Halff Associates, Inc

*The below instructions are the overarching guidelines concerning ticket management. If you receive instructions that are more particular to the situation from Solution article, a communication from an authority of the ticket subject matter or from someone you report to, follow those more specific instructions and document in the ticket your reason for the departure from what is written below. Example: "Willis approved installation of this software." will explain why you might not have followed the standard software vetting process. "Assigning to CADD team per current temporary instructions." will show why you didn't spend much time on a CADD related issue.

Terminology:

See - FreshService Glossary

Etiquette:

All written documentation and communication should be workplace appropriate. The Culture at Halff is relaxed, and not corporate, so some level of familiarity is allowed but in everything we write, we need to be okay with that being possibly seen by the requestor, their manager, the CEO and even Human Resources.

Responsibility:

All tickets that aren't automated somewhere else, will fall into the RAW group. Tier 1, Support Group, is responsible for these tickets.

The Assigned Agent of any ticket is ultimately responsible for bringing the ticket to a timely resolution. The Assigned Agent should use all of the tools at his or her disposal to achieve this.

Documentation:

Rule of thumb: If it's not documented, it didn't happen.

Tickets should contain all necessary information:

• Clarify the request if not clear to begin with.
• List all actions taken to attempt to resolve the request
• List any Solutions or websites that were or might be useful towards resolving.
• Resolution should be concise yet repeatable for someone down the road.
  • If Resolution is already detailed in the Solutions section, a link to that Solution article will suffice.

Preferred Order of Communication:

When possible, please try to respond to tickets in the following order:

1. In person
2. Phone/Teams call
3. Teams message
4. Email

While this is the preferred order, every situation is unique and context is key. Examples:

• If we're in a Pandemic, you'll want to limit the In person option
• If they show "Do Not Disturb", or "In a Meeting" on Teams, perhaps skip to Email
  • Note in the ticket why you went to email: "I saw you were in a meeting..." or "I tried you and got voicemail..."
• Routine requests may not need more than a single email saying you've completed it. In this instance, a phone call might be inappropriate.
• Be mindful of what time it is where your requester is. Try not to call them before or after their scheduled shift.

Closing a Ticket:

In FreshService there is "Resolve" and "Close". For now, we will only be using the "Close" option. For reporting purposes, please do not use "Resolve"

When Closing a ticket, this means that you are confident you have provided a solution to the problem and not just a band-aid. For many issues, it may be a singular instance where a reboot or uninstall/reinstall seems to resolve the issue. However once it becomes known that the issue reoccurs after this process, those prior steps are no longer a valid solution.

Tasks:

Tasks should be simple items that can be "Checked" when completed. Since there is currently no room for ongoing communication via a Task, these should be routine and easily understood by the agent you are assigning them to.

When you are assigned a task, complete it within the timeframe provided. If you feel the timeline impractical, discuss with the agent who assigned you the task ASAP.

Problem Tickets:

A Problem is the cause of one or more incidents. Once a problem has been documented, all the relevant details need to be added for the root cause analysis to be effective. Then a workaround or a permanent solution needs to be determined to solve the problem.

If you are not able to raise a Problem Ticket, request that someone who can do so via Teams Support or Infrastructure Channels. Once a Problem Ticket is created, all future tickets that come in related to this should be associated.

Be sure to read all tickets thoroughly as to avoid associated a ticket that is unrelated to the Problem ticket's root issue.

Relinquishing a Ticket as the Assigned Agent:

Once you determine an issue to be beyond your ability or scope of responsibility, you should assign the ticket to the most appropriate group. To determine which group this is, you can use the Solution article and/or your experience. 

When you relinquish a ticket, it should have all of the relevant data regarding what you already have done to attempt to resolve the issue. Otherwise the next Agent may waste time and also frustrate the user by having them do the same task over again. If this occurs, your ticket may be reviewed by Management.

Do not assign tickets to other queues without either exhausting your own tools, experience and expertise or documenting the reason for not doing those things. Some Applications, processes and requests are intentionally beyond the scope of Help Desk and if there isn't documentation in a Solution Article to that effect, you should write one up as best you can and submit it to kbase@Halff.FreshService.com . Document in the ticket that you've taken that last step.

Collaboration:

This is a group effort. If you see something that could be done better, bring it up in the weekly meeting. FreshService should be leveraged as much as possible so Agents can maximize productivity and in turn be able to spend less time on putting out fires and more time on improving the lives and community of our fellow coworkers here at Halff Associates Inc. by being proactive and providing solutions to problems our colleagues may not have even known to ask about.