In any organization, delivering high-quality customer service is of utmost importance. The key to providing such a service is to ensure that customer enquiries and support tickets are handled efficiently, quickly, and within the designated time frame.
One of the most critical aspects of managing customer support tickets is adhering to Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Service level agreements (SLAs) are agreements between the service provider and the customer regarding the level of service that will be provided and establish accountability for the team handling support tickets.
These agreements establish clear expectations for customers and are usually based on specific metrics, such as response time, resolution time, and ticket priority.
Once an SLA policy is created in Desk365, it can be applied to relevant tickets. However, if needed, you can change that due date. This feature provides more control to the support team, and they can manage the due dates according to the shifting priorities.
In this article, we’ll show you how to edit ‘Due Date’ for your tickets in Desk365, so you can stay on top of your support requests and deliver exceptional service.
Understanding SLA policies
Before we dive into how due dates are calculated, let’s first understand what SLA policies are.
SLA policies are a set of rules that define the response and resolution times for customer service requests. These policies are designed to ensure that customer issues are addressed within a specific timeframe.
SLA policies usually specify different response and resolution times for different types of requests based on their priority. Requests can be categorized into Low, Medium, High, and Urgent priority.
When a customer submits a ticket, the SLA policy is applied to the ticket to determine the expected response and resolution times.
To calculate the due date, the helpdesk system takes into account the priority of the request and applies the appropriate resolution times specified in the SLA policy. Urgent requests are given the highest priority and have the shortest response and resolution times.
SLAs help companies manage customer expectations and ensure that they provide timely and effective support.
How are due dates calculated?
The ‘Due Date’ for a ticket is calculated based on the resolution time of the SLA policy that is associated with it. It defines the time within which agents have to resolve the ticket.
To calculate the due date for a ticket, the resolution time of the SLA policy is applied to the ticket creation time. For example, if a ticket arrives at 8 am on a Monday and your business hours start at 9 am on Mondays and the resolution time is 2 hours, then the due date for the ticket will be 11 am. If the ticket was not resolved by that time, then it would be considered a breach of the SLA policy.
The due date calculation can also be affected by holidays and non-working hours. If a ticket is created on a Friday evening, the due date for the ticket may be extended to the next business day if the SLA policy is not valid during weekends or holidays.
How to create an SLA policy in Desk365?
It is easy to create an SLA policy in Desk365. These are the steps to follow.
1. Navigate to Settings > Productivity > SLAs tab. Click on the ‘Add SLA’ located at the top of the page.
2. Provide a name for the policy and specify the response time and resolved time. Once you have entered this information, click on the ‘Save’ button to create the SLA policy in your helpdesk.
If you want this SLA policy to be applied to all incoming tickets in your helpdesk, you can set it as the ‘Default’ policy.
This article explains in detail how to configure SLAs and apply them to tickets in Desk365.
How to edit due date of tickets in Desk365?
Desk365 allows agents to edit due dates in the Ticket Details page and will help agents to stay on top of their SLA policies and ensure that they meet customer expectations.
Let’s take a real-time example to understand how this feature will be useful for organizations of any kind.
Consider an end-user submits a ticket to the IT Support team regarding a software issue that is hindering their productivity. According to the SLA policy, the ticket has to be resolved within 24 hours. However, the assigned agent realizes that the issue is more complex than initially anticipated and will require more time to resolve.
In this scenario, editing the due date in the helpdesk system can be useful for the IT Support team.
By extending the due date to allow for additional time to diagnose and fix the issue, the agent can ensure that the ticket is resolved correctly, instead of rushing to meet the original deadline and potentially providing a subpar solution.
This helps to improve the quality of service provided by the IT support team and ensures that the end-users issue is fully resolved.
Next, let’s examine the process to achieve this using Desk365. Consider an end-user has submitted a new ticket and now an agent is going to look into the ticket.
1. The support agent logs into their Desk365 account and navigates to the ticket they want to review.
2. Sometimes, you may not see the ‘Due By’ field on the Tickets list page. To display this field, simply click on the ‘Select columns’ button located on the right-hand side of the page.
3. In this menu, you can add any fields that are relevant to you, including the ‘Due By’ field from the ‘Available Columns’ menu. This field enables you to track the deadline for each ticket, ensuring that it is resolved within the allotted time.
4. The ‘Due By’ field now appears on the Tickets List page.
After reviewing the ticket, the assigned agent diagnoses the issue and discovers that it’s near the end of the workday, with the weekend approaching. Furthermore, the agent realizes that resolving the issue will require assistance from a third-party vendor, as it appears more complex and will require additional time.
With the help of this feature, the agent can now easily edit the due date directly from the Tickets Detail page. To modify the due date for a specific ticket, you can do so by clicking on the ‘Set Due Date’ button located next to the ‘Due Date’ of the ticket.
5. Select the appropriate date that you believe the issue will be resolved by.
6. Once you click the ‘Tick button’, you will see that the ‘Due Date’ has been extended for the ticket.
Note:
1. The due date should always be greater than the ticket created time.
2. Once an agent changes the due date of a ticket, it won’t change again when the priority of the ticket is updated.
3. If a ticket’s due date is modified by an agent and the SLA for the ticket is subsequently altered, then the due date set by the agent will be overridden by the new SLAs due date.
Control access to changing due dates
Desk365 allows you to grant or revoke permission to edit the ‘Due Date’ when creating a custom role.
Here are the steps to create a custom role.
1. Navigate to Settings > Admin > Roles tab and click on ‘Add Role’.
2. Decide on the ticket scope access for the role.
3. Finally, you can determine the feature access for this role by selecting the specific permissions you wish to grant to the agent.
4. Click on the ‘Save’ button to create this new ‘Custom role’ in your helpdesk.
As a result, when your IT analyst is handling tickets, you will observe that they do not have access to the ‘Set Due Date’ button and are unable to modify the due date for the tickets.
This provides organizations with more control and flexibility in their helpdesk.
Due date calculation in helpdesk with the help of SLA policies is a crucial aspect of customer service operations. By understanding how SLA policies work and how due dates are calculated, companies can provide timely and effective support to their customers, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, and optimize their customer service operations for maximum efficiency.
If you are using helpdesk software to manage customer support, it is important to implement SLA policies and ensure that your agents understand how due dates are calculated for tickets. By doing so, you can ensure that your customers receive the level of service they expect and that your customer service operations run smoothly.
