An IT support ticket system helps in a better flow of customer services. It determines the efficacy of how a customer reaches out to IT support with concerns and gets a solution.
The absence of an effective ticket system may lead to unnecessary delays, decrease productivity, and dissatisfy the clients. You do not want problems to be unresolved. It would only increase the cost & make a business suffer. That's why it's essential to have an IT support company that can provide a robust ticket system and ensure that problems are resolved quickly and effectively.
The internal employees with IT-related issues are also clients. As an IT support team, you need to solve their problem sooner to ensure that your company and staff do not lose work efficiency.
Introducing good strategies to manage the ticket system is thus crucial. With this article, get ideas on best practices in managing your IT support ticket system.
Why Is IT Support Ticket Handling Important?
A company’s work effectiveness largely depends on its IT infrastructure & services. IT support units should always be on their toes to handle customers’ and staff’s IT-related issues without delay. It is when ticket creation is needed. The benefits an IT support team can get from establishing the correct ticket handling technique are,
- Can organize their clients and their issues in order.
- The IT support team would not lose valuable hours.
- They can follow a structured schedule and system when solving issues.
- Timely support through the proper ticket system positively affects the productivity of the staff and company.
- An appropriate method of ticketing will help optimise the customer experience better.
- With an appropriate ticketing system, the company can avoid unnecessary loss of staff productivity, money, and profit.
Establish How IT Helpdesk Staff Should Prioritise Tickets
If IT support wants to control the influx of their clients’ IT-related issues effectively, it is crucial to set up an ordered system to handle tickets properly.
To optimise tickets in the right ways and set priorities for which issue should be solved first, categorise them according to the degree of the problem. Try to address the most pressing issues first and then move to the next one.
However, the factors that help you decide which issues to prioritise may change. Therefore, you should frequently update your priority based on the company’s services, objectives, and products.
-
First In, First Out
With this system, you will have to address the issues you received first. Once you are done, you can move to the next client who approached you next. This chronological method will help you better optimise the company’s workflow and prevent backlogs.
-
Decide how you’ll prioritize tickets
Prioritising the tickets depends on size or type of business, service, objective & product. You can prioritise the ticket system based on urgency or the order they arrived.
Either choose the ‘pick and choose approach’ or the ‘first-in,’ ‘first-out’ system.
With the ‘pick and choose approach,’ the IT support needs to give importance to the customers based on the degree of their problem and urgency. This approach is more flexible than ‘first-in,’ ‘first-out.’
In ‘first-in,’ ‘first-out’ service, you will work for the one who came to you with their problem first and then move to the following clients. The benefit of this method is that it helps optimise workflow, allows faster response time, and prevents a backlog of ticket.
-
Categorize every support ticket based on urgency
With this approach, you are prioritising the tickets according to urgency. The ones responsible for arranging the ticket system can identify and support those with the most critical problems.
Categorising support tickets based on urgency is most helpful when IT support faces a large influx of tickets.
-
Keep customers informed.
It is essential to update your clients frequently on your progress with the issue. You can inform them of the estimated hours you require to fix a problem. Notify the clients as soon as you officially resolve the issue. Also, let them know if the problem may take longer than usual.
Even if you do not know when you may finish, you should continue sending messages of your progression. The clients will appreciate the communications and get reassurance from the act.
-
Draft template messages when possible
It is not wise & also time-consuming to write individual responses for every client. Therefore, draft a template message to let your clients know that their requests are accepted. Offer the clients an estimated hour, inform them that you are handling their problem, and notify them immediately when you have solved the issue.
By designing a template that addresses each client’s problem, you can avoid sending them a generic response.
-
Encourage self-service. Build a knowledge base
Expect clients to approach you with the same problem repeatedly. Answering the same questions multiple times could be frustrating for you and your clients. It is a waste of time & effort.
Here is what you can do. Teach your customers about easy-to-solve problems, allowing them to help themselves. For that, your IT support team can construct portals with peer support or build an informative database for the clients.
-
Set, track, and monitor your workflows ticket status
At this point, you will be done with ticket prioritization. Now come up with ideas to classify the tickets. You can adopt four primary status levels: new, in progress, pending, and closed.
Categorizing the tickets with these levels make your task effortless and more efficient. Adopting such techniques would help avoid unnecessary resolving and limit the number of duplicate tickets.
-
Set alerts and automate workflows
Assign the tickets with statuses such as open, in progress, pending, or closed to encourage and speed up the workflow.
You can keep track of the statuses on a central dashboard through ticket management software. Observe the ticket’s progress and notice a decrease in requests getting neglected or lost.
-
Monitor and automate your workflows.
Automate the workflow by setting up alerts for the more important clients, particularly the tickets that are time-sensitive. Put the tickets with idle or overdue statuses into the alert system as well. Ensure that your system can effectively lessen the number of human errors.
This way, you can support your more important customers and notice that no request has remained unsolved for a long time.
Moreover, if a representative from your team cannot solve an assigned issue, you can automate the reassignment by simply using a tag to alert the more experienced ones.
-
Use all the automation capabilities
The automation options vary between different ticket management software. Whatever automation capabilities are incorporated into your ticketing software, use them to their full potential.
Manage efficient ticket queues, eliminate human error, and distribute the tickets to the appropriate department or expert individual.
-
Classify customers and prioritise tickets based on that classification
Is it wise to prioritize those customers who pay for premium features and services? Well, it is acceptable. It does not necessarily mean that you ignore the users on the free plan or offer less. Adopting such a technique would help you address the key customers first and help you maximize profits and return on investment (ROI).
-
Incorporate service-level agreements
Service Level Arrangements or SLAs include information on the time a customer should wait for the initial response, communication modes, and time frames on open tickets.
It helps set practical and realistic expectations for both the IT experts and the customers. It also enhances trust and helps motivate the staff to work efficiently.
-
Ensure that support team members aren’t overloaded.
It is a 24/7 duty for the IT support team. It would be best to introduce a smooth workflow that helps avoid unnecessary work pressure.
The ticketing system allows an IT expert to deal with customers better and lessen the workload. It can also prevent potential backlogs, which add stress and decreases productivity.
Conclusion
An effective IT support unit should always be prepared to solve IT-related problems with speedy solutions and successful resolutions. Introduce the best practices in managing your IT support ticket system to observe improvement in work productivity & satisfaction of the IT support unit, clients & the company.
No comments yet