Incident tracking should be part of every help desk operation. If you can't track and monitor incidents, you can't resolve problems. Persistent problems or slow resolution times reduce customer satisfaction. Don't be fooled into thinking small companies can get by with a paper tracking system. If work orders get lost or the resolution isn't documented, you're not providing good customer service.
Modern technology makes incident tracking software easy to find and affordable. You can monitor incidents whether they are reported by phone, email or web-based forms. Management can easily track the incident from report, to assignment, to resolution. In addition to improvement in customer satisfaction, an incident tracking system provides the following benefits:
1. Increased help desk productivity.
2. Reduced incident tracking costs.
3. Allows users to bypass the incident tracking system by solving some problems on their own.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Open source means affordable incident tracking solutions
Open source software is available for all types of computing needs, including incident tracking. In addition, open source means your IT team can participate in the ongoing development and improvement of the software.
I recommend: Help Desk Reloaded is a web-based system that allows users to enter their problem into a form. Your technicians review the requests and take the appropriate actions. Once a resolution is found, the user is notified through the system. Go through the online demo to see how smoothly the system works.
Make your email system the first step in incident tracking
One of the quickest incident tracking solutions is to have users send their problems to you via email. Funnel those emails into incident tracking software and follow the resolution process from start to finish.
I recommend: AnswerTrack not only provides an email-based incident tracking system, the software also supports a knowledge database for customers and a customer satisfaction feedback system.
IssueTrak offers a similar product which also includes reporting and time tracking tools. You can sign up for a free trial of either product in order to test out the features.
Install incident management software capable of handling busy help desks
Complex help desk operations which field phone calls, emails and web contacts need fully-featured software. You want your customer service techs to spend less time on the phone with each client and more time resolving problems.
I recommend: ServiceDesk Plus is a comprehensive incident tracking system. It's suitable for companies with multiple locations and is easily customized for your company needs. It get high marks from IT professionals. In addition to help desk functions, features include asset management, ITIL compatibility and reporting. Take a live demo to review this incident management software.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- Think about where most of your customer incident reports come from when you're choosing an incident tracking system. You don't want an email-based system if most of your reports are called in.
- Whenever possible, set up a web-based FAQ or knowledge base that empowers customers to resolve the problem on their own.
The official source of Incident Tracking is the Incident Tracking page at Business.com
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