SLA breaches
Customer satisfaction
Channel performance

And even better if it shows these metrics by agent, channel, or team.

☑️ Plug-and-play integrations

Support doesn’t happen in a vacuum. A great ticketing system should connect with your CRM, order management tool, help center, project tracker, and whatever your team relies on. That way, agents get full context, like order history or past interactions, right inside the ticket.

Benefits of Call Center Ticketing System

Once your team uses a proper call center ticketing system, things get easier and better almost instantly. Here’s what changes:

Stay on top of every customer call

In this process, even phone calls become part of your ticketing workflow. Calls turn into tickets automatically, complete with recordings, notes, and follow-ups, so nothing slips through, even when the volume spikes.

With a call center ticketing system like Hiver (via Aircall), every call gets tracked automatically. Incoming or outgoing, it turns into a ticket with zero manual work. You get all the important details in one place, who called, when, what it was about, plus the recording and any notes. So even when things get busy, your team has full context to follow up fast.

No more manual tracking

You don’t have to assign tickets by hand, forward emails, or keep updating spreadsheets. The system does it all, tickets are auto-assigned, tagged, sorted, and even replied to using smart rules and AI. You set it up once, and it runs on autopilot.

Nothing gets missed

Every customer message turns into a ticket, automatically. No more dropped chats, forgotten follow-ups, or “Oops, who was handling this?” moments. Everything’s tracked from start to finish, so your team stays on top.

Support more customers with the same team

You scale with systems instead of hiring more agents every time your volume spikes. Automation handles the repetitive stuff, and smart routing sends tickets to the right people. Your team handles more work with way less stress.

Example: when a customer asks about an order status via WhatsApp, an AI workflow can detect the query type, pull the latest order info from your system, and send a response, all without an agent touching it.

You know exactly what’s going on

A call center ticketing system gives full visibility into every conversation – who’s handling it, what’s been said, and what needs to happen next. Managers can track statuses, spot bottlenecks, and step in if needed.

Example: If a customer calls about a billing issue, the ticket will show the assigned agent, internal notes from earlier chats or emails, and even call recordings, so there’s no need to start from scratch or dig through multiple tools.

The Role of AI in Call Center Ticketing

AI is a must-have for call centers. When messages come in from all directions, your team can’t continue doing everything manually. It slows things down.

AI helps you reply faster, assign tickets smartly, and stay on top of everything.
Here’s how it makes support easier, every day:

1. Replies that practically write themselves

Automated reply suggestions help agents respond faster without starting from scratch. Based on past conversations, knowledge base content, or CRM context, the system can draft accurate and relevant responses instantly – saving time and improving consistency.

For instance, Hiver’s AI Compose helps agents craft professional, clear emails with minimal effort. It can refine grammar, adjust tone, and improve clarity, so replies are polished without switching to external writing tools. This allows agents to stay focused on solving problems, not editing copy.

2. TL;DR for long emails

AI summarization helps agents and supervisors quickly grasp the essence of long or complex conversations, without reading through every message. It condenses lengthy threads into short, clear summaries so the next steps are obvious.

Take Hiver’s AI Summarizer, for example – it converts multi-email back-and-forths into crisp, actionable notes. Agents can immediately identify the customer’s issue, while supervisors can scan summaries to monitor progress or step in when needed. It’s a huge time-saver, especially during busy hours or handoffs between team members.

3. Auto-reply to repetitive stuff

Not every customer reply needs a response. When someone replies with a simple “Thank you,” it often reopens the ticket and clutters the queue. Manually closing these again and again slows the team down.

Harvey, Hiver’s AI bot, solves this by identifying messages with a thank-you sentiment and closing them automatically. It also tags these conversations with “Harvey-Thank-You,” so your team stays informed without doing any extra work.

This keeps the inbox focused on conversations that actually need attention, helping agents save time and stay on track.

4. Route tickets to the right person, instantly

Assigning tickets manually can be slow, error-prone, and unfair. One agent may become overloaded, while another may remain idle. AI changes that. It reads the ticket, looks at what it’s about, checks which agents are free (and qualified), and assigns it smartly.

For instance, with Hiver’s workflow automation, you can set rules to route messages instantly using criteria like keywords, priority level, or CRM ownership. There’s no need for internal back-and-forth. Each ticket reaches the right person, right away.

👉 And when it’s a phone call? The system can log it, assign it to an agent, and track the entire conversation, just like it would with an email. (Yes, even voice support can be part of your automated workflows when voice tools are deeply integrated.)

5. Never miss a follow-up (or a deadline)

When your team juggles multiple conversations, it’s easy to lose track of what’s pending. A follow-up might get delayed, or a ticket might go unresolved longer than it should.

Hiver helps you stay on top of every conversation by letting you set clear response and resolution time targets. You can define SLAs for how quickly a ticket should be acknowledged and how soon it should be resolved.

The system sends timely reminders and alerts when something is close to breaching, so agents can act before it becomes a problem. It also highlights upcoming and overdue SLAs, making it easier to prioritize work and avoid escalations.

This keeps your support predictable and timely, even when the volume spikes.

6. Always-on auto-responders

Silence isn’t great when customers email you at 2 AM or on weekends.

Auto-responders let you instantly acknowledge their query, share helpful info, or just let them know when to expect a reply. It’s a small thing that makes your service feel much more responsive.

7. All your tools, talking to each other

When support tools work in silos, agents waste time switching between tabs to find the right information. A good ticketing system brings everything together in one place.

With Hiver, you can connect over 100 apps to your support platform – CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot, e-commerce platforms like Shopify, project management tools like Asana and Jira, and more. Customer data flows into a single, unified view, so agents always have the full context.

You can also integrate internal systems using Zapier or Hiver’s APIs. Whether it’s syncing records from an ERP or pulling data from custom tools, everything stays updated and accessible where your team works.

8. Know what’s working, and what’s not

Visibility is key to running a responsive, well-balanced support team. You need to know where your team is doing well and where improvements are needed.

With Hiver, you can track all the essential metrics, like response times, resolution times, CSAT scores, ticket volumes, and trends, across shared inboxes and support teams in one place. This helps you spot performance gaps, monitor SLA adherence, and plan staffing more accurately.

Want to dive deeper? You can customize reports to focus on specific channels, issue types, or agent activity. It’s easy to uncover what’s slowing things down and take action before it impacts customers.

How to Choose the Right Call Center Ticketing System

Not every ticketing system is built for call centers. If you want a solution that keeps your agents sharp and your customers happy, here’s what to look for and what to steer clear of.

What to Look For

✅ Voice Support That’s Actually Built In

If your team handles phone support, ensure the ticketing system offers native voice capabilities, not just third-party plug-ins or clunky add-ons. Built-in voice support helps you manage calls like any other ticket, with full visibility and accountability.

A solid voice setup should allow you to:

Make and receive calls directly within the platform
Automatically log call details, recordings, and agent notes
Link voice conversations to existing customer tickets
Assign calls to agents and track resolution like any other channel

With Hiver, you can manage all customer calls from one place using the Aircall integration. Agents can make and receive calls directly within the platform, keeping everything – from recordings to call notes – linked to the right ticket. There’s no need to switch tabs or log call details manually.

Pro Tip: Check if the voice feature supports automatic ticket creation, call recording, and full context display during live calls.

✅True Multichannel Support (Email, Chat, WhatsApp, Voice)

Choose a system that brings all customer conversations – email, live chat, WhatsApp, voice, and more – into a single, unified queue. This removes the need for agents to switch tabs or log into multiple tools to manage support.

Make sure the tool can:

Automatically convert messages from every channel into tickets
Group related conversations across channels under one ticket
Maintain full context, including message history, customer details, and previous interactions
Log voice calls with notes and recordings, just like emails or chats

Pro Tip: During your demo, ask how the tool handles multi-channel threads. Try sending a test query from two different channels to see if the system keeps them together.

This level of integration directly impacts agent efficiency, response times, and customer satisfaction.

✅AI-Powered Reply Suggestions

Look for a ticketing system that helps agents reply faster and more accurately using AI. The tool should be able to suggest relevant responses based on the conversation context, past tickets, or knowledge base content.

This reduces response time, improves consistency across your team, and takes pressure off agents, especially during peak hours.

Make sure the system can:

Auto-generate draft responses for common queries
Adjust tone and language based on the situation
Pull in help articles or previous resolutions when relevant
Allow agents to review, edit, and personalize before sending

ProTip: Ask your vendor to demo this feature live. Test it with a real customer query and see how well the suggested reply matches what your team would typically write.

✅ Smart Routing Based on Context and Workload

Your call center ticketing system shouldn’t leave things to chance. Instead of simply assigning tickets round-robin or by who’s “next in line,” modern platforms should route conversations intelligently. That means factoring in agent skill sets, availability, and even how complex or urgent a query seems.

Smart routing ensures the right person handles the right issue every time, leading to faster responses, fewer escalations, and happier customers. It also reduces burnout since workloads are distributed more evenly across the team.

Tools like Hiver make this seamless by auto-assigning tickets based on keywords, channels, or custom rules you define.

✅ Instant Responses with AI Agents

When customers expect help immediately, AI agents can handle common queries without waiting for a human to reply. This helps reduce response time and keeps your team focused on more complex issues.

Look for a system that offers AI-powered chatbots capable of:

Answering frequently asked questions in real time
Pulling responses from your help center, past conversations, or integrated tools
Escalating more complex questions to human agents smoothly
Staying active around the clock, even outside working hours

With Hiver’s AI-powered live chat, you can offer 24/7 support without manual effort. The bot responds instantly by using your knowledge base, previous chats, CRM data, and connected apps. It gives customers the right answers quickly while helping your team manage their workload more efficiently.

ProTip: During your trial, test how well the AI bot handles real support queries and how easily it hands off to a human when needed.

✅ Customizable SLAs and Escalations

Service level agreements (SLAs) aren’t just a checkbox, they’re how you make sure every customer gets timely help. A ticketing system should let you define SLA targets for different channels or ticket types and give you full control over how and when escalations happen.

Whether it’s replying to a critical voice ticket within 15 minutes or resolving a standard email request within 4 hours, the system should help you stay on track.

With platforms like Hiver, you can set multiple SLA policies, get real-time alerts when timelines are at risk, and make sure nothing gets lost in the chaos. That way, your team stays accountable, and customers never feel ignored.

✅ Built-in Knowledge Base and Self-Service

Customers don’t always want to talk to an agent. Sometimes, they just want a quick answer. That’s where self-service matters.

A good call center ticketing system should offer:

A searchable, well-organized help center
A customer portal to view ticket status or updates
A live chat widget that links to help articles
Analytics to identify gaps in your knowledge base

This reduces ticket volume and empowers customers to find what they need on their own — especially during off-hours.

✅ Internal Collaboration Made Easy

Support tickets often require input from multiple people, billing, product, or even engineering. If your tool doesn’t support internal collaboration, things get messy fast.

Here’s what to look for:

Private internal notes on tickets
@mentions to bring in teammates
Shared drafts or response reviews
Visibility into agent collision (who’s already working on a ticket)

This keeps everyone aligned, reduces internal Slack pings, and ensures the customer gets a consistent answer, even if multiple agents are involved.

✅ Powerful Analytics Across Channels

You can’t improve what you can’t measure, simple. Your ticketing system should give you deep insight into every support channel – voice, chat, WhatsApp, email, and everything.

Look for tools that offer:

Channel-wise ticket volume breakdowns
Agent performance metrics (like response time, resolution time, CSAT)
SLA compliance reports
Custom dashboards and filters

This isn’t just about reporting, it’s about making smarter decisions. Spot bottlenecks, fix delays, and understand what’s really affecting your team’s productivity.

Hiver, for example, offers clean, built-in reporting dashboards that show exactly how your team is performing across channels. You can track SLAs, ticket turnaround times, and even filter reports by team, tag, or source, without needing to be an analytics expert.

ProTip: Don’t settle for pre-built dashboards. Check if you can customize reports by time, channel, or ticket tags, it makes all the difference when scaling support.

✅ Plug-and-Play Integrations

Your support tool should work with the rest of your tech stack, not against it. Whether it’s your CRM, order management system, or internal project tool, switching tabs constantly only slows your team down.

A ticketing system connects the dots. It should pull in data from tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, Jira, or Slack, so your agents have full context while replying.

With Hiver, integrations are smooth and quick to set up. Agents can see relevant customer info, trigger updates in other apps, and collaborate without ever leaving the ticket. That means faster replies, fewer errors, and way less context switching.

✅ Super Fast Setup & Minimal Training

A complicated setup process can delay support operations and frustrate your team before they even get started. Choose a ticketing system that’s easy to implement, intuitive to use, and doesn’t require weeks of onboarding or technical expertise.

The best tools are the ones your team can start using right away, without needing to sit through hours of training.

With Hiver, setup is quick because it works right inside Gmail, using a familiar inbox-like interface. There’s no steep learning curve, so agents feel comfortable from day one. Most teams can start managing tickets within minutes, not days.

And if you run into any hiccups, Hiver offers 24×7 support to guide you through.

ProTip: During your evaluation, ask how long setup takes, whether technical help is needed, and how long it typically takes new users to feel confident using the platform.

Top 10 Call Center Ticketing System Tools

After researching multiple platforms, we’ve rounded up the 10 best tools that offer call center functionality, not just email-based ticketing. These platforms help you manage conversations across voice, email, chat, and WhatsApp, streamline workflows, and scale with AI & automation.

Some of them offer powerful free plans to get you started. Quick comparison to help you decide:

Tool

Key Features

Starting Price

Best For

Hiver

Voice via Aircall integration (calls auto-ticketed in Gmail inbox)
AI Copilot and Summarizer
Shared inbox &SLAs
Auto-assignment and workflows
KB & reporting dashboards

Starts at 19/user/month. Forever free plan also available

Teams needing voice support (Hiver-Aircall integration) + workflow automation + powerful AI and analytics

Zendesk Suite

Omnichannel channels,
IVR & skill‑based routing
SLA enforcement
Call recording
Macros, advanced analytics, and insights

Starts at $19/user/mo

Enterprise teams with mature voice ops

Freshdesk Contact Centre

Voice ticketing
AI routing
Freddy Assistant
SLA tracking
Team collaboration
Integrated help desk
Automation across channels

Free plan available

SMBs scaling support across voice & digital

Zoho Desk

Voice + chat + email support
AI assistant “Zia” handles sentiment and routing
Automation rules
Self-service portal & detailed analytics

Free plan available

Budget-conscious teams needing automation & voice

Talkdesk

Enterprise-grade voice routing
Speech analytics
Call monitoring (whisper/barge)
Real-time coaching
IVR + quality management tools

Start at $85/user/mo

High-volume centers relying on voice analytics

RingCentral CC

UCaaS + call center features: IVR, automated queuing and callbacks, dashboards, voice-ticket linkage

Starts at $65/user/mo

Teams using unified communication stacks

Aircall

Native cloud voice
Click-to-call
Call logging auto-ticketing via integrations
IVR, call queueing, callback options, analytics, and tagging

Starts at $30/user/mo (3-user min)

Voice-first teams need a basic ticket link

LiveAgent

Unified inbox for call logging, chat, email, social media;
Automation, knowledge base, internal notes, and collision detection

Free plan available

Multi-channel SMBs wanting voice + chat affordably

JustCall

Predictive/outbound dialing
CRM integration
Voicemail tracking
Ticket creation on call, basic reporting suite

Starts at ~$25–50/user/mo

Support/sales teams combining voice + ticketing

Pylon

Voice + AI-driven agents
Slack-first UI
Salesforce-integrated workflows
Routing and analytics

Starts at ~$59/seat/mo

B2B SaaS teams needing voice-rich automation

What to Avoid

Not all call center ticketing systems are built for modern support teams. Here are a few red flags to watch out for when choosing a solution:

❌ Email-only tools that don’t support chat, voice, or WhatsApp

❌ Cluttered dashboards that overwhelm agents and slow them down

❌ AI features that sound promising but take weeks or months to set up

❌ Limited automation that can’t route or tag tickets across all channels

❌ Bare-minimum reporting with no visibility into SLAs, voice, or chat metrics

❌ Disconnected integrations that force you to switch tabs constantly

❌ No self-service options like knowledge bases or chatbots

❌ Tickets with missing context – no CRM data, past threads, or tags

1. Hiver

Hiver is a modern, AI-first ticketing system built for teams that want to manage customer conversations across multiple channels – email, live chat, WhatsApp, voice, SMS, and social media—on a unified platform that feels intuitive from day one.

What makes Hiver stand out for call center use is its clean, inbox-like interface. It looks and feels familiar, so teams can get started quickly without extensive onboarding or training. Everything – calls, chats, tickets, internal notes – lives in one organized view.

How Hiver supports call center teams:

Voice support through Aircall integration: With Hiver’s Aircall integration, agents can make and receive calls directly within the platform. Every call is automatically logged as a ticket with full details, including call recordings and notes.
Real-time conversations for faster resolution: Agents can talk to customers live and resolve issues on the spot. This is especially useful for urgent or high-touch queries that can’t wait for a reply over email or chat.
Full context at a glance: When handling calls, agents can instantly see related tickets, customer history, internal notes, and tags, everything needed to respond effectively without delay.
Clear ownership and call tracking: Calls can be assigned to specific team members for accountability. Each conversation is tracked from start to finish, so nothing slips through the cracks.
A more human touch: Voice support gives agents a better sense of customer tone and urgency, allowing for more empathetic, thoughtful service—something that’s often missing in text-based interactions.
Fast and simple setup: Connecting Aircall to Hiver takes just a few minutes. Once it’s done, your team can start handling calls and managing voice tickets without needing to switch tabs or learn a new system.

Key Features:

AI Automation: Automatically triage tickets, draft suggested replies, and route queries based on skills, workload, or keywords.
Live chat with AI bot: Provide instant answers by pulling information from your help center or past conversations.
Team collaboration tools: Use internal notes, mentions, and assignments to streamline handoffs and reduce internal back-and-forth.
Email templates: Save time on repetitive queries with pre-saved responses for FAQs.
Built-in reporting: Track team performance, SLA metrics, and channel-specific volumes. Custom reports let you measure what matters most.
WhatsApp support: Handle WhatsApp queries in the same platform, with visibility into message history, group conversations, and agent actions.

Pricing:

Hiver is refreshingly straightforward when it comes to pricing, perfect for teams that want predictable value rather than surprises. You can get started with their Free Forever plan, which covers basic tools like shared inboxes, internal notes, tagging, and templates. It’s a smart choice for small support teams or solo agents who just need teamwork without clutter.

And when you’re ready to level up, the Lite plan ($19/user/month) adds automation and more messaging options, and the Growth plan ($29) bumps things further, you can integrate WhatsApp, Salesforce integration, and better reporting.

The real jump happens at Pro ($49), which unlocks AI suggestions, SLA tracking, CSAT surveys, multichannel dashboards, and help-center integration. If your team needs enterprise-grade controls (like HIPAA compliance or dedicated support), the following tier is custom-priced. There’s a 7-day free trial, so you can test all the features risk-free.

2. Zendesk Suite

Zendesk is often one of the first names that comes up when exploring call center ticketing systems, especially for larger businesses and enterprises. Its suite offering brings together multiple support channels under one platform, including phone, email, chat, and social media.

When it comes to call center operations, Zendesk does a solid job of turning customer calls into structured, trackable tickets. Every incoming interaction – whether it starts on the phone or shifts between channels – is logged with relevant context, so agents can pick up right where the last person left off.

Key Features:

Unified agent workspace: Calls, emails, and chat conversations all show up in a single view, making it easier for agents to work efficiently without jumping between tabs or systems.
Integrated telephony: Zendesk offers a native voice solution with features like call recording, IVR (interactive voice response), call routing, warm transfers, and real-time monitoring.
AI & automation: You can use AI-powered bots to handle simple queries, deflect tickets, or assist agents in crafting faster replies during live conversations.
Real-time dashboards & analytics: Track call volumes, resolution times, and agent performance across all channels. The reporting is customizable and can be tailored to call-specific metrics.

While Zendesk offers powerful tools, especially at the enterprise level, it can feel overwhelming for smaller teams or businesses just starting out. Customization and setup may require a bit of upfront effort, especially if you’re aiming for complex workflows or deeper integrations.

Also, Zendesk does have a native voice solution, but some advanced call features (like skills-based routing or IVR branching) are only available on the higher-tier plans.

Pricing

Zendesk feels expensive, but it sets a high bar too. Their Support Team tier ($19/agent/month) is fine if you only manage email tickets. For true omnichannel capability, voice, chat, social, bots, the Suite Team ($55) is the entry point. If you want SLAs, custom ticket forms, and workflow automation? That’s Suite Growth ($89). For deeper reporting, compliance, and enterprise security, you’re looking at Suite Professional ($115). If you’re big enough to ask for enterprise-grade access (sandbox testing, role-based permissions), pricing is custom.

One more thing: Zendesk’s voice solution (Contact Center) costs an extra $50/agent/month, and you pay separately for Amazon Connect call minutes. So if you’re loading up on features, your final bill can climb quickly.

There’s a 14-day free trial, which is handy for testing the workflows before committing.

3. Freshdesk Contact Center

Freshdesk Contact Center (formerly Freshcaller) is part of the broader Freshworks ecosystem, designed to support customer service teams across voice and digital channels. It’s especially well-suited for businesses that want integrated ticketing and voice capabilities without investing in heavy infrastructure.

The platform combines a simple UI with powerful call center features like AI-based routing, call recording, live dashboards, and multi-channel automation. If you’re already using Freshdesk’s help desk, the Contact Center integrates smoothly to create a unified support workflow.

Key Features:

Voice + ticketing in one place: Every incoming or outgoing call can be logged as a ticket, complete with call recordings, notes, and timelines — so nothing slips through the cracks.
AI-powered call routing with Freddy AI: Freshdesk’s Freddy AI helps direct calls to the most appropriate agent based on intent, keywords, or workload. It improves accuracy and reduces wait time.

Multichannel support: Beyond voice, you get WhatsApp, email, chat, and social — all linked through Freshdesk’s shared ticketing interface for easy handoff and continuity.
Real-time call monitoring and coaching: Supervisors can listen in on live calls, whisper advice to agents, or take over (barge) when needed. Ideal for managing team performance in real time.

Freshdesk’s contact center works best when paired with other Freshworks products. If you’re not in their ecosystem, certain features (like automation across channels or unified reporting) may feel a bit fragmented or harder to implement.

Pricing

Freshdesk is one of the friendlier options for small teams. You can start with a Free plan for basic voice support, which is rare and handy.

Their Growth tier is a cost-effective $15/agent/month. Upgrading to Pro at $49/month brings automation, custom dashboards, and voice workflows. For large teams needing full omnichannel features, the Enterprise plan runs $79/user/month with perks like sandboxing, advanced routing, and audit capabilities

4. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a budget-friendly yet surprisingly robust ticketing system. It’s suited for small to mid-sized teams that want multichannel capabilities with automation and AI features. As part of the larger Zoho ecosystem, it works seamlessly with Zoho CRM, Zoho Voice, and other native apps, making it a smart choice for teams already embedded in that stack.

While its interface is slightly dated compared to some newer players, the breadth of functionality you get for the price is impressive, including AI, voice, self-service, and analytics.

Key Features:

Voice and chat ticketing in one place: With Zoho Voice (or third-party integrations), inbound and outbound calls are logged automatically as tickets. You can also convert chats or WhatsApp messages into tickets instantly.
AI assistant “Zia”: Zia can detect customer sentiment, suggest tags, highlight unusual response patterns, and even auto-assign tickets based on query type. She also predicts SLA violations before they happen.
Custom SLAs and automation workflows: Set response goals by ticket type or channel, and create automation rules to auto-close, escalate, or tag tickets based on behavior or keywords.
Agent productivity tools: Agents can use work modes to automatically filter tickets (by due time, priority, etc.), collaborate with @mentions & comments, & view all actions in a timeline.

While Zoho Desk is feature-rich for the price, its UI and setup experience can feel a bit clunky. Some users report a learning curve when customizing workflows, especially if they aren’t already familiar with the Zoho ecosystem.

Pricing

Zoho keeps things affordable without feeling stripped down. The Free plan is solid for small teams, and paid tiers start at $14/user/month (Standard), $23 (Professional), and $40 (Enterprise). Enterprise is where you get Zia (Zoho’s AI) plus advanced automation. Voice comes via Zoho Voice or third-party integrations, so you’re not paying for minutes unless you choose to.

The pricing is predictable, and there’s a 15-day free trial to test it out. If you’re cost-conscious and fine with living in the Zoho ecosystem, this is one of the better value picks.

A 15-day free trial is available.

5. Talkdesk

Talkdesk is built with one clear goal: to serve high-volume, voice-first contact centers. It’s a powerful platform with deep telephony features that go beyond basic call handling, offering everything from real-time agent coaching to AI-powered quality assurance.

For teams that prioritize voice and need strong supervision tools, Talkdesk delivers. But it’s also more complex than most tools on this list. Setup can take time, and the platform may be overkill for lean support teams or those not operating at enterprise scale.

Key Features:

Advanced voice capabilities: IVR, call routing, queue callback, warm transfers, and more come out of the box. You can fully customize the call experience for both customers and agents.
AI-powered Agent Assist (Talkdesk Copilot): During live calls, agents get real-time guidance, recommended replies, and contextual info — all driven by AI to improve resolution speed and accuracy.
Speech and sentiment analytics: Automatically track keywords, tone, and customer emotions across calls to surface trends and uncover coaching opportunities.
Live call monitoring + coaching tools: Supervisors can whisper suggestions, barge in when needed, and view detailed dashboards to ensure quality in real-time.

Talkdesk isn’t a plug-and-play tool. It’s built for scale and customization, which means onboarding can take longer, and many features are only available at higher-tier plans.

Pricing

Talkdesk means business, and its pricing reflects that. The entry-level CX Cloud Digital Essentials or Essentials plan costs around $85 per user/month and provides omnichannel support across email, chat, SMS, social, and more, plus routing tools and integrations. For teams that need a full contact center experience, the Elevate tier ($115) adds features like screen recording and automated notifications.

Their Elite plan, starting at $145, steps into enterprise territory with custom reporting, workforce management, performance dashboards, and other add-ons. There’s even a premium Experience Cloud starting at $225/user/month for specific industries like healthcare or finance.

Heads-up: Talkdesk typically requires a long-term commitment, sometimes up to three years, which isn’t ideal if you prefer flexibility. Also, advanced add-ons are often sold separately, so your bill can grow quickly if you’re not careful.

6. RingCentral Contact Center

RingCentral is best known for its UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) capabilities, messaging, video calls, and phone all in one platform. The Contact Center offering builds on this by adding full voice support, ticketing capabilities, and performance dashboards.

If your team already uses RingCentral for communication, layering in its contact center functionality can help centralize operations without switching platforms. It’s a strong option for voice-heavy support teams who value having everything under one roof.

Key Features:

IVR and call queueing: You can customize call flows with IVR trees and set up automatic queue handling to manage spikes in volume smoothly.
Automated callbacks + routing: Instead of keeping customers on hold, RingCentral can offer callbacks and route calls based on availability or priority.
Real-time dashboards and analytics: Monitor live call performance, queue statuses, and agent availability, ideal for managing high-volume support teams.

The interface is more telecom-oriented than support-focused. For agents juggling tickets across chat, email, and voice, the workflows can feel clunky, especially when compared to more modern, multichannel-first tools.

Pricing

RingCX makes sense if you already use RingCentral for unified communications. The call center plan clocks in at $65/agent/month (billed annually). It’s a solid bundle with IVR, routing, and ticketing, but if you want AI tools like conversational intelligence or sentiment scoring (RingSense), those cost extra. Also, call minutes aren’t included in the seat price.

There’s a 14-day trial, which helps you test setup ease if you’re a RingCentral user. If you’re not, it may feel pricy compared to stand-alone tools.

7. Aircall

Aircall is a voice-first contact center platform designed for teams that rely heavily on phone-based support. It integrates natively with popular CRMs and help desks, making it a solid choice if you’re looking to bring voice into your existing support stack without much setup time.

The platform is clean, easy to use, and built for fast-moving teams, especially sales or support agents who spend most of their time on calls. It’s also developer-friendly, with APIs and webhooks to customize workflows.

Note: With Hiver’s Aircall integration, every call is auto-converted into a ticket, complete with call recordings, notes, and tags. It all shows up right inside your Gmail workspace, so your team has full context without switching tabs. Perfect for handling voice support at scale.

Key Features:

Native voice calling: High-quality cloud calling with features like warm transfer, call whispering, and call recording built in.
Auto-ticket creation: Integrations with platforms like Hiver, Zendesk, and HubSpot auto-log calls as tickets with full call context, saving agents from manual logging.
IVR and call queues: Customize call flows with menus and rules to route calls to the right agents, even during peak times.
Real-time analytics: Dashboards show live call activity, wait times, agent availability, and missed call trends to help with workforce planning.

Aircall focuses solely on voice. If you’re looking to manage email, chat, WhatsApp, or social media from one place, you’ll need to rely on third-party tools — which may create silos if not integrated well.

Pricing

Aircall keeps it simple but expects at least 3 users, so it’s better for teams than solos. Their essentials plan is $30 per user/month when billed annually, or around $40 monthly. You get everything you need for basic voice operations: IVR, call recording, shared inbox, SMS/MMS support, and integrations.

You can also upgrade to the Professional plan at $50/yearly, and unlock advanced analytics, salesforce integration, power-dialer capabilities, live monitoring, and smart routing. And if you want even more, they offer custom enterprise-level plans, but they usually come with a high minimum seat count and pricing on request.

There are no tricks here; the structure is clean and clear. Just remember, those add-ons like AI or Analytics + cost extra, so factor that into your budget if you want more insights.

8. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is designed to centralize every customer conversation, from emails and chats to calls and social media messages, into one shared inbox. It’s known for packing a lot of features into an affordable package, making it a good fit for smaller teams that want a multichannel help desk without breaking the budget.

While the platform shines in its versatility and automation features, its voice capabilities are not as advanced as tools built specifically for call centers.

Key Features:

Unified multichannel inbox: Emails, live chats, calls, and social media DMs all appear in a single dashboard, ensuring agents never miss a conversation.
Call center functionality: Offers built-in call routing, IVR, call recording, and basic telephony features, making it easy for small teams to manage voice and tickets together.
Automation and workflows: Create rules to tag, assign, or escalate tickets automatically, reducing manual tasks and response delays.
Knowledge base builder: Set up a public help center and FAQs to deflect repetitive queries and empower self-service.
Internal notes and collision detection: Agents can leave private notes on tickets and see when someone else is viewing or replying to the same conversation, avoiding duplicate responses.

The interface can feel a bit dated and cluttered, especially for teams handling high call volumes. The voice features are also less sophisticated compared to enterprise-grade call center solutions.

Pricing

LiveAgent is surprisingly robust for its price. You can grab the Ticket plan for $15/agent/month, which covers basic email tracking and support tools. Most teams graduate to Ticket + Chat at $29/month, adding live chat and chat ticketing.

And the All-Inclusive plan is $49/month, which brings in built-in call center features, ideal if you’re juggling email, chat, and phone. But here’s an issue: if you want social channels like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger integrated, those are extra, typically around $39/month per channel.

So if your support stack stays lean, LiveAgent is excellent value. But if you’re managing multiple digital channels, those add-ons can quickly bump up the total. They do offer a free plan and a 14-day trial, which makes testing painless.

9. JustCall

JustCall is built with outbound communication in mind, making it a great pick for sales and support teams that live on the phone. It combines calling features with light ticketing capabilities, and integrates well with CRMs like HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce. Here teams can log calls, track conversations, and create tickets without jumping between tools.

While it’s strong on the voice side, JustCall isn’t a full-fledged call center ticketing system. If your team also needs deep multichannel support, chat workflows, or internal collaboration tools, you’ll likely need to supplement it with additional software.

Key Features:

Predictive and power dialing: Automate outbound call flows, reduce manual dialing, and connect with more customers in less time.
CRM integrations: Native integrations with major CRMs let you sync contact details, view call logs, and create support tickets or tasks without switching tabs.
Call notes and voicemail tracking: After-call workflows let agents leave notes, log voicemails, and update ticket statuses from one screen.
Call analytics: Track call durations, response times, agent activity, and basic performance trends with the built-in dashboard.

JustCall focuses heavily on outbound and voice features, but its support ticketing and omnichannel capabilities are basic. If your support strategy involves email, chat, or WhatsApp at scale, it may fall short.

Pricing

JustCall keeps its pricing flexible, which is convenient if your volume varies.

Base plans range from $29–$49/user/month, depending on the feature set: Essential vs. Pro levels. AI tools like Review Assist (starts at $9/user) or AI Voice Agents ($99/month) are add-ons that can shift the cost significantly.

There’s a 14-day free trial to help you see if the value matches the pricing—just keep an eye on which features are base vs. extras.

10. Pylon

Pylon is a modern support platform designed with automation-first teams in mind — especially those that operate inside Slack and rely on Salesforce for CRM. Unlike traditional ticketing systems, Pylon turns Slack threads into support tickets and routes them using AI, making it a unique fit for fast-paced B2B SaaS environments.

What sets Pylon apart is how it treats voice support and internal collaboration as equally important. You can loop in teammates via Slack, trigger workflows based on conversation patterns, and even get AI summaries of call transcripts. But if your team isn’t already structured around Slack or using Salesforce deeply, it can take time to adjust.

Key Features:

Slack-native ticketing: Turn Slack messages into tickets, track them end-to-end, and manage everything without leaving your workspace.
AI-powered agents and workflows: Pylon’s AI handles triage, routing, and resolution suggestions, helping teams resolve queries faster with less manual input.
Salesforce-first CRM integration: Deep, native Salesforce workflows let support and sales teams work from a shared context.
Voice + ticket visibility: Phone conversations and call recordings are logged as support tickets, creating a unified support record.

Pylon isn’t built for traditional teams who rely on inbox-style interfaces or manage support via email or live chat. It works best for Slack-first orgs and has a learning curve for those coming from more conventional tools.

Pricing

Pylon is made for Slack- and Salesforce-heavy operations.

The pricing reflects that: Starter is $59/seat/month, Professional is $89, and Enterprise is $139, and AI agents and workflows are included from the start, not extra. No free plan, but trial access is available.

Just remember: if your team doesn’t already use Slack or Salesforce, the pricing may feel steep for what you’ll actually use.

Conclusion

A well-chosen call center ticketing system helps support teams manage conversations across email, chat, voice, and messaging apps, without things slipping through the cracks. It creates structure, gives agents the information they need to respond quickly, and helps managers stay in control of performance and workload.

Modern systems go beyond basic ticket tracking. They use AI to route queries, suggest replies, summarize long threads, and automate repetitive tasks. The result is a more responsive team and a smoother experience for your customers.

But efficiency depends on how well the tool fits into your daily workflow. It should be easy to set up, require minimal training, and integrate with the apps your team already uses. The more seamless the experience for your agents, the faster they can focus on helping customers.

And, if you’re ready to upgrade how your team handles support, maybe it’s time to give Hiver a try!

👉 Start for free or book a quick demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ticketing in a call center?

Ticketing in a call center converts customer calls, chats, emails, or messages into trackable support tickets. Each ticket captures the issue details, conversation history, and next steps, keeping everything organized and accountable.

How do call center ticketing systems work with AI?

AI in call center ticketing systems helps automate routing, draft replies, detect customer sentiment, and summarize conversations. It can also resolve simple tickets automatically, freeing up agents to manage complex, high-impact issues faster.

What is SLA in a call center ticketing system?

An SLA (Service Level Agreement) is a set time limit for responding to or resolving customer calls and tickets. In a call center ticketing system, SLAs help teams stay on track by sending alerts when a ticket is close to missing its deadline. This ensures customers get timely support, even during busy hours.

Help desk vs call center ticketing system: what’s the difference?

A help desk system typically handles email and chat support. By contrast, a call center ticketing system supports full voice ticketing, routing, call logs, and multi-channel workflows. It’s built for real-time customer support, not just email or chat.

Best practices for call center ticketing workflows?

Maintain consistent workflows across voice, chat, email, WhatsApp channels, and automate routing, SLA tracking, tagging, and escalation. A system should support seamless transitions between agents and channels.

Why do call centers need integrated ticketing systems?

Call centers struggle with missed follow-ups, inconsistent resolution, and disconnected channels without a ticketing system. Integrated ticketing keeps all conversations tracked, contextual, and resolvable from one interface.

Customer service software that feels like your inbox

Try for free