Anatomy of a Trouble(d) Ticket: Martha Lundgren Texas Association of School Boards Copyright 2007, Texas Association of School Boards
Mar 31, 2015
Anatomy of a Trouble(d) Ticket:
Martha LundgrenTexas Association of School Boards
Copyright 2007, Texas Association of School Boards
Thanks to Tarina Williams and the ITT group at Austin Energy for sharing templates and internal training materials.
Benefits of ticket documentationbest practices
Minimize customerfrustration
Reduce duplicationof work
Benefits of ticket documentationbest practices (cont.)
Promote collaboration
Increase credibilityof support staff
Benefits of ticket documentationbest practices (cont.)
Speed knowledgetransfer
Promote problemmanagement and problem prevention
“The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth”
Three C’s – Complete, Concise, Correct
• Complete– Every incident/request
gets logged!– Who? What? When?
Where? How?– Priority, severity, impact,
urgency– Others?
etc.etc.
etc.
etc.
etc. etc.
etc.
etc.
Three C’s . . .
• Concise– BLUF– Just the facts, ma’am– Lists vs narrative– Ask one, answer one
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
• 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
Yourmanager
The customer
Knowledge manager
Yourself
. . . or all of the above?
Who are you writing for?
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
Documentationimprovement program
1. Review current state2. Develop
a. organizational standardsb. standardized ticket scorecard c. training and coaching program
3. Pilot4. Review results of the pilot5. Communicate WIIFM6. Train – Coach – Review – Repeat7. Incorporate in new hire training
Service Ticket Quality Assessment
What’s wrong (and right!) with these tickets?
60936 Incident #
Opened on 10/04/2006 by John Stockton
Assigned to John Stockton
Closed on 10/04/2006 by John Stockton
Phone Extension Building Room
Dora Explorer Rooster ISD
Organization Client Name
can not get board book to open. All I get is a beep when I click on board book but I can go to any other place on mytasb.
Resolution Incident Description
User had popup blockers turned on. I keep telling him not to.
Subject BB Problems
Contact Type Boardbook Priority 3
60951 Incident #
Opened on 10/05/2006 by John Stockton
Assigned to Phillip Langoria
Closed on 10/05/2006 by John Stockton
73217
Phone Extension
S 32139
Building Room
Jeremy Bornstein TASB
Organization Client Name
My hipath keeps locking up and I can not log in
Resolution Incident Description
Ref to Phil
Subject Telephone issues
Contact Type Telephone Priority 3
60959 Incident #
Opened on 10/09/2006 by Shirley Jones
Assigned to Michael Jordan
Closed on 10/09/2006 by Michael Jordan
72240
Phone Extension
N 31058
Building Room
Mary Brouillet TASB
Organization Client Name
Part 1: Cannot open any Outlook mailbox; all profiles prompt for a password and no password is accepted. Changed network password this morning. Part 2: Can now log into her own mailbox but is prompted for a password and should not be. Cannot log into fax mailbox.
Resolution Incident Description
Part 1: Fax mailbox had been locked. Andy reset the password. Part 2: Andy suggested restarting PC and trying again. Walked user through logging in to both accounts. Just needed the correct password for DPC Fax and had user put in new network password for prompt and save password.
Subject Outlook Profile Problems
Contact Type TASB Priority 2
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)