How are support tickets received from users?

If your staff are logging software support issues in an ad-hoc manner including emailing, phoning in requests or stopping support staff in the corridor to discuss an issue this is the most inefficient way to log support issues. It is poor management of both your staff time and software support staff time and may cause confusion to the resolution of the problem.

Customer and staff satisfaction will be low as tickets will inevitably be lost or information will be missing and there is no way to track the information received.

To avoid this you need to ask yourself:

• How do you want to receive the required issues from your staff?
• Currently how long is it taking to get a ticket to the correct support person and resolved?

If you are trying to gather information from people in different buildings, sites, let alone different countries then you need some method for them to log the information.  The most efficient way to do this is to provide a portal for them to log the tickets. Almost everyone now uses a smart phone so don’t underestimate what people can do, even if they have not used any other computer systems before. This is no reason to keep using an inefficient process.

Using a customer portal gives you the following benefits:

1. Recording and Routing: Tickets are recorded and routed to the correct software support staff
   1. Tickets are not lost in an email or a telephone conversation that is not recorded. Logging a ticket removes any ambiguity – especially when dealing with complex software systems- and this allows the user to log their issue in a clear and concise manner.
   2. Software Support Staff know what tickets have been assigned to them and they know what work they have to complete.
   3. Tickets can be followed up and reviewed for progress.
2. Traceability: All corresponding emails requesting more information can be automatically attached to the ticket allowing traceability of the history of the ticket. There will be no ambiguity about what was requested and what work was completed to resolve the issue.
3. KPI’s and Opportunities for Continuous Improvement: When tickets are logged in the portal it allows for analysis of tickets and to produce Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These are key in order to manage customer satisfaction and also provide you with opportunities to Continually Improve the service that you are providing.
4. Cost Savings: The resolution allows you to create knowledge articles so that 1^st line support can answer more of the calls once they have been documented correctly. This helps to ensure the lowest cost for resolving a support issue.
5. Visibility and Tracking: Users can see the progress of their ticket and can ask for updates. They also have visibility of who is dealing with their ticket. This saved time for the user and software  support staff as updates are available immediately.
6. Trending and Opportunities for Improvement: Problems or trends can be identified, and a permanent fix can be implemented to improve the service.

At Dataworks

We supply our customers with a managed support portal that allows them to log their issue and add attachments if required. Each customer has an assigned a Support Engineer when they log a ticket who is notified that there is a new ticket assigned to them.  Our customers then have the added benefits outlined above when managing their support enquiries.

Providing the Correct Blend of skills and capacity that meets your needs

With over 24 years providing Software Support to leading Life Science organisations, our help desk and Software Managed Services adhere to the ITIL Framework. Our services include outsourced helpdesk, on-site technical support and professional services.

Contact us today to learn how we can help you to manage your software systems and automation applications today.

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