How to Find Zombie Helpdesk Tickets

Are zombies for real?  I can't say for sure.

But I do know that zombie tickets certainly are real...VERY REAL.

What are zombie tickets? Zombie tickets are tickets that are nearly dead & soulless - they are carefully avoided and left untouched by your helpdesk agents. Specifically, they're tickets that haven't been commented or updated in the past 30 days, and they're just lifeless, sitting there with an 'open' status in your helpdesk, haunting you...UNTIL NOW.

Today I'm going to give you a way to find these zombie tickets and eradicate them. All you need to do is use our handy 'Saved Searches' feature.

To find your Zombie tickets:

Click Advanced Search >> Status: open >> Ticket last updated: before 30 days ago >> Search name: Zombie Tickets >> check Share this search? >> click save this search

When you're done, click the saved searches link to find your zombie tickets.

Voila. With this saved search, Zombie tickets are forced to declare themselves in the daylight so you can take action to eradicate them (errr...OK solve them and close them) and give them the true death.

####

Happy Halloween from Mojo Helpdesk.

Read More

Win Awesome Prizes in Our Support Portal Design Contest

Check out the new Mojo  Helpdesk Help Center and then customize the design of your own support portal to win awesome prizes. 

We've redesigned our Mojo Helpdesk Help Center, now we want to see what you can do. That's why we're holding a contest for Mojo customers to see who has the best support portal design.

If you haven't already, today's a great day to start remodeling your support portal so you can win the contest.

CLICK HERE to enter the contest

Contest Details

The Mojo team will choose 3 prize winners based on the look & feel of their support portal and award bonus points for incorporating the knowledge base and news column features.

The last day to enter the contest is Friday, October 25th. Winners will be notified via email shortly after the deadline.

It takes less than 30 seconds to enter.

CLICK HERE to enter the contest

Prizes

Grand Prize: Das Keyboard prize pack which includes a Model S Professional Keyboard, the new Das Keyboard Space Pen, the Das Keyboard Messenger Bag, and the Das Keyboard Hackshield Wallet. (Retail value of ~$400)

2nd place: $75 Amazon gift card

3rd place: $50 Amazon gift card

CLICK HERE to enter the contest

FAQs

How do I customize my support portal?

Login to Mojo Helpdesk , click manage >> 'support portal' >>'design'.   From there, simply choose a theme, pick your colors, click save, and voila... your help center will look amazing.

There's no coding or HTML knowledge necessary, although HTML is supported if you want to get real fancy.

How can I try Mojo? 

Get a free 30 day trial by signing up at the Mojo Helpdesk home page.

###

Read More

How to Write the Perfect Knowledge Base Article

Knowledge is power.  (Photo Credit: Wu Disciples Blog)

Knowledge is power. I've heard that phrase thrown around a bunch. I'm sure it wasn't intended to be used by some guy writing a blog about knowledge base articles, but strangely it applies.

Since we've populated our Mojo knowledge base with tons of articles I feel more powerful. Every time a customer calls, if I can't solve the problem from memory, I instantly go to our knowledge base and do a quick search. More often than not, the right answer pops up, and I get to sound smart and most importantly, be helpful and solve the customer's problem immediately. That's power.

Our customers feel the power too. Instead of only having the option to call or create ticket and having to wait for us to reply, they can go straight to our knowledge base, type their issue in the search bar, and voila they'll get instant answers to their questions and troubleshooting tips. This gives our customers independence...and power.

Today's a great day to unleash this same power for yourself and your customers, so why not sit down and write some knowledge base articles? Here are a few quick tips to get you started:

1. Keep articles short. Articles should be short enough for users to quickly scan to see if the info they need is there. You don't want to overwhelm users with too much information in one article. Break up long articles into shorter articles.

2. Write in your customer’s terms. Try to avoid jargon and define any terms that your customers might not know offhand.

3. Use clear titles. Users search for KB articles when they want to accomplish a task or solve a problem. Vague titles make it hard to users to know if the task they need is covered. Be as specific as possible. Phrasing the title in the from of your customer's question can be a great approach.

4. Add keywords. Quite often keywords should be synonyms or abbreviations that your customers use to describe the same thing. If you are a Mojo Helpdesk customer, there is a special field where you can add keywords to articles to help users find them.

5. Start articles right after you solve a problem. It’s easier to remember all the details and nuances right after you have resolved a customer issue. Make sure to search your knowledge base before you write an article to make sure you are not creating a duplicate.

6. If you need help, try this simple template. A template makes it faster and easier to write articles. A template also ensures the look of your articles is consistent. For example, here is a markdown formatted template you can use to write basic knowledge base articles in Mojo Helpdesk.

First, create an article in your helpdesk:

click 'manage' >> 'Knowledge Base' >> '+new article' >> give it a 'Title' >> paste template in 'Article content' field >> set 'Publishing status' to unpublished >> click 'save'.

Now when you create an article you can copy-paste from this template.

**Answer:** Put the answer in your customer terms.

* Step 1
* Step 2
* Step 3
* Step 4... 

**Overview:** If necessary, add context, causes, links to other articles, alternative solutions, etc.

####

Read More

UPDATE FIXED: Growing Pains & A Temporary Change in the way Tickets are Assigned

UPDATE- We have added the functionality back to the unassigned ticket list. You are now able to assign tickets from this list as well as assign or delete in bulk. Thank you for your patience.


Mojo is growing. We handle more tickets per day than ever. Sometimes our service is overloaded and we work hard to scale up our resources. 

The good news is we made our application a lot faster. The performance issue is resolved. Displaying the unassigned ticket list is now blazing fast even for a help desk that has thousands of new tickets.  

However, in order to do this we had to make a compromise in functionality. We had to temporarily change the way unassigned tickets are presented. In addition, at this time you will not be able to perform 'bulk actions' (like assign or delete), but this is temporary.  We are working on adding the functionality back in the next few days.

Thank you for your continuous support.

Read More

New Ticket Export Features: Export Filters and Recurring Exports

Mojo Helpdesk is excited to announce new ticket filters and recurring exports inside our Export tickets feature.

To access the new Export features from your helpdesk, click manage >> click All Settings >> Managers column >> Export

Filter your ticket exports.

New ticket filters give you added precision in selecting the tickets that appear in your exports. Filter your ticket exports based on ticket submitter, ticket queue, ticket status, due date, and several other conditions. Have the export sent immediately or schedule a recurring export.

To set up an export with filters:

1. Click new ticket export
2. Add your filters
3. Click send now to send the export immediately to your email.

Schedule a recurring export

To set up your first recurring export:

1. Click new ticket export
2. Add your filters.
3. Click schedule recurring.
4. Give the recurring export a title.
5. Set the frequency of the export.
6. Enter the emails of those who should receive the export.
7. Click save.

Each recurring export can then be sent immediately, paused, deactivated, or deleted from the Export dashboard.

#####

Read More

The Value of Help Desk Software

A graffiti artist's rendition of the word "value." (Photo credit: Rebirth Cycle)

If you're just starting to think about purchasing help desk software or just had it recommended to you by your company's IT manager, you might have a few questions:

-What problems does help desk software solve?

-What value does it add?

-Why do I need it?

When I started migrating from email-based support to help desk software, I had the same questions. Email systems like Gmail were free while help desk software can be very expensive so the ROI of help desk software would need to be very compelling in order to justify a switch.

Here's what I've learned about the ROI of help desk software over the past 11 months using it both as a website owner and a help desk staff member.

1. Makes you money.

- Businesses. Not having help desk software with a ticket tracking feature makes it more likely that you'll forget the occasional customer email or misplace a sticky note that documented a customer call. Over time these human errors add up to many lost customers. Conversely, one delighted customer who spreads the word about your company's fast customer support response times and expert service will make you money.

- Managers.  Good help desk software will help you get raises and promotions. If you have a help desk system in place that tracks customer support metrics and you can demonstrate constant improvement in customer satisfaction, then you've hit the first step of getting a raise which is showing measurable proof that you add value to the organization.

2. Saves you time.

-A good knowledge base incorporated into your help desk can reduce the number of support emails you receive by 50%.

-Ticket assignment features let you quickly delegate to topic experts rather than spending a lot of time mulling over a customer issue and trying to solve it yourself.

3. Reduces stress and improves morale.

- People who are organized are generally less stressed out. Being able to see everything that needs to get done in a single view makes you feel more in control.

- Clicking a 'ticket solved' button is magical. It offers reinforcement that you're getting stuff done and solving real problems for your customers. Some help desk software even offers a ticket rating system that can give you instant feedback on how fast and how well you solved the customer's problem.

4. Helps you make better decisions. 

- Document and track feedback requests and bug reports to decide which product developments to prioritize.

- View all the support tickets assignments to see who's busiest and determine which team member should be assigned the next customer support request.


5. Gives you more freedom. 

- Stop being chained to your desk by customer phone calls. Try taking your organizations phone number off the website and give users a place to search for answers to their questions and submit support tickets.

- Help desk software backs you up when you need to be out of the office. An online ticket form and email integration system can take all the notes for you and can even send automatic replies to your users.

6. Fosters creativity and strategic thinking

- The fewer things you have to actively keep track of, the more room you have in your brain to be creative.

- Let your help desk software track the tedious details and minutiae while you focus on the bigger picture.

Read More

3 Signs Your Startup has Outgrown Gmail Support

Has your startup outgrown Gmail as a customer support tool?

Startups are typically strapped for cash but still need a way to get feedback from users so they can improve their product and start gaining traction in the marketplace. That's why they typically start out using Gmail as their customer support tool.

They quickly set up a group email address, such as support@mydomain.com, and then have support emails automatically forward to their Gmail inboxes. When a support email comes in, someone on the team replies to the customer and BCC's the other employees. Voila, free customer support tool.

For a while, the Gmail method works great. And then one day the startup hits product-market fit, signups take off, and all hell breaks loose.

The startup team starts to lose track of who's replying to who. Two employees reply to the same email. Or worse, someone assumes that someone else is covering a support email and the customer's question goes unanswered.

At this point there's usually a mad dash to Stack Overflow or Hacker News to figure out a better solution.

To avoid a fire drill here are some warning signs that your startup might be outgrowing Gmail support.

1 - More than 2 people need to be BCC'd when you reply to a support email.

BCC-ing multiple employees on support emails quickly becomes repetitive and annoying. It also inhibits collaboration because BCC'd participants no longer receive messages in the thread when the customer replies.

With a helpdesk ticket system in place, everyone on the team receives a notification when a new support request is received. They can also track the progress of the ticket as notifications are sent when new comments are added.

This means the startup can bring more of the team into the process so they can at least see the incoming support requests to get an idea of user feedback - this would quickly get out of hand with a simple Gmail setup.

2 - Multiple people are replying to the same support email on accident. 

Usually startup employees share the load when it comes to providing customer support and as more support requests start rolling in, the more difficult it becomes to stay organized and not step on each other's toes.

If you find yourselves replying to the same customer emails and duplicating efforts, it's time to consider a help desk software.

With help desk software, a ticket comes in the system and is assigned to one person for resolution. That person is accountable for resolving the ticket and keeping the support team and customer informed of progress. This prevents duplication of effort and bystander effect, where all employees assume someone else is handling the support request and no one actually handles it.

3 - Hiring and firing is starting.

As your startup begins to have employees come and go, it becomes more important to have a centralized location to store all support requests and user feedback. The last thing you want is for an employee to leave the company and then someone has to sort through all their emails to see if they were in progress on a customer support request. Even worse, if someone deletes their old email account, then all the support emails and user feedback stored in their account will be lost.

Help desk software provides an online, centralized, single view of all requests so if an employee leaves the company, all of their tickets can quickly be reassigned to another employee for resolution.

###

If you're a startup or small business considering help desk software, then check out Mojo Helpdesk. It has built in ticket tracking and a self-service knowledge base. There's a free 30 day trial and a $24/month Plus plan that's perfect for startups.

Read More