4 Signs You Need to Purge Your Ticket System

1 You Can’t Find Previous Conversations

We’ve all been there- you had a conversation with someone. You know you had it, and you can recall every last detail of it – except for the one you need. Many types of software exist today to do this work for you, so you aren’t spending time looking for the issue. That’s not your job- your job is to be a problem solver, and the right software will help you do that. Do your research and find the right one for you that can track your work, can track each user’s experience, and track the resolution of bugs.

When you can’t find previous conversations, customers get left behind and support employees lose context. One bad customer experience means that person will talk to that many more people, and at worst the lack of communication could result in lost customers.

2 Lots of Open Projects that You’ll Never Touch

Working at a help desk or being in the customer service industry, you know better than anyone that there is always an influx of information coming at you. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, and nobody could blame you. Let’s face it: unless you’ve been with the company for a very long time, it is hard to know everything about a product and how to troubleshoot any and every issue that could arise.

Even if you have been there for a long time, in our ever-changing world of technology, new bugs and issues constantly come up. But the chances are, someone else does have the answer to your, or your customer’s, question. You might not have time to ask someone now, so you put it aside for later. Sometimes, “later” never comes. How great would it be if you had an automated organization system built-in or just an API connection away for these issues? Here’s the good news: they exist.

There used to be a “gatekeeper” who would direct tickets in the right way depending on the issue. That likely doesn’t exist in your organization, but ticket automation can also be set with triggers to be assigned to the right person or group. Some systems can also offer the ability to remind customers to follow up with your team after a certain amount of time has passed. Or, if a really extended amount of time has passed, you may like a system that automatically closes the customer’s ticket, and sends them an email letting them know.

3 You Have Trouble Prioritizing

When you’re in the business of having to go through a lot of information and helping so many people at once, it is hard to have the time to read through everything and then take the time to see which issue is a priority and which can be left behind for later. Most of the issues that come your way likely don’t need to be acted on right away. But, some do.

Sometimes, it is the most urgent tickets and how you respond to them that can make or break a large business deal. Ticket automation can send out internal correspondence by email or text for the most urgent ones. Software now exists to be able to detect the language of your customer’s most urgent issues so that you can respond to them as quickly as possible. Customer’s can’t organize their issues to happen around business hours, so having email and text alerts are a great way to manage the really urgent ones.

4 Team Strategy Change

It’s likely that if you are experiencing ticket organization issues, your team is changing its strategy often. And that makes sense—you haven’t found one that yields the greatest results. But if your goal is to get your response time down (which it always should be), less time needs to be spent elsewhere. Leverage the technology or software you use to organize the high priority and low priority issues. But, that doesn’t mean you can forget about the masses of lower-priority customers. Their issues may be small, but that customer may be just as important.

Try dividing the time in half, asking half your team to tackle newest tickets, and the other to do the oldest. Or, have rotating teams. One or two people can be assigned the high priority tasks throughout the day at different times, so that nobody gets burned out. Once those people are assigned to switch over to the high-priority tasks, they are tasked with looking at the newest tickets, and handling them with as much efficiency and effectiveness as possible

It isn’t just about purging your ticket system. It’s about getting the right software and technology for your team and your team’s needs. Evaluate what your opportunities and strengths are. Really take the time to find the right software that fits your needs, and work with it rather than letting it work for you. Yes, it will likely be doing just that- a lot of your work. But it is best served if you are using it to leverage your workflow rather than replace it. Do so, and the results are bound to be exponential.

Neha Tandon is a writer for TechnologyAdvice. She has a Masters of Arts in Journalism from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School. With a background in marketing, public relations, and advertising, her true passion is for business journalism.