While the growth of automation has enabled unprecedented agility and efficiency, it can also amount to a lot more work for IT teams. Every time someone has to interact with a business system, they may face connectivity issues, bugs, or usability challenges—all of which fall into the laps of your IT agents. Then, instead of being able to focus their time and resources on more complex tickets, your IT agents spend their days solving common, recurring IT issues.
The good news is automated service desk replies can free up your agents’ time and resources by providing effective solutions to end users without the need for manual human interaction., An example of a very simple automated service desk reply could be an automated email response from your company’s general support email address that states there is a company-wide outage for a specific system that IT is aware of and working diligently to resolve. This auto-response sets end user expectations and may help to limit call volume into the service desk.
An example of a more advanced form of automated service desk replies could be AI-powered Ticket Deflection. This more modern approach to automated service desk replies goes beyond simple notifications to help an end user resolve their issue themself, avoiding the need for IT agents to spend valuable time and resources trouble shooting or responding to the ticket. Let’s take a deeper look at how you can use AI-powered Ticket Deflection to save time while meeting the needs of your end users.
What is Ticket Deflection in a Service Desk?
A modern service desk uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide solutions to people who need help. Instead of having a human invest time and energy solving relatively simple or common issues, you can use Ticket Deflection to address the end users’ problems quickly, accurately and efficiently.
When we say deflect, we don’t mean ignore. Quite the opposite.
As an end user seeking support, your time is extremely valuable. If you’ve ever had to wait on the phone for the answer to a simple question or check your email inbox every hour for a day or more, you’re intimately familiar with the need for Ticket Deflection. Odds are your problem could have been resolved with a simple knowledge base (KB) article.
How Does Ticket Deflection Work?
Ticket Deflection in a service desk gives end users the information they need to fix their problems on their own while simultaneously reducing manual work for your IT agents.
For example, suppose an employee needs to request new hardware for working remote; get a license assigned for a cloud service they need to use (e.g. Power Automate); or even something not IT related such as “how can I change my 401k contributions?”
Every single one of these examples and more have one thing in common. That employee MUST reach out to someone in IT, someone in HR they have to know exactly WHO to reach out to and both parties have to trust to keep each other up to date without some record of these events occurring.
Additionally, instead of an agent having to answer the same question numerous times, they can set up Ticket Deflection to handle the tickets for them. Of course, should the answer provided through AI-powered Ticket Deflection not deliver the resolution the end user was seeking, the end user can simply let the service desk know this did not solve their issue and the agent knows right where to pick up when the ticket comes across their desk.
How Can You Use Ticket Deflection in a Service Desk?
Whether a solution requires many steps or just a few, you can still set up Ticket Deflection to get users the answers they need. In addition, because they’re customizable, you can tailor your KB articles to your organizational structure and standards.
They’re also a powerful tool for triaging time-sensitive situations. For instance, suppose a storm impacts your company’s data center, leaving a few critical systems offline. Everyone from remote to in-office workers may start sending messages and calls through Microsoft Teams inquiring about what has happened, why and when they can expect to be able to do their work again. With Ticket Deflection, a response can easily be automated to any messages pertaining to “offline,” “storm,” or related keywords all processed using natural language processing (NLP) to reduce the burden on your agents and allow them to focus on resolving the issue itself.
With Ticket Deflection in place, your IT team can automate responses to a wide range of common questions and issues. This way, the IT team can focus on getting your systems back up and running, and end users can have some clarity about what’s happening and what to do.
Put Ticket Deflection into the Natural Flow of Work with Tikit
Simplify your IT solution further with a service desk built exclusively for Microsoft Teams, where your end users already work. Traditionally, end users are forced to leave a platform like Microsoft Teams to use a predefined IT-specific channel for support. They submit generic tickets, are asked to provide more details and then wait for IT to prioritize their request.
They often have to break their flow of work to respond and get updates. Designed for Microsoft Teams, Tikit removes barriers between users and data, allowing employees to work wherever they want. This is accomplished through seamless and secure integration, using your existing Microsoft 365 configuration. And because Tikit integrates with Microsoft 365, your IT ticketing solution fits comfortably in your end users’ natural flow or work.
With Tikit, you also get the Tikit Virtual Agent which handles end user requests and is the channel in which Ticket Deflection is handled from your end users’ perspective. Ticket Deflection gives the IT team more flexibility and time while reducing the delay it takes for end users to have their issues addressed.
Try Tikit for yourself, with a free 14-day trial. We are so confident in Tikit’s capabilities, we’ll set it up for free to ensure you are getting the most out of your free trial. Schedule your complimentary setup call today!
