Anatomy of a Troubled Ticket Martha Lundgren Texas

Thanks to Tarina Williams and the ITT group at Austin Energy for sharing templates and internal training materials.

Benefits of ticket documentation best practices Minimize customer frustration Reduce duplication of work

Benefits of ticket documentation best practices (cont. ) Increase credibility of support staff Promote collaboration

Benefits of ticket documentation best practices (cont. ) Speed knowledge transfer Promote problem management and problem prevention

“The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”

Three C’s – Complete, Concise, Correct etc. • Complete etc. – Every incident/request gets logged! – Who? What? When? . Where? How? c t e – Priority, severity, impact, urgency – Others? etc.

Three C’s. . . • Concise – BLUF – Just the facts, ma’am – Lists vs narrative – Ask one, answer one

Three C’s. . . • Correct – Client information Mary Jones ma ryj Acme Brik 512 - 67 5 4 3 12 @ ac me b rik . co m

Three C’s. . . • Correct – Client information – Short subject description

Three C’s. . . • Correct – Client information – Short subject description – Specific steps to perform a function or fix

One more. . . Commitment

Writing ticket descriptions, resolutions and notes Who are you writing for? • Know your audience – Who are you writing for? – What do they want from you? – Writing style appropriate to audience Incident manager Level II techs Problem manager Peer techs Your manager The customer Knowledge manager Yourself . . . or all of the above?

Keep it professional • Address the service request, not the person or personality • <snip> quotes from e-mail • Use only common, widely used abbreviations • Avoid jargon • First or third person; names or pronouns? • Grammar and spelling matter

Organizational Standards • Specific • Objective • Actionable • Relevant • Professional

Documentation improvement program 1. Review current state 2. Develop a. organizational standards b. standardized ticket scorecard c. training and coaching program 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Pilot Review results of the pilot Communicate WIIFM Train – Coach – Review – Repeat Incorporate in new hire training

Service Ticket Quality Assessment

What’s wrong (and right!) with these tickets?

References • Neider, Julie - Basic Writing Skills for The Support Professional (HDI Focus Book) • Muns, Ron –The Call Ticket “Long Description” (Muns Report, Vol. 5 No. 11)