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Top Tricks for Taming Call Center Tickets - Part 1

Tim Flower

"We can't fix it if they don't call."

I can't count how many times I've said those words in my IT career. Users suffering with technology issues often suffer in silence. However, IT teams have struggled for decades with help desk call volumes and ticket counts that are just too high.

So we have competing priorities — We need users to call in their issues, while conversely we need our ticket volumes to decrease. And ironically, despite the myriad of technology advances, the only real tool available to business end users when they have an IT problem is the old-fashioned telephone. It's no wonder call center tickets are on the rise, incidents are escalated to higher and more complex service levels, and both end users and IT support staff are frustrated.

End users lose an average of 20 minutes each day because of device failures

The problem is that technology has simply grown too complex and too quickly for mere humans to effectively monitor and manage it all. Aside from the impact to technology teams and their expenses related to call center tickets, business user productivity is sorely impacted. After all, the mission of IT needs to be completely focused on enabling the user. Even in the most sophisticated IT organization, end users lose an average of 20 minutes each day because of device failures. That's over two weeks per year per user.

So, how can IT lower the amount of call center tickets, quickly resolve those incidents that can't be avoided, and reduce their own costs in the process? Below are three key strategies:

1. Don't wait – Investigate

Waiting for business end users to "call in" their computer issues is old-school. Progressive companies are turning to cognitive or AI-based solutions to analyze and uncover issues that are impacting productivity, prioritize them, and fix them before end users are even aware of the issue.

This strategy represents a major difference in approach, shifting methodologies from reactionary, ticket-based processes to a system that is proactive and fact-based. Leveraging data analytics to uncover issues and trends will allow for improved response times and will also help uncover hidden insights.

2. Don't hope - Get the full scope

If you wait for business end users to call for help, your only option is to hope they actually call. Many end users either try to resolve issues on their own, or wait for the problem to go away. Through experience, users have learned that calling the help desk results in a very lengthy and frustrating process, or having to deal with new issues that surface when trying to fix the first one. And when end users take matters into their own hands, IT is left in the dark and have a very difficult time defining the true scope of the problem.

Identifying issues without user dependency means you can find everyone impacted for a proper response. When coupled with a proactive investigation, finding the full scope of a given issue allows for real prioritization and a full understanding of enterprise health.

3. Don't just remediate - Automate

Even with the full scope of the problem, and its associated business impact identified, it takes human effort to apply the fix. Much like software delivery, an incremental business benefit is achieved when you can automate the fix and apply it to everyone who might be impacted, whether or not they called the Help Desk.

Engaging directly with the end users at the time of the event will let them know that IT is watching out for them and fixing their issues without the need to call the help desk.

IT departments that shift from reactionary fire fighters to becoming proactive business partners find their ticket counts reduced from 20 to 50 percent or more

IT departments that shift from reactionary fire fighters to becoming proactive business partners find their ticket counts reduced from 20 to 50 percent or more. These reductions can help IT with improved Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and significantly reduce their costs. The bigger benefit to the enterprise as a whole is that the IT environment is stabilized, users are productive, and IT is now seen as a strategic business partner.

Read Top Tricks for Taming Call Center Tickets - Part 2

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Top Tricks for Taming Call Center Tickets - Part 1

Tim Flower

"We can't fix it if they don't call."

I can't count how many times I've said those words in my IT career. Users suffering with technology issues often suffer in silence. However, IT teams have struggled for decades with help desk call volumes and ticket counts that are just too high.

So we have competing priorities — We need users to call in their issues, while conversely we need our ticket volumes to decrease. And ironically, despite the myriad of technology advances, the only real tool available to business end users when they have an IT problem is the old-fashioned telephone. It's no wonder call center tickets are on the rise, incidents are escalated to higher and more complex service levels, and both end users and IT support staff are frustrated.

End users lose an average of 20 minutes each day because of device failures

The problem is that technology has simply grown too complex and too quickly for mere humans to effectively monitor and manage it all. Aside from the impact to technology teams and their expenses related to call center tickets, business user productivity is sorely impacted. After all, the mission of IT needs to be completely focused on enabling the user. Even in the most sophisticated IT organization, end users lose an average of 20 minutes each day because of device failures. That's over two weeks per year per user.

So, how can IT lower the amount of call center tickets, quickly resolve those incidents that can't be avoided, and reduce their own costs in the process? Below are three key strategies:

1. Don't wait – Investigate

Waiting for business end users to "call in" their computer issues is old-school. Progressive companies are turning to cognitive or AI-based solutions to analyze and uncover issues that are impacting productivity, prioritize them, and fix them before end users are even aware of the issue.

This strategy represents a major difference in approach, shifting methodologies from reactionary, ticket-based processes to a system that is proactive and fact-based. Leveraging data analytics to uncover issues and trends will allow for improved response times and will also help uncover hidden insights.

2. Don't hope - Get the full scope

If you wait for business end users to call for help, your only option is to hope they actually call. Many end users either try to resolve issues on their own, or wait for the problem to go away. Through experience, users have learned that calling the help desk results in a very lengthy and frustrating process, or having to deal with new issues that surface when trying to fix the first one. And when end users take matters into their own hands, IT is left in the dark and have a very difficult time defining the true scope of the problem.

Identifying issues without user dependency means you can find everyone impacted for a proper response. When coupled with a proactive investigation, finding the full scope of a given issue allows for real prioritization and a full understanding of enterprise health.

3. Don't just remediate - Automate

Even with the full scope of the problem, and its associated business impact identified, it takes human effort to apply the fix. Much like software delivery, an incremental business benefit is achieved when you can automate the fix and apply it to everyone who might be impacted, whether or not they called the Help Desk.

Engaging directly with the end users at the time of the event will let them know that IT is watching out for them and fixing their issues without the need to call the help desk.

IT departments that shift from reactionary fire fighters to becoming proactive business partners find their ticket counts reduced from 20 to 50 percent or more

IT departments that shift from reactionary fire fighters to becoming proactive business partners find their ticket counts reduced from 20 to 50 percent or more. These reductions can help IT with improved Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and significantly reduce their costs. The bigger benefit to the enterprise as a whole is that the IT environment is stabilized, users are productive, and IT is now seen as a strategic business partner.

Read Top Tricks for Taming Call Center Tickets - Part 2

Hot Topics

The Latest

E-commerce is set to skyrocket with a 9% rise over the next few years ... To thrive in this competitive environment, retailers must identify digital resilience as their top priority. In a world where savvy shoppers expect 24/7 access to online deals and experiences, any unexpected downtime to digital services can lead to significant financial losses, damage to brand reputation, abandoned carts with designer shoes, and additional issues ...

Efficiency is a highly-desirable objective in business ... We're seeing this scenario play out in enterprises around the world as they continue to struggle with infrastructures and remote work models with an eye toward operational efficiencies. In contrast to that goal, a recent Broadcom survey of global IT and network professionals found widespread adoption of these strategies is making the network more complex and hampering observability, leading to uptime, performance and security issues. Let's look more closely at these challenges ...

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The 2025 Catchpoint SRE Report dives into the forces transforming the SRE landscape, exploring both the challenges and opportunities ahead. Let's break down the key findings and what they mean for SRE professionals and the businesses relying on them ...

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The pressure on IT teams has never been greater. As data environments grow increasingly complex, resource shortages are emerging as a major obstacle for IT leaders striving to meet the demands of modern infrastructure management ... According to DataStrike's newly released 2025 Data Infrastructure Survey Report, more than half (54%) of IT leaders cite resource limitations as a top challenge, highlighting a growing trend toward outsourcing as a solution ...

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The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating across the telecoms industry, with 88% of fixed broadband service providers now investigating or trialing AI automation to enhance their fixed broadband services, according to new research from Incognito Software Systems and Omdia ...

 

AWS is a cloud-based computing platform known for its reliability, scalability, and flexibility. However, as helpful as its comprehensive infrastructure is, disparate elements and numerous siloed components make it difficult for admins to visualize the cloud performance in detail. It requires meticulous monitoring techniques and deep visibility to understand cloud performance and analyze operational efficiency in detail to ensure seamless cloud operations ...

Imagine a future where software, once a complex obstacle, becomes a natural extension of daily workflow — an intuitive, seamless experience that maximizes productivity and efficiency. This future is no longer a distant vision but a reality being crafted by the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence ...

Enterprise data sprawl already challenges companies' ability to protect and back up their data. Much of this information is never fully secured, leaving organizations vulnerable. Now, as GenAI platforms emerge as yet another environment where enterprise data is consumed, transformed, and created, this fragmentation is set to intensify ...

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