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Tickets for help desk support can be overwhelmingly difficult to manage. If you aren’t actually using a ticket system, it’s even harder. This is because you don’t know where you’re at, what kind of progress you are achieving, and this means being unable to support the business.

The good news is that ticket management software will make it easier for you to stay on track – and get a lot of important information from the system at the same time.

Track Times

One of the first benefits to using ticket management software is the ability to track times – and you need to track the times. Your goal should be to have good ticket response times on an ongoing basis. If the response times are not good, you need to know about it and then take the necessary action to work towards improving them.

When you’re unable to track ticket times, it’s difficult to see just how efficient you are. Each time a new ticket is opened, it starts a timer so that you can see how long they are open for. You will be able to see which technicians are closing the most tickets and which ones are not. This allows you to see productivity so that you can see where training opportunities lie as well as whether you need to hire more help desk support staff (or eliminate some).

Solve Problems

Another benefit is that you will actually be able to solve problems that are being called in. You can see all of the tickets in an organized way and begin establishing a system where the help desk support team will distribute the tickets and begin solving the problems that are taking place. This could be such things as:

• Computer breakdowns
• Network down
• Memory upgrades
• Screen freezes
• Software complications

The problems can vary from day to day, user to user, and department to department. As you continue to solve the problems, a record will be maintained so that you can compare them occasionally. It will make it easier to see what problems are known as “repeat offenders” so you can take further action – such as upgrading computers or improving your network.

Communicate

Communication is critical within any business and having ticket management software will allow you to communicate more with your employees. If you find that some of the problems occur because of “user error,” it may be a sign that more communication is needed. Employees may need more lessons on the hardware or software they have access to. They may also need a higher level of training on how to handle spam-related email and unauthorized website usage.

Prioritize

The software will also teach you more about how to prioritize. Some tickets will come in that are a lot more important than others. For example, your help desk will need to know that it’s more important to focus on a downed network than it is to reset the secretary’s password, again.

The prioritization levels will vary based upon the kind of software that you opt for. You may be able to set the prioritization on your own. Further, you can set rules so that some of the tickets will increase in priority on their own. This will take some of the guess work out of it for your help desk support staff.

Some of the “high priority” items can also be sent to a manager or CIO so that they are made aware of the problem. They can then track it until it is closed to ensure that it is being given the emphasis that the task requires.

Organize

You owe it to your employees to help them get organized. Plenty of help desk support staff will say that they develop headaches over the course of the day because they are constantly pulled in a million different directions. This leads to longer ticket times and a lower level of productivity. The reality is that software will keep them organized because they have a list of tickets to work on, in an order of priority. They go down the list throughout their shift. Then they go home and when they arrive the next day, they start at the top of the list again.

Support the Business

The reports that you will be able to obtain from the software can be a lifesaver. These will tell you about all of the different issues that have been taking place by user and by department. The reports will allow you to support the business more effectively by learning how you need to infuse money into the operations.

Some of the things the reports may help you realize is that you:

• Need more staff
• Require newer computers
• Have issues with malware

The more you know, the more you can make changes.

Reduce Expenditures

Finally, software can actually help you to reduce expenditures. You will quickly find out where the biggest issues are within your business. If you find that a significant amount of your help desk support team are spending time doing things that standard employees should know how to do, you can increase training and then improve productivity. If you find that you’re able to close tickets faster than normal, your IT team may need to be downsized, thus saving you a lot of money in labor.

In the end, it’s all a matter of improving efficiency and productivity.

To learn more about ticket management software, contact Vision Helpdesk for information today.