Working with help desk tickets

By Eran On May 26, 2009 · In Help desk, User Guide

This post is part of a series on using the new SAManage Help Desk Software. Other posts in the series include Introducing your new help desk, Working with tickets, Personalizing your end-user support portal, and Customizing your Help Desk.

New tickets

New help desk tickets are created when end-users submit support requests through the personalized support portal. These support requests become tickets in the organization’s help desk:

Ticket Assignment

Auto-assignment rules – depending on the help desk setup, new tickets can be automatically assigned to owners within the support group based on auto-assignment rules. When a new ticket is created in the help desk software, the auto-assignment rules are checked against the ticket’s properties to verify if it meets a criteria for an existing auto-assignment rule. If the criteria is met, the ticket is assigned to a support specialists for resolution. Both the ticket requester and the assignee get notified via e-mail when the ticket is assigned.

Ticket Queues – many support organizations use a shared ticket queue. When ready to handle a new ticket, the support specialist selects a ticket from the pool (usually the one that has been submitted first) and change the ticket state to “accepted“, taking the ticket out of the queue. Once saved, the ticket is assigned to the support specialist and the ticket requester gets notified via e-mail that the ticket is now assigned.

Collaborating on Tickets

As support specialists are working on tickets, quite often they require additional information from the user. This might be further clarification on the root cause, a request for additional information or simply gathering more data that would help point to the right direction to handle the issue. Support specialists can use the ticket to communicate with the user and request the missing information by leaving comments on the ticket. When a new comment or question is added to a ticket, both the ticket requester and the assignee get notified via e-mail. Ticket requester can login to the support portal and add the information required directly to the ticket, removing the need for the common phone tag and endless e-mail exchanges and helps keep an audit log of all activities on the ticket. The comment author can modify or delete the comment at any time.

Collaborating on Help Desk Tickets

Resolving Tickets

When the issue is resolved, the support specialist can change the ticket state to close. This would bring up a new section to capture the resolution (“invalid”, “works for me”, or “will not fix” are a few) and the description. It is highly recommended to enter a resolution description so that all knowledge learned during the process can be safely preserved and could be utilized in future support requests. The ticket requester gets notified via e-mail that includes the resolution details.

Resolving Help Desk Tickets

This post is part of a series on using your new Help Desk Software by SAManage. To learn more about SAManage IT Management service, visit our website and sign up for your own account.

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