Creating Tickets: Best Practices

Set the Category FIRST

When creating a ticket or starting work on a new ticket which arrived via email, the first thing to do is to choose the category. Everything flows from the category. If you choose the correct category, you will be presented with the correct ticket template options. If you don't see the ticket template option you need, then most likely you are not choosing the correct category. 

It is appropriate and desirable to change the category if the scope of the ticket changes. For example, a ticket that appears to be about an Outlook issue (category: User Issue internal (RMM cust)) turns out to be a MS 365 issue (category: Cloud Support - Current Users). 

If you are creating a ticket in AT, choose the category before you do anything else, including choosing the account!                          

For more help on choosing a category, see Ticket Categories and How to Use Them. 

Use the Description Field to Provide Context 

It is critical and mandatory to add detail in the description such as the purpose of the ticket, the specific issue or request that was raised, and any pertinent background information. 

The ticket description can be updated when we get more accurate info than what the user initially provided. If the original description is relevant, leave it, but either above it or below it, add context.

For example, “EDIT: contact called the next day to tell us that other users were having the same problem…“

 

Provide a Searchable and Clarifying Ticket Title 

2. When a customer emails in a ticket, change the title of the ticket  to be useful and descriptive. Sometimes customers send in tickets with nothing but “help!“ In the subject line. Obviously this is not very useful when searching through old tickets looking for something specific. 

Add Configuration Items to the Ticket

Feel free to add more than one. This will help us find information relevant to that particular configuration item in the future. For managed services customers, this is particularly critical.  

Tip for adding the correct configuration item to a ticket: Once you add a contact to a ticket, you can click the icon next to the config item field and it will let you choose from the config items associated with that contact.

One Issue Per Ticket

When a customer sending in a ticket containing several issues that are clearly not connected, please create a separate ticket for each set of related issues. E.g., one ticket for DropBox issues, one for email issues, etc. It’s impossible to track so many disparate issues through one ticket.

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Alternatively, the office admin may find it appropriate to use an AT project and assign each issue to a project task. 

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