Do you enter tickets only to get a voice mail message asking you to call us back? Do your tickets seem to stay open for a long time? Do you want better response from us? We studied tickets from customers who were satisfied and those from disastisfied users and we think we figured out how to help. Disatisfied users tend to enter the least amount of information in their trouble tickets. The most disastisfied users enter things like “it is broken, call me!” or “it isn’t working!” The most satisfied users do something different that I will share with you.Users who get their issues resolved the quickest do the following four things when they enter a ticket:

• Fully explain the problem in the ticket. Users who wrote two or three sentences describing their problem on average reduced their resolution time by 30%.
• Describe what the impact of the problem is. Users who explained that the printer was broken, but that they really just needed to get something printed immediately often had a two step resolution – the tech printed the needed document immediately and then scheduled someone to repair the printer at a later time.
• Describe how and when you would like the issue resolved. Users who told us when to handle the probelm (i.e. while I am at lunch today, or tomorrow at 2Pm while I am at a client meeting) were more likely than not to have their request met.
• 80% of issues can be resolved remotely. If you explain in the ticket that it is okay to work on your issue while you are away from your PC and you include your IP address (i.e. the number gleened from hovering your mouse over the little VNC logo at the bottom of your screen) we can work on your issue without calling you back.

Only 20% of users do all four, but when they do their issues are resolved faster than 90% of all other issues we receive. Give it a try and let us know if it worked for you!