In order to fully understand these guidelines it's important that you first read through Effective Utilization of Ticket Statuses and Priority Rules and SLAs for Freshdesk Tickets.
The first article, "Effective Utilization of Ticket Statuses", provides guidance on how to properly use the different status settings in a customer support ticket. The article explains how to use different statuses (such as "open", "pending", "resolved", etc.) to track the progress of customer inquiries, and how to use them to communicate with customers about the status of their requests.
The second article , "Priority Rules and SLAs for Freshdesk Tickets", provides information on how we manage priority rules and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in Freshdesk. Priority rules are used to automatically assign a priority level to incoming support tickets based on certain criteria (such as the type of request, the customer's account level, the nature of the request etc.). SLAs, specify the level of service that the provider will deliver and includes details on response time, resolution time metrics.
By reading through both of these documents, you should be able to better understand how to properly manage customer support tickets in Freshdesk, including how to use different status settings to communicate with customers and our priority rules to help manage ticket volume and ensure timely resolution of issues, and how to adhere to SLAs to meet customer expectations for service.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
This article will be constantly updated over time as we improve or change our processes. If you notice any information is out-of-date or no longer accurate, please inform the support manager.
Prioritization of Overdue Tickets
Each morning, priority should be given to actioning overdue tickets. Urgent tickets should be addressed first, followed by high, medium, and low-priority tickets.
It is important that we respond to all tickets in a reasonable timeframe, and that tickets are also resolved within our SLA policies.
Review of Appointment Tickets
You must review all appointment tickets daily to ensure that they have corresponding calendar appointments. If an appointment is missing, a scheduling link should be sent to the client, and the ticket status should be changed to pending.
You must attend all booked appointments, and no appointment should be missed. If any circumstances arise where an appointment will be missed, give clients as much notice as possible (at least 1 business day) with an apology and a new time proposed.
Review of Pending & On Hold Tickets
Although we have implemented automated processes to aid in the management of these statuses, it remains crucial to conduct a weekly review of these tickets. This ensures that no ticket is overlooked and that they are prioritized effectively.
Recording of Discussion Tickets
All discussion tickets raised during morning support huddles should have private notes added to them during the meeting and should be actioned immediately after the meeting.
Documentation of Phone Calls
All phone calls related to a ticket must be documented as private notes within the ticket. This includes the date and time of the call, the name and contact information of the caller, and a summary of the conversation.
Follow-Up Reply
After a phone call has occurred, a follow-up reply must be sent on the ticket to summarize everything that was discussed during the call. This should be sent as soon as possible after the call has ended to ensure that all information is fresh in your mind.
Recording of Internal Correspondence
All internal correspondence with colleagues that relates to a ticket should also be recorded as private notes within the ticket. This includes emails, chat messages, and any other communications that are relevant to the ticket.
Tickets for other departments
When a non-support ticket (Eg: increase/decrease license, sales request etc) is logged for another department, promptly forward the initial requester's email to the designated team member. Send a response to the requester, indicating that the request has been redirected to the relevant individual, and the ticket will be closed. The most common scenario for these tickets is to pass them along to their client manager, for these you can use the canned response of 'Passed to Client Care Team'.
End-of-Day Wrap-Up
At the end of each day, it is important to wrap up all open 'Customer Responded' tickets to ensure that they are handled before logging out for the day.
Apologies to Clients
Apologies to clients should only be made in a ticket when you are at fault, and only one apology should be given. Apologizing when you've done nothing wrong isn't fair to yourself, and apologizing too often can lessen the power of the words when you've actually made a mistake. If you apologize too much, your audience will no longer accept it as legitimate.
* can we add a section regarding internal terminology (Eg: code red, whale etc). This should never be mentioned to any clients.
Internal Terminology
There are certain words that should only be used internally and should not be used when speaking to a customer. (Eg: code red, whale etc). If you are unsure on a particular term please reach out to your manager for guidance.