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Ticket Monsters of Customer Service
Ticket Monsters of Customer Service
All who have chosen the honorable path of
customer service have encountered these tickets
Zombie Tickets
Zombie tickets refuse to die. No matter how perfectly the question
is answered, the ticket justkeeps getting back up for more.
Zombie tickets can’t be solved with a simple answer. Eliminate the
back-and-forth dynamic of email with a phone call and solve a ticket
for good. When all questions are answered, ask to close the ticket.
STEPS TO ELIMINATE ZOMBIE TICKETS
1
2
3
4
Include documentation and training on the dashboard so new customers can get a handle on products and services
Foster healthy FAQs and forums so customers can find answers on their own
Provide a “Related Topics” widget
Provide proactive support for better feature adoption
Hydra Tickets
With Hydra tickets, answering one results in the creation of two more.
Customers sometimes think they’ll get a faster response if they send three tickets at once, all asking the same
question, via three different channels:
1
2
3
Email: “Am I allowed to post my blog entry on your site?”
Twitter: “What does it take to publish my blogpost on your site?”
Support portal: “I am interested in publishingmy blog on your site. Here is the link to the post.”
What happens? One ticket gets assigned to support, one to the Director of Content, and one to
a Community Manager.
First, send each person involved an email to get them on the same page
and aware of what’s happening. Then choose one person to respond.
Next, merge all three tickets into one and then respond to the
requester. Apologize for any confusion, and make sure all
questions are answered.
Finally, vigilance is the best way to prevent Hydra tickets. Keep an eye on a
requestor’s open tickets and make sure several with the same info haven’t
been submitted. If so, merge them.
Vampire Tickets
Vampire tickets arrive after business hours and are discovered the next morning. Customers from different
time zones who submit questions are forced to wait for a response.
When discovered, Vampire tickets must be dealt with right away. Escalate them and solve
quickly. Set up an automation to remind agents to respond asap.
Develop a permanent plan for dispatching with Vampire tickets. A follow-the-sun model can help.
Triggers can be used to automatically inform customers they’ve reached out after business hours and assure them
a response will come asap.
Poseidon Tickets
Poseidon tickets are a deluge of customer communications: calls, tweets, Facebook posts, chats. All about the same issue, all coming
in at the same time.
POSEIDON TICKETS: FIRST STEPS
1
2
3
Social media managers should respond via a unified front: “We’re aware of the issue and doing all we can to fix it.”
Respond to all of the tickets with the same general message and send them in bulk to the correct department
Steps 1 and 2 should provide the time needed for the issue to be addressed
Add a custom drop down form for an issue that could drown your support
team. When customers see the choice in the drop down menu, they’ll realize the issue is known. All related
tickets will be sent to the correct place.
Mummy Tickets
Mummy tickets come from customers who remember the early days, asking
about features, unfamiliar pricing plans, ex-employees, or promotions
not offered in years.
A macro, an automatic predefined response, will help address mummy tickets that reference things that are out of date. This communication may
quickly settle the issue.
Several mummy tickets can mean communications require updates.
Newsletters, blog posts, social channels, and in-product messaging
should be used to ensure all customers are aware of changes,
like pricing structures.
Werewolf Tickets
Werewolf tickets are nice and friendly one moment, howling
mad the next. Calming the customer down is very difficult.
Enlisting the help of a customer service manager or director is a wise choice for Werewolf tickets. They are highly trained in dealing
with difficult situations.
If a customer vents on social media, offer a public response.
Respond via the channel that was used for the complaint and try to solve the actual issue publicly.
Keep in mind: you can’t win them all. The most important
thing is to learn, improve, and move on.
Download the ebook:The Mysterious Case of Ticket X
