Are you struggling to type via a mountain of buyer help tickets? Think about looking for all of the billing inquiries you acquired yesterday — with none clear strategy to categorize them. It will be like searching for a pile of needles inside a much bigger pile of needles.
That is the place ticket tagging in your e mail ticketing system is available in. With tags, you’ll be able to add key phrases to your tickets, making them simply searchable and filterable. Wish to see all of the billing points from the previous week? A fast search with the “billing” tag may do the trick.
Should you’re not tagging tickets but and also you’re unsure how you can begin, you’ve come to the appropriate place. This information will clarify what ticket tagging is, why it is vital, and how one can implement a ticket tagging system to streamline your help operations.
What’s ticket tagging?
Ticket tagging may be very easy: It’s assigning labels or “tags” to buyer conversations in your assist desk based mostly on their content material, context, or kind. These tags assist categorize and arrange tickets, making it simpler to handle and analyze buyer interactions. That is notably helpful when utilizing a shared inbox (like Assist Scout’s), since brokers are rapidly capable of pinpoint the important thing data on tickets that will already be in progress.
As soon as an agent has learn via a ticket, they’ll manually apply essentially the most related tag(s) and proceed to resolve the ticket or escalate as essential. It’s not essentially the most environment friendly — or dependable — method, however for smaller operations, it would suffice.
Alternatively, you’ll be able to make use of automated ticket tagging to hurry issues up a bit. In Assist Scout, you do that via utilizing automated workflows to set circumstances and set off actions utilizing “if/then” statements.
As an illustration, if a buyer responds with a nasty (or within the case of Assist Scout, ‘not good’) satisfaction score and so they embrace a remark, you may arrange a workflow that provides a negative-comments (or ‘not-good-comments’) tag.
This tag would make it simpler to maintain monitor of these conversations so that you could assign them to a supervisor or senior workforce member to observe up on.
Why are tags vital?
Tags play an important function in buyer help by:
Bettering group: Tags assist categorize tickets, making it simpler to search out and prioritize them. So when you have a bug that’s inflicting widespread disruption or an ongoing situation with sure fee choices failing, you’ll be able to simply discover the entire associated tickets.
Enhancing reporting: With tags, you’ll be able to generate detailed experiences to grasp traits, establish widespread points, and monitor workforce efficiency. Wish to know what number of tickets an agent touched final week that had been associated to onboarding matters? Tagging tickets appropriately makes that a lot simpler.
Streamlining workflows: Tags can set off particular actions or workflows, guaranteeing tickets are dealt with effectively. Possibly Jane is supposed to deal with all refund requests. Workflows can assign all tickets tagged with “refund” on to her for extra environment friendly dealing with.
Easy methods to get began: Finest practices for making a ticket tagging system
Creating an efficient ticket tagging system requires some forethought. Listed below are some greatest practices that can assist you get began.
Outline clear tag classes (however don’t get too particular)
Having classes permits you to segregate tickets based mostly on their matters. However what number of various kinds of matters might be lined by an arbitrary tag like “billing situation”?
Off the highest of my head, it may embrace:
The billing system was down.
The client’s card is expired.
The client’s financial institution rejected the fee try.
These are three distinct points in their very own proper. If you realize that your fee processor had some downtime, you could possibly slender your tickets down by trying to find “billing situation,” nevertheless it’s nonetheless going to be a guide course of to establish the shoppers affected by the outage.
Alternatively, “billing situation – fee processor down – server downtime – performing updates” is getting just a little too particular and is (hopefully) solely ever going for use as soon as. After that one event, it’s simply litter in your tag record.
“Cost processor failure” is a pleasant compromise. It’s particular sufficient that you would be able to inform instantly what the ticket is expounded to with out being so granular that it may solely ever apply to that one outage that occurred in March 2019.
Begin by arising with some basic classes — billing is an efficient begin — that break it down additional into classes you realize can be used usually. These may be issues like:
Prepare your workforce
Educate your help workforce on the significance of tagging and how you can apply tags accurately. Some tickets may require multiple tag (corresponding to “change fee particulars” with a “function request – paypal” tacked on on the finish), however utilizing too many at a time negates the aim of them.
Ensure you have clear standards in place for every tag so your brokers know precisely what to decide on every time. Tags might also change over the course of the ticket — what began as a generic “product situation” could also be later recognized as a “bug” — so your brokers ought to know when it’s acceptable to make adjustments.
Define the advantages your workforce will get from utilizing the system. They could resist at first (extra work!?), however the positives far outweigh the negatives. For instance: If an agent is investigating a possible bug, they’ll discover monitoring down comparable tickets a lot simpler if earlier tickets have been categorized successfully.
Frequently evaluation tags
Evaluation and replace your tags to maintain them related and helpful. Do not forget that fee processor outage again in March 2019? It was very helpful to have a selected tag for it on the time so you could possibly monitor what number of tickets had been associated to the outage. In July 2024, making use of this tag to new tickets is as helpful as a teapot constructed from chocolate.
It’s not possible to check each single tag you’ll want from the beginning — particularly if your organization often launches new options. Likewise, it’s too straightforward to go mad and have tags for each eventuality, with most by no means getting used.
In case you have any area of interest tags which might be solely used perhaps a few times a 12 months, think about rolling them right into a extra generic “different” or “miscellaneous” class. Tags which have by no means been used? Chuck them — you’ll be able to all the time create them once more if they’re wanted.
Frequent ticket tagging use instances
Ticket tags might be extremely versatile. Listed below are just a few widespread examples — confronted by help groups throughout all industries — displaying how they can be utilized successfully.
Precedence tagging
Create a tag like “pressing” or “excessive precedence” to spotlight tickets that want speedy consideration.
Utilizing these together with workflows will make sure that these tickets will all the time be seen rapidly. You may phase out your pressing tickets right into a separate view that your workforce lead screens, otherwise you may arrange a workflow that sends a message to your help workforce’s Slack channel every time an pressing ticket is available in.
Subject-based tagging
Tags corresponding to “fee processor failure” or “change fee particulars” will help categorize tickets based mostly on the character of the inquiry. Should you discover a sudden inflow of tickets tagged as “fee failed – examine,” you could have a bug or an outage in your arms.
Figuring out it early permits your engineers to get on it earlier than it impacts too many individuals!
In the same vein, tagging conversations based mostly on the broad matter they’re associated to may also aid you establish the areas your prospects are having essentially the most bother in (in addition to the areas your help workforce is spending essentially the most time on). You too can use customized fields to assist with this. Tags are extra versatile, which might have advantages, however customized fields provide you with extra structured information to research in a while.
Buyer segmentation
Buyer segmentation tags assist categorize tickets based mostly on the kind of buyer, enabling tailor-made help.
As an illustration, tagging a ticket with “VIP” may then kick off a workflow to route your VIP prospects to the highest of the queue or to a senior help agent, guaranteeing swift and high-quality help. Tagging a ticket from a free trial person with “trial” can point out on your workforce a must be proactive about offering extra steering to assist them get began together with your product effectively.
Overcoming challenges: When ticket tagging goes improper
As I’ve already touched on just a few occasions, whereas ticket tagging is useful, it might go improper if not carried out correctly.
Frequent pitfalls embrace:
Inconsistent tagging: Completely different workforce members use diverse tags for a similar situation.
Misspelled tags: Guide tagging can result in errors and inconsistencies.
Tag overload: Too many tags could make the system cumbersome and complicated.
Luckily, every of those challenges might be solved.
Use tagging pointers
Present clear pointers to your workforce on how you can tag tickets. Should you observe the steering above and actually nail your core tag classes, there shouldn’t be a lot confusion on the subject of selecting the perfect match.
Keep in mind that an agent’s notion of a difficulty is a associated pitfall to this. As an illustration, a buyer may e mail you with a difficulty they’re having together with your product. One agent might even see this as a possible “bug,” whereas others might even see it as a buyer merely needing steering (“buyer how-to”). Remember to classify what kind of points fall beneath every class, and element the events the place tagging might change all through the course of a ticket.
Moreover, outline a transparent course of for including tags. Chances are you’ll need to maintain this privilege to your self or a chosen few folks to keep up consistency and keep away from duplication. You don’t need litter like:
Placing easy pointers in place can scale back the noise attributable to misspelled ticket tags and make discovering the proper tags far simpler.
Implement tag automation
Utilizing automated workflows, and even investing in specialised software program to assist automate tagging, will help a ton. Computerized ticket tagging will scale back confusion, on condition that the apps observe clearly outlined logic and reasoning to assign essentially the most acceptable labels.
They’re additionally a lot faster than an agent doing it manually, dashing up your CX significantly.
Common audits
Conduct common audits to scrub up and streamline your tags.
As talked about above, it’s straightforward to build up lots of tags which might be both hardly ever used, by no means used, or just aren’t wanted anymore. Frequently evaluation your record (we propose quarterly) and take away something that’s surplus to necessities.
Ticket tagging is a vital piece of the puzzle
A wise ticket tagging method makes your workforce extra environment friendly and higher organized, helps automate components of your help course of, and offers you higher insights into why your prospects are reaching out and how one can greatest meet their wants.
Ticket tagging alone received’t remedy your prospects’ issues, nevertheless it’s a key a part of constructing a buyer help technique that helps your workforce ship nice customer support.