How to get people to make a ticket

anon19026942 · 2021-08-06T10:47:50.000Z

The way I look at it is that the person calling IT for help is usually thinking “This is a major issue” or “Something has gone horribly wrong and I need someone to help fix this”. So I will help them and submit a ticket about the issue and record what was done.

Now, if a particular person only ever stops you in passing or calls you for help and never submits a ticket, then I think with some discretion you can ask them to submit a ticket.

test4echo · 2021-08-06T10:53:11.000Z

I agree with Robert as well. That’s how our entire IT department functions! We’re in a limbo between actually needing a ticketing system and just going on an ad-hoc basis. Still, if we had a ticketing system, one of us (mainly me, since I’m the junior member) would assist them as best we could, and if we didn’t have permissions to fix what they required, would inform them that they will have to wait until X tech is done assisting someone else. Usually, politeness is responded in kind, so the average user, even if they’re a bit flighty at first, will calm down and accept the answer.

This doesn’t always work, but 95% it will. Also, if we had a ticketing system, I’d remind them to use it next time!

@rhummel

jeffnoel · 2021-08-06T11:00:08.000Z

While opening/closing a ticket for the insistent user is the best customer service, and a decent way to treat your co-workers, it’s a rare occasion where this behavior doesn’t spread to other people, and then NOBODY is putting in tickets–or the folks that do start to get annoyed that they have to wait because they’re doing things the right way. Do what is necessary to get the job done, but be sure to communicate that this is a rare occasion.

Rule 1: Don’t be a jerk.

There are no other rules.

sqlrage · 2021-08-06T11:01:39.000Z

Robert5205:

When one of my co-workers calls up and something is preventing them from doing their job, we don’t say, “Sorry. You need to go create a work request before we’ll even consider talking to you.” (I know I’m in the minority on this opinion.) Instead, we create the ticket. (We don’t even have an end-user portal.) And then we fix the problem and get them back to work. That’s our job.

So you say, “The person you need to speak to is on another call right this second. Let me get some details of the problem from you so when he finishes I can pass it on to him. That will help him solve your problem more quickly.”

If you called your credit card company because someone had stolen it, do you want to hear “Make a ticket”?

If you need to change your plane reservation, do you want to hear “Make a ticket”?

If you have time to answer the phone and say “Make a ticket,” you have time to make the ticket.

Combine this with “I am required to document issues on our end, let me walk through the details with you to put them into a ticket.” Document it, add them as the requester of the ticket, and then proceed to follow up through your ticketing system.

The other side is make it easy to submit tickets. If users can just email a screen shot and 5 words on their issue to an email address that then creates the ticket for them, they are more likely to use it.

Finally as a manager I did talk to other department heads about the importance of issue documentation, and the importance of not calling/slacking/emailing just their favorite tech support. It can lead to forgotten and mismanaged issues, and tickets are in their best interest as well as ours.

mickspiegel4213 · 2021-08-06T11:02:11.000Z

If they refuse to put in a ticket put a ticket in anyways for them so you have the proof. If they insist on talking to someone else tell them you can try and help them or pass along the message to the other person. If you windup helping that person tell your co-worker the situation so your all on the same page. I have people at both jobs I have who always call without sending in a ticket even though we have them all to submit a ticket always. So I windup doing it for them and documenting everything. Always back yourself up and also don’t forget you have co-workers who will also back you up too. Also if they ask why a ticket tell them it is for so you can document everything and management told me to.

mattbabb · 2021-08-06T11:12:51.000Z

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[Note: original post here: IT Alignment Chart ]

albertofel · 2021-08-06T11:13:33.000Z

That’s IT life nobody wants to create a ticket but obviously the want help right away. What I did was create a Procedure Manual and is default in a common shared. In that manual I have steps by steps how to create a ticket, I even have a shortcut in all Desktop and bookmarks in all the browsers that my company allow them to use. It was a bit difficult at the beginning with old employees but when I first implemented the help desk I wrote a email to all company with the procedure manual and told them from now on all tickets will have priority, we are going to keep taking calls, emails or even teams chat but all those others methods that IT have to create a ticket will be worked after all the users that create a ticket.

So far after 6 months of the implementation I still get calls, emails or they contact me via teams but the now I will work tickets first and the all this other ticket that I have to create for them and have no complains, I will say that after 6 months around 60% of the employees are creating tickets. And those others user don’t complain too much for the waiting.

timmyturtle · 2021-08-06T11:16:24.000Z

Robert5205:

When one of my co-workers calls up and something is preventing them from doing their job, we don’t say, “Sorry. You need to go create a work request before we’ll even consider talking to you.” (I know I’m in the minority on this opinion.) Instead, we create the ticket. (We don’t even have an end-user portal.) And then we fix the problem and get them back to work. That’s our job.

So you say, “The person you need to speak to is on another call right this second. Let me get some details of the problem from you so when he finishes I can pass it on to him. That will help him solve your problem more quickly.”

If you called your credit card company because someone had stolen it, do you want to hear “Make a ticket”?

If you need to change your plane reservation, do you want to hear “Make a ticket”?

If you have time to answer the phone and say “Make a ticket,” you have time to make the ticket.

Worked in different areas, e.g. as IT Support in a hospital, and basically that was the procedure, the only legimate one, the ticket was for documentation, if the user created it, it was fine, but if not and it was urgent, we d handle it right away and opened the ticket ourselves for the user afterwards.

randomparts · 2021-08-06T11:25:29.000Z

If someone calls about an issue or walks up or something, if I can address it right then I will but I’ll still ask they put in a ticket for tracking purposes. Most people understand putting in a ticket for tracking. I also tell people I can’t get to this right now, put in a ticket so I don’t forget about it.

milerky2 · 2021-08-06T11:31:13.000Z

It is annoying at first, to both you and the user… but In the case of fly-by’s where the user catches you in the hall on another mission, my answer is always, " I am in the middle of taking care of this, so as soon as you are out of sight, I am afraid your question will be out of mind. To make sure we can take care of it, can you put that into a ticket for me, so I have a reminder to look into this when I get done with what I am doing?"

This usually a) weeds out the actual problems, b) takes the onus off of you, because people, in general can’t remember what they had for lunch, let alone what computer number is not letting Bettie Sue use the curly cue font on her email signature.

gentiereqi · 2021-08-06T11:43:23.000Z

Robert5205:

When one of my co-workers calls up and something is preventing them from doing their job, we don’t say, “Sorry. You need to go create a work request before we’ll even consider talking to you.” (I know I’m in the minority on this opinion.) Instead, wecreate the ticket. (We don’t even have an end-user portal.) And then wefix the problem and get them back to work. That’s our job.

So you say, “The person you need to speak to is on another call right this second. Let me get some details of the problem from you so when he finishes I can pass it on to him. That will help him solve your problem more quickly.”

If you called your credit card company because someone had stolen it, do you want to hear “Make a ticket”?

If you need to change your plane reservation, do you want to hear “Make a ticket”?

If you have time to answer the phone and say “Make a ticket,” you have time to make the ticket.

Absolutely right!
We’ve put this in place for more than 6 years, is proving less friction with other departments and happier colleagues. We even got positive recommendations by other depts up to C-level

HulkSmash · 2021-08-06T11:45:41.000Z

I have always fixed the issue first, worried about a ticket later. Usually they are so happy to have it fixed that they’ll go in and submit a ticket after the fact.

mattbabb · 2021-08-06T11:50:02.000Z

Ok, so to be more helpful than just dumping a meme: This is a drum I’ve banged for many years now. Some people will get on board once they understand the motivations behind it. I know we all know but, sometimes you have to inform/remind the non-IT types of advantages like:

1.) with a ticket, you can see status at any time in your company’s ticket tracking page/app/etc

2.) if multiple items need to be accomplished (eg - onboarding: create accounts, provision hardware, etc) you can see where you are in the process

3.) repeat offenders - if you get 20 tickets about wireless not working in your 20 new laptops, maybe there is an issue upstream

4.) evidence for vendors - tagging along with point 3, you can use tickets as evidence of a vendor’s issue, hopefully motivating them to assist you in a more timely fashion

5.) it does provide a paper trail of what IT personnel are doing with their time

Some people view tickets as virtual “paperwork” and will never get on board. I’ve worked at companies where leadership was firmly in the “no ticket, no problem” camp and ones that were so anti-ticket they didn’t even want to hear me utter the word.

To wrap up this novel: I preach the good word but, at the end of the day, if it is my, ahem, keister on the line, a ticket is getting submitted even if I have to do it myself!

janice777 · 2021-08-06T11:55:30.000Z

Our people are pretty good at putting in tickets. If I am out and about, I will tell them I will get to them after I’m done, but could they put in a ticket in the extremely likely case I get side-tracked and forget. If they call and I am not busy or it is a work stopping problem, I will create the ticket myself and help right then. If they call and I am busy and it is not something that will prevent them from working and/or putting in a ticket, I will tell them I will call back, but could they put in a ticket in case I get side-tracked.

John5152 · 2021-08-06T12:01:44.000Z

Personally I hate “red tape”. Sometimes for a really simple issue it takes longer to create the ticket than it did to fix it!

If you only want users to raise issues through tickets why do you even have a helpline? Talk them through it as you create the ticket so they know how they can do it themselves in future (if they want to) and they confirm what the problem is, if the fix is beyond your capabilities, explain to them that you’re a “junior” and tell them that someone more senior will pick up the ticket as soon as they’re available

eric7615 · 2021-08-06T12:06:11.000Z

Are you able to create the tickets? If so then I would go like this. I don’t have anyone available at the moment let me make the ticket request for you and get it in the queue so we can get you help as soon as possible.

deanmoncaster · 2021-08-06T12:31:04.000Z

Robert5205:

Patrick.D:

Robert5205:

So you say, “The person you need to speak to is on another call right this second. Let me get some details of the problem from you so when he finishes I can pass it on to him. That will help him solve your problem more quickly.”

I agree with Robert on this one.

Someone calls and you ask them to raise a ticket that is a problem.

They are calling because it is urgent to them. You tell them, “Okay, let me get a ticket created for you. Can you please explain what it is that is wrong? What are you seeing? Are there any error messages?” once they have explained the problem to you they will be satisfied that someone is looking into it. So you can then say “Thanks, I will just need to speak to my colleague about this. I will get them to call you back.”

This is an example of outstanding service to a co-worker. It’s not “us” versus “them.” It’s “we.”

We versus who?!?!!!

spiceuser-6x803 · 2021-08-06T12:37:00.000Z

After working in quite a few places, I can say that I have had the most success with ticketing systems that are NOT deployed to the end user. It was said here earlier by a number of individuals…end users don’t know what questions to ask, what details to provide, and can not accurately diagnose the problem (although they think they are great at all 3).

The best success we have had is when IT creates the ticket for the end user after first contact through email or a support line call. We know what questions to ask and can reassure the end user that the next available technician will get right on it.

In all the places I’ve worked, not a single time did we ask the user to create a ticket if they called in. In that case (even when we DID have an end-user facing ticketing system), we created the ticket on their behalf.

A good ticketing system should absolutely be used to track repetitive issues, but if the proper information, troubleshooting steps, and resolutions are entered a ticketing system can be an incredible knowledge base as well. Like anything else, though…garbage in, garbage out.

Someone also mentioned the occurrence when a user stops by and demands immediate assistance. Again, the first thing to do is to create the ticket on behalf of the user. Even if there isn’t anyone to address the issue immediately, at least the user has a place in queue and the problem will be addressed as soon as someone is available.

scotwooldridge8596 · 2021-08-06T12:44:22.000Z

For the most part, I’m a one person team. When my users call me directly rather than using the helpdesk, I’m generally in the middle of working on something else. I let them know that I’m right in the middle of helping another user or whatever and if they will send me a ticket, I’ll get to their issues as soon as possible. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 users and most understand and comply with out issue. I have had to ask a couple here or there if they felt their issue was more important than this other person. If so, I can tell the other person I’ll have to get back to their down system because this so and so needs to print something right this very minute. I say this all very politely and it normally has the desired affect.

alexanderp2 · 2021-08-06T12:53:51.000Z

First you have to separate urgency calls from laziness calls.

When someone calls me and it is somewhat urgent i am absolutely willing to accept the call, take notes and create the ticket myself, even AFTER i solved the problem (urgent, you remember?).

BUT

When people call in because they are too lazy to create a ticket or to try how far buddy bonus reaches i always decline.
It has nothing to do with us vs them. It’s a efficiency thing.

When i have a good written ticket i only need one call back to solve it. I have all information i need forehand and i can prepare whatever is needed without a person sitting in his chair waiting for me preparing the solution.
In this moment 2 peoples worforce is blocked. Not because there is a technical problem, only because someone want me to do my job in a stressed and observed way. Pressure (missing vocab, hope u got the point.)

If this is one of those “medium urgent” tickets, the coworker could do other daily tasks while i read the ticket, understand the core problem and prepare the solution.
As most of you know, users do not always see the real problem when they submit tickets or are not able to describe what is wrong or needed in an efficient way. Thats ok, they are not that tech savy as we are. They only need to work with it, not make it work. Im fine with that.

We as IT serve our coworkers with working hardware and a flawless digital workflow. But we are responsible for much more than one user per admin. ratio may be 1:250 here. (1 Main dept serving 6 companys + main dept ofc)
So we have to hand over a bit of responsibility to the coworkers.

I don’t see a problem and i never had any complaint about my procedure here.

People understand that sh*t piles up on our desks and we have to priorise with another point of view as theirs. They have a problem with their excel export from ERP system, i have a ticket regarding VMware host ressources running extremly low or data corruption because of a bricked filesystem.

Thats why we also have a “urgency” field in our tickets.
Users can enter how urgend the problem seems to them. We receive the ticket, read it and set our IT priority level to the ticket, often 1-3 lvl lower than user choosen level.

Dark side note: Sometimes i “forget” doing tasks i received via phone. When we meet next and they ask me about i am shocked i missed that but the workload is high and after the problem had been told to me i didnt had a hand free for taking a note because whatever… they can relate to that, know that feeling and the shame to admit this one task had been “lost”. This helps letting them submit tickets next time.

I only do this with small stuff that dont give a halt to a coworkers workflow…im no asshole only a little devil sometimes.