CRM Software Support: Managing Support Tickets
Most all CRM solutions, SalesForce, MS CRM and SalesLogix for example, include a customer support feature of some sort. These are traditionally used in software and hardware environments for tracking requests for support for customers. We’ve adapted the customer support features for many different environments, such as tracking physician issues for hospitals. Customer Support is a valuable feature for all industries.
Support tickets can be a very useful tool for making sure your customers’ issues are addressed in a timely manner. It can also be a valuable tool for scheduling and staffing the department responsible for addressing the issues. You can get answers to such questions as:
- How many requests do we get?
- What type of requests do we get?
- How long does it take to address a request?
- How many requests do we address?
- How many people will it take to handle our workload?
Like all systems, though, the answers are only going to be as good as the data. If Tommy Tech doesn’t tend his tickets, then all your answers are off.
So, with the start of the New Year, what will help us get better information going forward? Make sure that your tickets are properly classified and that tickets are closed on a regular basis. Start reviewing summary information such as:
- Number of tickets opened during a given time
- Number of tickets closed during a given time
- Increase or decrease in open tickets (a constant increase is a problem)
- Average time a ticket is open
- Average time spent resolving a ticket
Create guidelines for your staff on when to close a ticket. If your industry requires that a customer approves work prior to closing a ticket or issue, put a deadline on how long they have to close it. Assume that the work is acceptable after a certain period of time. Usually, the customer isn’t concerned with the ticket after the work is done so they might not ever OK the work.
Review your internal policies, procedures and processes to make sure that they are still appropriate. Review them with your staff and check frequently to be sure they are being followed. Don’t wait till the work order bucket is overflowing and you are scrambling to figure out what really needs attention. Get ahead and stay ahead.