Brave support service against monstrous tickets

Foreword

Customer service can be like a nightmare.
Terrible, like ghosts in the night, tickets fly around waiting for the right moment to strike at the very heart of your support team. Some suck your time and energy. Others are dangerous with their poisonous bite: it festers, threatening to infect your team.

Everyone who has chosen the honorable path of customer service, are faced with supernatural tickets. Do not be afraid! Arm yourself against these gloomy forces and you can always defeat them.

This article contains stories about most of the diabolical tickets that our team met. We hope that getting to know them and our secret weapon will help you prepare for the battle face to face with any equally monstrous ticket. After that, you can easily earn the coveted “Yes, I am satisfied!” from the ticket author.

Zombie Ticket

Profile of the Zombie Ticket

What to fear:
Strong desire to eat the brain.
Strength:
Never gets tired.
Disadvantages:
Having difficulty reading documentation (generally hates reading).

Agent Ben's profile

Favorite weapon:
Mobile phone.
Strength:
Patient enough to deal with an immortal horde.

Symptoms
Some tickets simply will never die.

Six months ago, I worked on the night shift when a letter came from a new client. I thought this was a fairly simple question: open-close. She just wanted to know a little about triggers. Quite simple. I gave her a short explanation and sent a link to the corresponding article on the forum. She did not keep herself waiting and reopened a similar ticket, this time with a question about macros. No problem! Yes, a little unusual, but a simple matter. I sent her a similar answer and a link to another useful forum article.

After some time, I received a notification that this ticket was reopened. She asked me to check if she correctly configured the macros and triggers ... Hmm, very strange. Then I started to get a little nervous. Then she wanted to learn how to insert a link to a photo of her cat in a macro - after that I really became scared. The last blow was when she asked if I liked her cat. Horror. An absolute nightmare! My head was spinning. Maybe it comes to the point that she will consult with me in choosing a husband? When, finally, my answer will be complete enough to close this ticket for sure?

The diagnosis A
satisfactory answer, as it turned out, will never be: it was a Ticket zombie.

Zombie tickets, or immortal tickets, refuse to die at all. No matter how well you answered the question, the zombie rises from the grave again and again.

Treatment
The main difference between Zombie Tickets and ordinary tickets is that it is impossible to cope with them with just an answer, and it does not matter how accurate it is.

There is only one way to kill him - a shot in the head. And that means you need to transfer to the phone. Email, by its nature, contributes to the active “revival” of zombies. Phone calls, fortunately, tend to end and are necessary to say goodbye to the ticket once and for all.

I called, answered all her questions, clarified whether everything is in order, and whether the request can be considered closed. It took only five minutes.

Conclusion
In our crazy life, Zombie tickets have become a reality. Use the following techniques and you will be sure that they do not threaten to destroy the walls of your company and eat everyone’s brain:

-Place instructions and documentation on the information panel so that new users can always understand your products and services
-Useful FAQs and forums where customers can find the information yourself
-install the widget "related topics"
-provide proactive support

Ticket Hydra

Ticket Hydra Profile

What to fear:
One client, multiple tickets.
Strength:
Bad breath, very difficult to kill.
Weakness:
Hydra is most vulnerable in youth, so find it and kill it as soon as possible.

Agent Hercules profile

Favorite weapon:
Golden fusion sword.
Strength:
Sexual muscles, always on the lookout for potentially problematic tickets.

Symptoms
I was on the side of the mountain, from where only a view of the darkness and mysterious swamps appeared. I answered tickets, occasionally dropping my fingers into my beautiful hair. And suddenly I saw a ticket from a potential client: she asked if it would be interesting for us to publish one of her posts on our blog. There are usually no problems with such requests, we get them all the time. I assigned him to marketing and was sure that the work was done.

Imagine my surprise when I found that the message returned multiplied: I received one from the requester and three more from the marketing department. The client received three answers to the same question from three different people and wanted to know what to do now.

All three were puzzled: how could this happen? Fortunately, my beautiful and notorious power resisted such horrors before, and I already knew which beast we were dealing with.

Diagnosis
In our hands was a hydra. For a long time considered a myth, the hydra raised its ugly head and returned with revenge. With this monster, the answer to one ticket leads to the creation of two more. The client thinks that he will get a quick response if he sends three tickets at once with one question through three different channels:

1. Email:

Can I post my post on your blog?

2. Twitter:

How do I post my blog post?

3. Support Portal:

I would like to publish my post on your blog. Here is the link to the post.

Naturally, the following happens: one receives a support service, the other receives a PR director, and the third receives a marketing manager.

Treatment
In the short term, it is best to give each employee of your company access to requests so that everyone is aware of what is happening and can choose who will respond. I would suggest you choose the person with the most beautiful biceps. After that, you need to combine all three tickets into one. If necessary, you can contact the client by phone, apologize for the confusion and assure that her question will be answered. In that case, it was "thank you, but no, thank you."

Conclusion
In the long run, consider giving the customer only one contact address or phone number. Contacts from all departments on your site can provoke hydra. If this method does not suit you, just be careful. Keep track of the number of tickets from one initiator, so that he does not send a bunch of identical ones. If you did send it, combine them. Or even so: chop off their heads and burn wounds with silver. It works equally successfully.

Ticket Poseidon

Ticket-Poseidon profile

What to fear:
Tidal wave (understand when you see).
Strength:
Controls 75% of the earth’s surface. In addition - sharks.
Weakness:
Climate change, oil spills, spring break.

Agent Odyssey profile

Favorite weapon:
Huge shield and sharp tongue.
Strength:
The ability to think strategically under the influx of tickets.

Symptoms
Stick to the rule: never bring the wrath of Poseidon. This guy has no sense of humor. Once I mentioned that the Pacific Ocean is “not such a big deal”, and the very next day we were flooded with tickets, calls, tweets, Facebook posts and chat rooms. They all concerned one thing: a hitherto unprecedented mistake. Apparently, the Pacific has many friends.

The diagnosis
It was nothing less than a flood: a stormy stream of client calls. They all came at the same time and on the same topic. There could be only one explanation - Poseidon's revenge. I said: this guy has no sense of humor.

Treatment
The first thing to do is to emerge from the water. Let the social media managers respond on all fronts: “We know about the problem and are doing everything to fix it.” At the same time, respond to all appeals the same way and forward them to the appropriate department. This will give you enough time to efficiently resolve the issue. If an extra minute appears, eat a slice of cheese.

Conclusion
The best thing you can do is build a lifeboat. Once you find out about a problem that could flood your contact center, add it to your familiar crash pattern.

Vampire ticket

Profile of Vampire Ticket Worry

:
Vitamin D Deficiency.
Strength:
Night Vision.
Weakness:
The first rays of the sun.

Agent Van Helsing profile

Favorite weapon:
Trigger Wood Stake.
Strength:
Always knows what time it is.

Symptoms
Agent Diary of Van Helsing, May 3, Pennsylvania

It started one morning, right after dawn. We received a negative comment from a client from a distant land who was still waiting for an answer to his question. The next morning, with the first rays of the sun, an unsatisfactory assessment appeared from a client from the other side of the world, to whose question they answered, although not in time. This went on for two weeks: frustrated customers and poor grades, always the first thing in the morning and always from distant lands.

Diagnosis
Finally, our wise mentor spoke up. “You are prepared perfectly,” he said. “We are dealing with nothing more than vampire tickets.”

He began to tell us that vampire tickets scour the night, much later than the working day ends, and they come into our sight only the next morning. Clients from different time zones send us questions, and they are forced to wait for the beginning of our working day to get an answer.

Treatment
Vampire tickets need to be dealt with right away, otherwise they can get out of control.

Solve them in priority. Set up automatic reminders for employees to respond as soon as human capabilities allow.

Conclusion
Ultimately, you will want to end the vampire tickets once and for all. If they hate sunlight, use the Follow the Sun model - provide support 24/7 whenever possible. The healing rays of the sun will prevent the ticket from becoming a vampire. If this is not possible, create an automatic trigger: inform customers that they have contacted outside of business hours and will certainly receive an answer as quickly as possible.

Ticket Mummy

Profile of the Ticket-mummy

What to fear:
Incredibly outdated queries.
Strength:
May cast ancient spells.
Weakness:
Ball Macro.

Agent Alex's profile

Favorite weapon:
Feather: Stronger than a sword and ideal for communicating with clients.
Strength:
Indifferent to meaningless questions.

Symptoms
Man, have you ever received a ticket covered in dust and at the same time felt like you were cursed? They say that if you have been working in support for a long time, in the end you will come across such a complicated ticket that it seems as if you are deciphering hieroglyphs. The client will ask you about a function that you have never heard of, about an unfamiliar tariff, about people who no longer work here, or will suggest promoting your company, the need for which has long sunk into oblivion.

Diagnosis
I must admit, a terrible situation. However, it may very well happen: Tickets-mummies! These tickets will be sent by those who became a client in the first days of your company long before you started working there. It is not uncommon that they remember and ask about plans, features or promotions that have not existed for a long time.

Treatment
You can assign a ticket to your grandfather, but better create request macros that mention outdated things. An automatic response will help to remove the symptoms, but only communication will cure the mummy.

Conclusion
If you find that you are getting too many Mummy Tickets, this is a sign that it is time for you to establish communication with customers. Newsletters, blogs, regular updates on social networks - all this will ensure that even the oldest customers are aware of changes, for example, of the tariff plan.

Werewolf ticket

Profile of a Werewolf Ticket

What to fear:
Fangs that appear from nowhere, hair on the back.
Strength:
Insatiable thirst for blood.
Weakness: The
kindness of young beautiful girls.

Agent Belle's profile

Favorite weapon:
Silver bullets. In addition, the advice of a local shaman.
Strength:
Fast mind and solid character.

Symptoms
The client wrote about the error. He was friendly and cordial, like a good old neighbor. We tried to reproduce the bug, but could not. When we told him about this, he became embittered. He began to bark terribly, growl and howl menacingly at the moon. Any attempt to solve this problem or mitigate his anger seemed to only inflame his rage more and more. I looked out the window and noticed that today is the full moon ...

Diagnosis
When a client attacks, there is only one explanation: Ticket-werewolf.

Sweet and friendly - at one point he turns into a screeching madman. There seems to be no way to reassure him or talk in such a disgusting state.

Treatment
In this case, take a larger gun: call the shaman so that he helps to relax him and cure his bloodthirst. A senior manager or director is suitable, they are well trained in the art of taming a wild beast. It should be noted that often clients express their dissatisfaction to the public. If a negative post or tweet appears, your balanced bullet should be a balanced response. Answer where the customer posted the complaint and try to solve the problem publicly. Reassure customers that your company is doing everything to help. It is very important not to let him bite the rest and create new werewolves.

Conclusion
You cannot defeat them all. We could not, in particular, cope with this werewolf. It happens. We tried our best, but he is still out there somewhere. Resign yourself to the fact that some situations may get out of hand. Especially with werewolves. The main thing is to learn, improve and move on. And do not let him bite yourself, otherwise you too will turn into a werewolf.

Epilogue

Perhaps customer service lands seem a little intimidating. Even the best support team comes across tickets that don't seem to fit into the normal workflow. Stop being scared! Assign this battle to the best agents, gain experience and do everything possible to prepare for even more difficult tickets. Sometimes they come back ...