If you’re a managed IT client with Innovative, you may have contacted our help desk at some point. When you do this, you’re opening what is called a “ticket.” Do you know what a ticket is or what the process looks like? Did you know there are different ways to contact the help desk?
If this is all new info to you, don’t worry. I’m new to Innovative and just started learning about the help desk myself. There might be a little more to it than you realize. Let’s get you up to speed so you can get the most out of our service.
What is a Help Desk ticket?
A ticket is what we use to keep track of your request and all its information. Tickets are stored in our ticketing system on queues.
Think of it like a restaurant where the orders are placed in the window for the kitchen. In this situation, you’re the customer, your phone or email is the waiter/waitress, and our technicians are the chefs.
Submitting a Ticket
Let’s move on to actually submitting the ticket. There are a couple of ways to do this, and each function has its benefits.
Request Support By Phone
The first way to get some help is to call us. This is the best option if you need to hear from us quickly. The number to call is 301-739-7445, and you can do this anytime Monday to Friday between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EST to get directly in touch with a technician.
If you have a 24/7 contract with us, you can call the number anytime. Any calls made after hours will be directed to an answering service, which will then reach out to an on-call technician. The technician will get back to you within an hour.
Request Support By Email
If you have an issue that isn’t necessarily urgent but still needs fixing, you can contact the help desk through email at helpdesk@innovativeinc.net.
When you send your request to the help desk:
- A ticket will automatically be created and assigned to the technical team
- You’ll be notified that your ticket has been created
- A team member will open it and assign it a priority
- They’ll contact you to let you know when to expect a resolution
Request Support Through the Client Portal
We also offer a client portal. This is available to clients on an as-needed basis. If you have access to the client portal, you can look at open and closed tickets within the system and create new tickets as well. If someone on your team doesn’t have access but needs it, feel free to reach out to us.
Ticket Priorities
When tickets are created, we categorize them into different levels of priority. Doing this gives us a quick way to decide which to work on first, as some issues are more critical than others.
If you have an urgent issue, we recommend calling the help desk. If the problem is less than dire and you’re reaching out by email, be sure to keep these categories in mind.
We use our best judgment to assign urgency to emails, but if you know the response time needed for your issue, you can give us a specific level to assign it.
The email acknowledgment we send you will confirm the level of priority that’s been assigned. If you feel the urgency level we assign you isn’t high enough, you’re always free to reply and let us know. You will always have the opportunity to designate the urgency.
These are your issues that need fixed, and we’re here to resolve them on your terms.
Let’s walk through each ticket priority and what they mean.
- Critical – This priority is reserved for situations where most of your business cannot work. That means entire systems like your internet or server are down. We start working on critical tickets as soon as they’re received and continue working on them until the issue is resolved.
- 1-Day Resolution – These are reserved for situations that can’t be considered system down, but one person is unable to do their job. We document a two-hour first response on these (M-F 7-5 EST) and try to resolve them within eight business hours.
- 2-Day Resolution – Two-hour first response M-F 7-5 EST and strive to resolve within two business days
- 3-Day Resolution - Two-hour first response M-F 7-5 EST and strive to resolve within three business days
- Low – This one is reserved for situations with low urgency. This is usually an issue that causes little disruption to the business, but it’s still something you need us to take a look at. On these, we document a two-hour first response and strive to resolve them within a week. A good example of this would be a new employee starting in two weeks and they need an account created before their start date.
The Process
Now that you know how to create a ticket and the priorities that are applied to it, let’s take a look at what happens with that ticket.
Contacting Us
If you call the help desk to open a ticket, they will get the info they need from you to create that ticket. The ticket will be placed in their queue if your issue isn’t resolved during the phone call.
When your ticket is submitted through email, it will appear in a queue where the tickets are sorted by priority. From there, a help desk member will open it.
We won’t get into the weeds on queues today, but what you need to know is that the queues are where all the tickets are located.
Opening the Ticket
When a team member opens your ticket, they will read through the description to figure out the issue. Once the issue is known, they’ll fill in some needed data like the company, user, device, application, etc., into the required fields on their dashboard.
If the ticket was sent through email, a lot of the info will autofill. That’s why it’s important to include all relevant information when submitting your ticket.
This means listing your name, which device you need help with, what the issue is and the ticket priority you feel is necessary. Doing this will help resolve your problem even faster.
Our Response
Once that info is in the correct fields, our team will send an email informing you that we got the ticket and when you can expect a resolution.
After that, the team member will decide if it’s an issue we need to fix on-site or remotely. If on-site help is required, they’ll schedule a field service technician to come to your workplace as soon as possible.
If your company has multiple tickets open that require an on-site resolution, we’ll do our best to make sure we schedule them at the same time. This makes things more convenient for you and our techs.
Once that’s scheduled, we will send another follow-up email letting you know when the technician will be coming.
You’re in Good Hands with Us
We never want you to feel like your ticket is off, floating in the wind. We have these processes in place to make sure you get the best and fastest service possible. You’re with us because you trust us, and we’re not going to betray that trust with subpar service.
This article was meant to be transparent and informative, but we don’t expect you to put all these details to memory. That’s our job. We would like you to use this article as a resource anytime you’re unsure how to place a ticket or what that process will look like for you.
Technology is crucial, and you can’t afford anything but the best. We’re committed to that, and we’re here for you.
