Just the Facts, not the Fluff: Dealing with Re-opened Tickets
Welcome Autotask Warriors! Just by being here, you are part of our community of fellow MSP Owners, Service Coordinators, and Service Managers. Our Warrior and Gladiator Communities are safe places to work on your business and learn and discuss how to boost profits, improve Service Delivery, and create that Zen-like working environment you have always craved. So, gear up and let’s go!
Note: Because I like to keep things interesting for our readers, I’m trying something new this week. Since many of you are DIY Autotaskers, you just need the structure explained … and you’re good to go. The rest likely need to go through our Foundational Improvement program to get the most of this stuff, anyway.
So, here is “just the facts, ma’am” - without all the fluff. Drop me a line at info@agmspcoaching.com and let me know if you love or hate this new format.
Dealing with those annoying re-opened tickets
Today, we’re talking about those pesky, annoying re-opened tickets. We so wish we could just keep them from re-opening, ignore any comments, and go about our day. But we all know that every Client has at least one User that won’t use your Client Portal, a new email to your Support Address...or even the phone.
The only way they can be bothered to put in a ticket is to reply back to that closed Autotask email from four months ago. And that user is often one who is pretty vocal to their management when they don’t get timely responses. So much for being able to ignore that closed ticket.
When tickets come back from the dead...
Another type of re-opened ticket is when the issue has been fixed and then legitimately comes back. Or at least the user thinks it came back. If not managed properly, these can rapidly get out of hand, mess up your carefully orchestrated service delivery, and skew your reporting.
And if your Client Response to a Completed Ticket is not set up correctly, even the At-a-Boys will reopen tickets unnecessarily.
True, there will always be a certain percentage of re-opened tickets. Being seasoned MSP professionals, of course you’ve got a process for handling these, right?
No? Good thing we are here.
Do you have an SOP on when/how a ticket can be re-opened?
If not, you need one. There should be an SOP timeline of when a ticket can be re-opened. MSPs all work a little different, of course, but Coach Carol says a good starting place is like her last MSP:
“At the MSP I worked for, we would set the timeline to a week. After that it was a new issue. This will keep the data fresh and valuable.” She also says, “A ticket should only be re-opened if it is the same issue.”
Thus, the re-opens created by Suzy User replying to the ancient ticket email can just be turned into new tickets, so those are easy (if annoying). For those you need to create a UDF and a WFR. This is pretty straightforward: Create a UDF called “Customer Responded to Closed” of field type “List,” a Display Value of No with a Stored Value of No and a Display Value of Yes with a Stored Value of Yes.
Create a WFR for capturing Customer Responses without re-opening with an event category of Activity/Accessories” triggered by a note added by external contact, with the condition that the Status equals complete. This will update the UDF: Customer Responded you created to yes.
Now you can create a widget on your Service Coordinator’s dashboard to alert when a Client responds to a closed ticket. And, they can create the new ticket for the user so nothing gets missed.
Managing re-opened tickets
For those re-opened tickets you are going to have to manage them and report on them. You can also do this with a User Defined Field and a Workflow rule. Again, it’s pretty straightforward:
#1) Create a UDF called “Re-Opened” of field type “List,” a Display Value of No with a Stored Value of No and a Display Value of Yes with a Stored Value of Yes.
#2) Create a True Re-Open Count UDF that triggers when a ticket is changed from Completed, that will change the Re-Opened UDF to Yes. This triggers when “Edited by” Anyone, Status is changed from “Complete” and will Update the “UDF Re-opened” to Yes.
So, you have the User Defined Field created and the workflow rule to mark them. Now, what do you need to do? How are you going to use the information from this UDF?
Create a Live Report (& get help if you need it)
There are a couple of ways to go about this: One is a Live Report. This shouldn’t be too hard for you to create, but if you run into a roadblock, Advanced Global has the best Live Report writers in the World … just sayin.
And we’d be happy to discuss our rates (discounts for Gladiator Community members!). We setup the LiveReports for the re-open to run every month. You do not have to wait, though. You can run this any time by going to your LiveReports.
If even faster is what you need, and you want to keep an eye on things between scheduled Live Reports, you can do a ticket search. Note, with our Live Report the data is all laid out for you, and with a ticket search you have to do your own sorting.
We want to look at who had a re-open, and why. Go to your ticket search and set up these filters:
The date range in question – usually the date of the re-open report.
Filter by the UDF of Re-Opened.
Now search.
Note that there is an expectation that 1% of the ticket count can/will be re-opened. This is industry standard, so we only worry if the totals exceed that.
Great info, but what do you do with it?
Now you want to use the information, but don’t know where to start. You can narrow this down by picking the resource on the ticket. Things you need to look for:
Is it the same resource on the ticket?
What about the issue, is it a repeating one?
What about the client, is it the same one over and over?
Once you get this narrowed down, then it is time for the next step.
When it is a resource that is constantly having tickets re-opened: Check on them to see how they are doing. Find out what might be happening, that the tickets keep re-opening. Most of the time, you will find out it is a simple problem of missing a step. You could even discover a missing piece of training.
When it is the same issue over and over: This can also be due to training. Have a senior technician look and see what is happening or not happening for these tickets to keep coming back. Is this a new product? Then get that SOP updated. A Lunch & Learn for the technicians is a great way to get everyone the training.
When it’s the Client: Someone needs to reach out to the Client and find out why they do not believe the ticket is not resolved. Again, training can be the solution to this too. The Client could be thinking a certain thing is to be done, but the technicians never seem to do it. We all think that everyone thinks the way we do, but that’s just not true. Clear the lines of communication with your clients.
In Summary
More often than not, when looking into the re-opening of a ticket it is more to do with a missing step. In creating an SOP and a checklist for these things, MSPs will slowly remove most of them. As I said at the beginning, we expect a certain percentage to be re-opened.
When you have less tickets being re-opened, you will have happier clients. They will feel that you are listening to them and correcting things - and will be much more willing to work with you. And that’s a win-win for everyone!
Hopefully, you were able to follow along and get everything setup. If not, please reach out. We’d love to talk to you.
Not quite ready for a paid engagement (we do have free consultations)? Join our Gladiator’s Community where you can have access to me, my Coaches, and your peers as well as special perks, discounts, and Live Report help.
You may think it’s only January, but the year is going to fly by. If you want to improve your business and grow your profits, you need to step back and look at the little things - or at least have someone’s eye on it.
Talk to you soon.
Steve and Co