Resolving user tickets quickly has become a strategic issue for companies that depend on their information systems, whether HRIS or ERP.
When problems are not handled quickly, they can lead to work interruptions, delays in business processes, a drop in user satisfaction and therefore in the company’s overall performance.
So how do you optimise ticket management to ensure that tickets are resolved in less than an hour?
Here are 14 secrets to help you get there, and how Smart Ticketing can help 👇
- Industrialise user support
- Centralise ticket management on a single platform
- Route requests to the right place
- Automatically prioritise tickets according to their impact
- Analyse trends to anticipate recurring problems
- Automate responses to recurring problems
- Customise support request forms
- Include a screenshot of the user context in tickets
- Integrate AI to capture contextual data and better qualify requests
- Ensure a clear communication with users
- Optimise post-resolution follow-up to avoid tickets being reopened
- Give users access to their request history
- Push messages integrated into the screens of your tools
- Train users to use tools
1: Industrialise user support
An increase in support performance starts with industrialisation. Efficient, well-structured user support helps support agents to respond more effectively to the tickets assigned to them.
The first step is to replace your Excel file or generic support mailbox with a dedicated tool.
These solutions allow you to filter tickets, for example by priority, and assign them to a specific member of the support team.
Thus, incidents can be managed more easily according to defined priorities and criteria.
Smart Ticketing is a ticket management platform integrated into your business application, which makes it easy to manage tickets: prioritising tickets, allocating requests, sorting by nature / type / status, …
2: Centralise ticket management on a single platform
Dispersing requests across several tools or communication channels inevitably slows down the resolution of tickets.
A colleague calling a key user, a question asked orally to the support manager, an email on the support agent’s mailbox, …
To optimise problem handling, it’s important to centralise ticket management on a single platform. This allows requests to be tracked more efficiently, ensures a balanced distribution of tasks between teams, and minimises errors due to a bad communication.
Smart Ticketing enables requests to be centralised on a single platform, tracking the status of each ticket in real time, assigning tasks to the right teams and guaranteeing a rapid and coherent resolution of user problems.
What’s more, the process of creating a ticket has been simplified to prevent users from bypassing it, thanks to a form integrated into the tool and guidance on how to write requests.
3: Route requests to the right place
Reducing the time taken to resolve a ticket inevitably involves routing a ticket to the right department in the first attempt.
Centralising support requests in a generic mailbox may seem like a good idea for bringing all requests together. However, this system often leads to inefficiencies in ticket processing. Each request must first be read, and then manually transferred to the right person or right department. If the problem is not properly categorised at the beginning, it often has to be escalated to a higher level of support, considerably lengthening the resolution time.
Furthermore, this approach creates a frustrating experience for the end user. As a result of these multiple transfers, t the user often has to repeat his problem to several contacts, which only prolongs the time taken to process the request and reduces overall satisfaction. A more intelligent routing system, which automatically allocates tickets to the right people, can speed up the resolution and improve the user experience.
With Smart Ticketing, define different support groups according to the nature of the requests chosen by the user when creating their ticket. The ticket arrives at the right place on the 1st try, with all the contextual information needed to understand it.
4: Automatically prioritise tickets according to their impact
Fast ticket processing starts with good priority management. To respond effectively to user requests, it is essential to put in place a system that classifies tickets according to their criticality and impact on business processes.
An emergency in a key process, such as payroll or order management, needs to be resolved immediately, while less urgent requests can wait.
Prioritisation enables teams to focus their efforts on the problems that have the highest impact.
A high-performance ticketing system must make it easy to filter tickets according to their urgency.
With Smart Ticketing, sort tickets according to specific criteria, such as priority, the category or the nature of the request. Your teams can get organised quickly and easily.
5: Analyse trends to anticipate recurring problems
It’s important to regularly analyse trends and detect recurring problems. By identifying areas of friction or problematic functionalities in the HRIS or ERP, you can anticipate future requests and take steps to resolve them before a ticket is even opened.
A well-organised support system can act as a thermometer for the adoption of internal tools: by analysing the type of questions and problems faced by users, it is possible to identify areas requiring further training or functional improvements.
For example, you may notice a surge in tickets for the purchase requisition process in August in the run-up to the onboarding of new arrivals in September. Highlight the assistance you can give users on this topic in July.
Or, you are constantly receiving tickets from your suppliers on the Supplier portal because they can’t create a new user. Be reactive by developing your training package and systematically send documentation on this topic when they first connect to the tool.
Smart Ticketing offers you automated dashboards to help you analyse your performance and optimise your support where it’s most needed: category, type of request, screen or even the language that generated the most tickets. And to create help content that responds to it.
6: Automate responses to recurring problems
Many user tickets concern simple, recurring problems. To avoid wasting time on this type of request, it is crucial to automate the answers to the most frequently asked questions.
For example, by creating a centralised knowledge base that is accessible to all your users, displaying support content according to context.
Self-help plays a crucial role in the reduction of the number of tickets generated, because it enables users to quickly find answers to their questions without having to contact the support. By providing them resources such as FAQs, user guides, or contextual virtual assistants, users can solve simple or recurring problems themselves.
This considerably relieves support teams of basic requests, allowing them to concentrate on more complex or critical incidents.
In addition to reducing the support teams’ workload, self-help also improves user experience by offering users an immediate solution, without waiting or escalating their ticket to other levels of support.
Smart Ticketing provides access to a knowledge base of already known problems, in the form of contextual FAQs or step-by-step instructions. You develop relevant support content for your users, while capitalising on the answers already provided by the support.
7: Customise support request forms
Support request forms are often the first point of contact between users and support, a crucial point of contact for resolving problems quickly. However, it’s not uncommon for these forms to be generic, unsuitable and ultimately ineffective in identifying the problem. The result: back and forth between the user and support, longer processing times and a frustrating experience for everyone.
Often, users don’t know what information is required for the support to understand and process their request efficiently. They simply say “it doesn’t work” or “I’ve got a problem”, leaving the support unsure about the real nature of the request.
This lack of information forces the support teams to ask the user for more details, delaying the resolution of the problem. Meanwhile, the user is left waiting, with no answer to their question, which can impact their experience and efficiency at work.
By customising the support request form, you can guide users to provide relevant details depending on the nature of their problem. Appropriate fields, such as dropdown menus to select the type of incident, check boxes to specify the context or even specific text boxes to indicate key information, help to structure the request. Not only does this enable users to better formulate their problem, but it also ensures that support has the information it needs from the outset to provide a rapid, targeted response in 1 exchange, improving the overall efficiency of ticket processing.
Smart Ticketing forms are customisable according to your context and your needs: insertion of fields, definition of request types specific to your company, capture of specific contextual data (URL, language, user profile, etc.), …
Users feel better accompanied and have a clearer vision of the information they need to provide, which reduces their frustration. On the support side, receiving requests that are already complete means that problems can be identified more quickly and effective solutions proposed. It’s a virtuous circle: less time wasted chasing up users, greater customer satisfaction and better overall performance.
8: Include a screenshot of the user context in tickets
In the equation “the more qualified the ticket is, the less time it will take to resolve it”, being able to incorporate a screenshot or an attachment into the ticket plays an essential role.
In fact, when a user faces a technical problem or a complex situation, it’s often difficult for them to describe precisely what they see on the screen or the steps leading up to the malfunction.
Screenshots, videos or attached files can provide the support agent with as much visual and technical context as possible, making the request more precise and understandable as soon as it is received.
Thanks to these additional elements, the support agent can diagnose the situation more quickly and immediately visualise the problem without having to guess the exact conditions or ask a lot of questions for further details.
This is what Smart Ticketing offers: addition of a screenshot of the screen from which the user is making the request, inserting a Word, PDF or Excel document, etc. This reduces the number of unpleasant qualification rounds for users who want to be helped quickly.
9: Integrate AI to capture contextual data and better qualify requests
Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into ticket forms offers considerable advantages in terms of rapidity, efficiency and accuracy. One of the main benefits is the ability of AI to automatically collect contextual data from the user’s screen. Instead of having to manually describe their problem or retype information visible on the interface, AI can detect and extract key elements in real time, such as the URL of the page, the purchase request number causing the problem, or the name of the training course that the user is unable to register for.
Thanks to the AI embedded in Smart Ticketing, the essential contextual data is captured to speed up problem resolution.
This data is sent to the support with the ticket, making it easier for the user who doesn’t have to enter it himself.
For example: the URL of the screen they are on, their language, their profile, the number of the purchase request with which they have a problem, etc.
10: Ensure a clear communication with users
A clear and effective communication with users is crucial for the rapid resolution of tickets. As soon as a ticket is opened, it’s important to keep the user informed of the status of his ticket, the expected delays and the actions taken. This avoids unnecessary back and forth and lets users know when they can expect a resolution.
More importantly, it reassures the user that their request is being taken care of and that they can follow the progress of its resolution. Thus, the user can adjust their work according to the resolution timescale and not find themselves in a situation of waiting or incertitude.
Furthermore, it’s important to remember that users are looking for a human connection and want to be heard when they face a problem. With a solution like Smart Ticketing, you can establish a real relation by offering a real-time response via a chat, creating a personalised and human support experience.
The chat not only enables information to be clarified quickly or details to be added, but also to show the user that their problem is being taken seriously by someone behind the screen. At the same time, users can access to the current status of their ticket at any time.
11: Optimise post-resolution follow-up to avoid tickets being reopened
Once a ticket has been solved, it is important to ensure that the problem does not reappear. An effective post-resolution follow-up will ensure that the solution has worked, and that the user is satisfied with it. Once a ticket has been closed, the support shouldn’t consider the problem as definitively solved without making sure that the proposed solution has worked in the long term, at the risk of the ticket being reopened.
A feedback, even rapid, is precious to confirm that the problem has been solved, and that the user has understood how to use the solution and avoid the incident from happening again.
By optimising this follow-up, support teams can prevent tickets from being reopened, guarantee the quality of their interventions and strengthen user confidence.
In Smart Ticketing, you can mark a ticket as “Solved” once you received positive feedback from the user at the end of your exchange. If the answer given was the right one, you can capitalise on it by adding it to the knowledge base for continuous improvement so that the next user encountering the same problem can troubleshoot himself.
12: Give users access to their request history
What could be more frustrating for a user than having to repeat a question that has already been dealt with, simply because they have lost the answer in their mailbox or have lost track of past exchanges? This situation is not only frustrating for the user, but it also creates a feeling of wasted time and inefficiency.
At this age of information overload, it’s not uncommon for emails to drown in an overloaded inbox or that an important response is misplaced. Re-contacting the support, rephrasing the original question and waiting again for a response can demotivate users and slow down their ability to resolve their problem. It can also generate duplicate tickets and unnecessarily overload support teams.
To avoid this cycle of frustration and loss of efficiency, it is essential to give to the user a clear and direct access to the history of their requests. When the initial ticket is still available and users can easily consult their past conversations with the support, they benefit from a complete view of all the solutions that have been provided.
This transparency allows them to find an answer in just a few clicks, to return to it if they wish to consult it again, or even to re-use a solution that has already been validated for a similar problem. In this way, the support is perceived as a reliable and proactive resource, and the user gains in independence, which improves the overall experience and reduces the number of useless tickets or repeated requests.
With Smart Ticketing, your users don’t have to ask you a question again, they can find it in their support request history, directly from their tool.
13: Push messages integrated into the screens of your tools
Incidents involving HRIS or ERP tools don’t happen every day, but when they do, they create a real crisis situation. The slightest breakdown, bug or malfunction can cause a wave of panic among your users, preventing them from carrying on with their daily tasks.
In response, many open a ticket immediately to report the problem, and very often, the same ticket is submitted by multiple users in the space of a few minutes.
For support, this means an avalanche of identical tickets to handle, overloading the teams and complicating priority management. This “fire” situation can quickly become impossible to manage, because the support is overwhelmed by requests, lengthening resolution times and causing frustration for users.
To avoid this avalanche of redundant tickets, it’s crucial to communicate proactively with users before they even submit their request. The key is to clearly inform users that the problem has already been identified and is being resolved.
If a simple email may seem like a solution, it has one major disadvantage: in an often overloaded inbox, there’s a high risk that the message won’t be seen in time or will simply be ignored.
The best approach is to display a contextualized message directly on the screen where the user encounters the problem.
With Smart Ticketing, push full-page messages in the case of an incident onto the screen to keep your users informed. This real-time message, such as a notification or banner, informs your users that support is already aware of the incident, and reassures them with details of follow-up and expected resolution times. This significantly reduces the creation of redundant tickets, eases users’ panic, and allows support teams to concentrate on resolving the problem quickly rather than managing communication.
14: Train users to use tools
A significant proportion of tickets submitted by users could be avoided if they were properly trained in the use of their HRIS or ERP software.
Very often, the problems reported by users are not really bugs or malfunctions, but rather difficulties linked to an ignorance of the tool, an incorrect use of functionalities or a lack of familiarity with the integrated processes.
By combining Smart Ticketing with Shortways Assistant, provide your users with ongoing training by integrating contextual training modules directly into the tools they use. This makes them more autonomous and less dependent on business support.
Don’t forget to communicate about the support you’ve put in place for users to create a reflection to go and look for information in the Shortways knowledge base rather than open a ticket. Also, if the solution to a ticket was in a Shortways help already created, remember in your reply to the user that the Assistant is here to help.
To sum it up:
Reducing ticket resolution time to less than an hour is an achievable challenge with the correct strategies and tools in place.
By prioritizing tickets effectively, qualifying requests as soon as they are sent, and ensuring transparent communication with users, you can considerably improve the speed and efficiency of your support.
Smart Ticketing offers all the features needed to optimize ticket management and guarantee a rapid and satisfying resolution for users.
To see all this in action and understand how Smart Ticketing can help you to solve your business ticketing problems, contact us
