In the fast-paced world of modern business, delivering top-notch customer support is crucial for success. The second factor that is determining to grow your business is precious time and allocating this resource in the most effective way possible. This article unveils five essential hacks aimed at elevating customer support within an agentless service desk environment – like Jira Service Management – to ensure time savings for the team and customer-centered approach.
These hacks not only streamline the support process but also empower users to actively engage in issue resolution, to simply unburden agents and let them focus on ticket resolution.
The focus is on the following questions:
- How to raise your customer satisfaction score (CSAT)?
- How to make your customers happier?
- How to allocate your agents’ time more effectively?
Let's assume we want to report a significant bug. Let's get into the agent's role and see why those 5 tricks can be a real game changer when working in Jira Service Management.
Hack 1: Use escalation power
Incidents in customer support may initially appear trivial, but their impact can swiftly escalate, potentially causing significant disruptions across the organization. Recognizing the urgency and criticality of an issue is crucial to ensure that it receives prompt attention and resolution. This is where the strategic use of ticket escalation comes into play, empowering both customers and support agents to address pressing matters efficiently.
The essence of Jira ticket escalation
At times, a seemingly routine incident can evolve into a situation demanding immediate attention. To bridge the gap between standard support and urgent resolutions, leveraging the escalation power becomes imperative. The escalation process involves customers signaling the critical nature of their request, prompting a shift in priority to "critical" or "escalated."
The escalation workflow
Upon initiating the escalation process, customers provide a reason for the urgency, simultaneously adjusting the priority level. This pivotal step ensures that the support team receives a clear indication of the issue's severity. To streamline the workflow, agents create a dedicated queue specifically for escalated tickets, allowing them to focus on high-priority cases first.
How to make it work?
To seamlessly integrate ticket escalation into your support workflow, consider the following steps:
- Enable ticket edition on the customer portal: utilize the edit request functionality from the Feature Bundle app, allowing customers to make changes after submitting a request. This not only streamlines the escalation process but also eliminates the need for additional comments or ticket updates.
- Customize the "Escalate" Button: Modify the edit request button to be named "escalate," automating the status change to "escalated." This user-friendly approach simplifies the escalation process for customers while ensuring that critical issues are promptly flagged for attention.
- Create a unique queue for escalated tickets to set clear priorities and take care of urgency first. As only the ticket is escalated, it appears in the priority queue.
Hack 2: Use cascade field to get all relevant information
When tackling complex issues and resolving tickets, obtaining precise and comprehensive information is the cornerstone of effective customer support. Imagine a scenario where you receive a ticket reporting a bug—knowing the specific nature of the bug, the version affected, and the impact on the user's experience is critical. This is precisely where the significance of cascade fields comes into play.
The ability of ticket precision you didn't’ know about
In the realm of customer support, precision is paramount. Traditional ticketing systems often limit users to basic fields for input, leaving room for ambiguity. Cascade fields, powered by the Multilevel Select app, break free from these constraints. They empower users to navigate through multiple levels of categorization, providing a structured and granular approach to information input.
In essence, cascade fields function as a hierarchy of choices. Users can specify the type of bug, the version it pertains to, and the nuanced details related to its impact on the application, user interface, or functionality—all within the confines of a single ticket submission. This not only eradicates the need for guesswork but also significantly reduces the back-and-forth communication required to gather essential details.
This way, you get a ticket with an already specified bug, and you don’t have to assume anything and extra check which version the reporter uses.
Hack 3: Make sure your customers never miss important updates
Traditional communication methods, such as emails, often fall short of ensuring that important announcements reach all intended recipients. Let's face it, relying solely on emails poses the risk that only a fraction of your customers will open and read the message.
Nowadays, customer communication should be short, and easy to notice.
How to announce big updates, maintenance, or holiday breaks to selected customers or all of them at once? And no, we don't talk about emailing them because we know that not even 50% will open that.
Jira Service Management natively allows you to create an announcement banner. By incorporating announcement banners, every customer entering the service desk portal is greeted with your important message. This ensures widespread awareness and adds a visually appealing and engaging touch to your communication strategy. Use this potential, and more – go a step further.
Announcement banners from Feature Bundle app break free from this limitation, providing a visual and unmissable method of communication right within the service desk portal.
Whether it's incorporating animated gifs, vibrant colors, or expressive emojis, you have the creative freedom to design banners that truly stand out. Unlike the native option of a single banner on the customer portal, this hack allows you to go wild, creating unique banners tailored for different stages of the customer journey, specific request types, or any other segmentation you desire.
How it works
- Tailor text to your needs: craft your message with the precise information you want to convey – be it a major update, maintenance notice, or holiday greeting.
- Target display: decide who sees the banner by selecting specific customer segments or opt for a universal display to reach every user entering the service desk portal.
- Schedule at your convenience: plan ahead by scheduling when the banner appears. Whether it's a time-sensitive update or a seasonal greeting, you have full control over the timing of your announcements.
This one will awaken your artist's soul! But also, it's going to change your life ;-)
Hack 4: Keep reporters updated without direct messages
Just as we track the journey of our ordered items – from shipping to packing and finally arriving at our doorsteps – customers now crave the same visibility for their support tickets. Integrate this tracking concept seamlessly into your customer portal, offering real-time updates on the status and progress of their submitted tickets.
Empower your customers by showing them the path to ticket resolution. Let them know precisely where their ticket stands in the workflow and how much progress is yet to come. This transparency not only reduces uncertainty but also fosters a sense of control and engagement for the reporters.
Benefits of real-time ticket updates
- Enhanced customer satisfaction: by providing real-time updates, you demonstrate a commitment to transparency, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction.
- Reduced inquiry load: customers are less likely to reach out for updates when they can easily track the progress of their tickets on the customer portal, reducing the burden on your support team.
- Empowered customer engagement: transparency fosters a positive customer experience, empowering users with a clear understanding of their support journey and contributing to long-term customer loyalty.
The solution that can help you with implementing real-time updates on a customer portal is also Feature Bundle for Jira Service Management.
How it works
- Customer-friendly workflow steps: Design workflow steps that resonate with your customers, offering a clear and intuitive representation of their ticket's progress.
- Real-time updates: Provide instantaneous updates on the ticket's status, ensuring that customers always have the latest information on the resolution journey.
- Transparent information: Offer a general overview that is easy for customers to comprehend, eliminating confusion and showcasing the practical steps taken toward ticket resolution.
Hack 5: Avoid spare questions – display linked issues on the portal
How often do customers call agents to ask how the resolution is going? Or why is it still yet to be solved? Agents should focus on ticket resolution, not answering calls and emails and replying to comments. Especially when there is a significant error, it’s not only the ticket they’ve received. Customers often resort to reaching out to agents for updates on their tickets, contributing to increased call volumes and email traffic. The resolution process becomes more complex when the issue is not isolated to a single ticket.
A customer portal as the one source of truth
Make your customer portal the singular destination for all things related to ticket resolution. By displaying linked issues prominently, customers gain immediate insight into the broader context surrounding their ticket. Whether there are dependencies, similar requests, or specific reasons for delays, it's all at their fingertips.
Then, customers can delve into the details of their requests directly from the portal. They can identify if their ticket is blocked, understand the reasons behind it, explore similar requests, and stay informed about the current status. This not only reduces the need for direct communication but also transforms customers into well-informed partners in the resolution process.
Benefits of displaying linked issues on the detail request view
- Reduced agent workload: minimize the need for agents to handle repetitive queries, freeing up their time for critical ticket resolution tasks.
- Customer empowerment: enable customers to independently track the progress and dependencies of their requests, fostering a sense of control and engagement.
- Streamlined communication: by offering a comprehensive view of linked issues, the portal becomes a hub for transparent communication, reducing the necessity for back-and-forth interactions.
How to make it work
There is a simple workaround for that scenario to avoid the ringing phone. Display your customers linked issues thanks to Feature Bundle app, and, as in hack no. 4, make the customer portal one source of truth.
Now, your customer can see at request detail view if their ticket is blocked and why, if there is any similar request, and what the status is, etc.
Put in a nutshell
Those transformative techniques have the potential to redefine the customer support experience and significantly contribute to the overall success of your service desk operations. With better allocation of your agents’ time and making customers happier, meaning less irritated, you can provide top-notch customer support with the high CSAT score you try to achieve.
If you're ready to transform your support operations, Appsvio's applications are the key to unlocking new levels of productivity and customer engagement. Feel free to reach out to their team if you have any questions or require assistance in implementing these solutions. They are dedicated to ensuring your success, and eager to support you every step of the way.
Questions about Jira Service Management and ITSM practices?
Want to know more about Jira Service Management and how to scale all services? Do you need help setting up your ITSM practices, such as request, incident, problem, change and configuration management? We have the answers and are happy to help. Contact us now.
