Anatomy of a Trouble(d) Ticket: Martha Lundgren Texas 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 documentation best practices Minimize customer frustration Don’t make them explain it (again) Incidents and requests don’t get lost Another technician can pick up the ticket Complete record of incident/request and work to date for assignment, escalation, service review With the customer With escalation teams or other departments Smooth handoffs to level II or collaborating departments Much of the transition work at promotion or exit already done New techs can do more work, more quickly, accurately and independently Reduce duplication of work

Benefits of ticket documentation best practices (cont.) Increase credibility of support staff Don’t make them explain it (again) Incidents and requests don’t get lost Another technician can pick up the ticket Complete record of incident/request and work to date for assignment, escalation, service review With the customer With escalation teams or other departments Smooth handoffs to level II or collaborating departments Much of the transition work at promotion or exit already done New techs can do more work, more quickly, accurately and independently Promote collaboration

Benefits of ticket documentation best practices (cont.) Speed knowledge transfer Promote problem management and problem prevention Don’t make them explain it (again) Incidents and requests don’t get lost Another technician can pick up the ticket Complete record of incident/request and work to date for assignment, escalation, service review With the customer With escalation teams or other departments Smooth handoffs to level II or collaborating departments Much of the transition work at promotion or exit already done New techs can do more work, more quickly, accurately and independently

“The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”

Three C’s – Complete, Concise, Correct etc. etc. Complete Every incident/request gets logged! Who? What? When? Where? How? Priority, severity, impact, urgency Others? etc. etc. etc. “Demographic” information Incident or request description Troubleshooting steps and results “Done” and “Fixed” don’t count. etc. etc. etc.

Three C’s . . . Concise BLUF Just the facts, ma’am Lists vs narrative Ask one, answer one KISS Don’t sacrifice clarity for brevity

Three C’s . . . Correct Client information Mary Jones Acme Brik maryj@acmebrik.com 512-123-4567

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 Who are you writing for? 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 Your manager The customer Knowledge manager Yourself . . . or all of the above?

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 No emotions, no opinions. Just the facts, ma’am.

Organizational Standards Specific Objective Actionable Relevant Professional

Documentation improvement program Review current state Develop organizational standards standardized ticket scorecard training and coaching program Pilot Review results of the pilot Communicate WIIFM Train – Coach – Review – Repeat Incorporate in new hire training

Service Ticket Quality Assessment Audience will have the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned to the three examples from the beginning of the presentation, using STQA form and marking up the example tickets to improve them.

What’s wrong (and right!) with these tickets? Audience will have the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned to the three examples from the beginning of the presentation, using STQA form and marking up the example tickets to improve them.

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)

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