In our last Service Operations Best Practices we discussed the definition of the 5 Most Important Service Ticket Statuses Every Team Needs To Manage but now let’s turn that into practical action on some tips on how to best a ticket that flows through each of the statuses and what it means. For those of you that are Connectwise Partners you can also use these statuses to manage your SLAs, to learn more please download this slide deck
New => Assigned - the first step in the process should be to move into the Assigned status. Moving the ticket from New to Assigned allows you to respond to your customer acknowledging their request (SLA). This communication can (and should be) automated so they know you’re aware of their issue. Its important to track the time between New to Assigned or 1st Response. Below are two of the most popular examples of how you can track it, either with a Number Gauge (that changes colors based on thresholds) or if you want to see a longer term trend:
Assigned => In Progress - once a team member is ready to work on a ticket they should change the status to In Progress. A small subset of customers will introduce an automated communication to their customer when this change happens. The challenge with this step is many times team members will push back saying they can’t keep “updating tickets” every time they start and stop working on an issue. The reality is this is true and therefore the data should be reviewed carefully. For those of you using Connectwise, below is a sample on how you can monitor the amount of time before a ticket gets worked on:
Any Status => Resolved - Once the work has been fully completed on a request the ticket should be moved to a Resolved status indicating the work is complete. This is a great communication point to notify your customer that the work is completed and ask them for confirmation. Measuring the amount of time it takes to Resolve tickets is one of our most popular metrics and this is a metric you’ll want to monitor over the longer term as well (see screenshot of 30 day trending average).
Any Status => Pending - A ticket should be in the pending status when its “pending” some other action and that action may be in the hands of the requester (waiting for feedback or for them to return) or from your team (waiting for help or escalation) or 3rd party (waiting for a part). If you are managing your team with SLAs then this status should “stop the clock” if its anything besides waiting on your team. Meaning if the pending is not controlled by your team then it should stop the clock. It’s important to be aware of this distinction and just know how your system is set up so you don’t run into issues.
The most important part of this process is to make sure it’s documented and shared amongst the team so everyone is on the same page.
