"When everything is urgent, then nothing really is."

Dealing with urgent tickts is a frequent reality to maintain the efficiency and also functionality of systems. But what exactly are urgent tickets? And how can we ensure that only genuinely critical tickets receive this classification?

I've worked for several companies that misunderstand the concept of urgent tickets, and that usually leads to a variety of complications... Urgent tickets are often misinterpreted as an invitation to prioritize quantity over quality, resulting in rushed solutions that may not fully address the issue at hand. This approach can lead to increased error andfrustated customers.

🎯 What Are Urgent Tickets?

Urgent tickets are requests or issues that require immediate attention due to their significant impact on business operations, data security, or user experience. These tickets are categorized as urgent becuse if not resolved quickly they can cause serious damage to the company or customers.

🔍 Criteria for Classifying Urgency

To determine ifa ticket should be classified as urgent we consider several criterias:

1. Business Impact 📈: Affects critical operations or prevents users from performing essential tasks.
2. Security 🔒: Involves vulnerabilities that could be exploited compromising data integrity.
3. User Experience 💻: Affects a large user base or causes severe degradation in the user experience (A lot of folks don't realize how crucial user experience is but it's really a big deal. If a system isn't easy and enjoyable to usecustomers might ditch it for something better).

These criteria help prioritize issues that truly need a quick and efficient response.

🗣 Helping Non-Technical People Understand Urgency

The "trickiest" thing about urgent tickets is when people who aren't tech get involved. It's always more complex for them (no doubt). But, we've got ways to lend a hand, at least to help them see that not all tickets are as urgent as they might think.

• Use Clear Examples 📝: Describe concrete situations where urgency was necessary and the impacts of not addressing the issue immediately (you can try to using some no-really-related topics to exemplify) .
• Measurable Impacts 📊: Use data and metrics to illustrate the severity of the situation (likerevenue loss, increased churn, or security breaches).
• Visual Tools 🎨: Charts, infographics, and diagrams can help make explanations more understandable.

🏷 Subcategories of Urgency

Yes, there are different levels of urgency that can be classified to further prioritize tickets. Typical subcategories include:

• Critical 🚨: Requires immediate resolution, usually within hours. Examples include system failures that halt business operations or major security breaches.
• High ⚠️: Should be addressed within one business day. These are serious problems but do not completely paralyze operations.
• Medium ⏳: Can be resolved within a few days. These tickets are important but do not cause immediate and severe interruptions to operations.

⏱ Average Resolution Time

The resolution time for an urgent ticket can vary depending on its complexity, but here are some general guidelines:

• Critical Tickets 🚨: Expected to be resolved within 24 hours.
• High Urgency Tickets ⚠️: Should be solved within 1 to 3 business days.
• Medium Urgency Tickets ⏳: Can be resolved within a week.

These response times help ensure that the most severe issues are addressed with the necessary priority.

🛠 Tools and Practices for Managing Urgent Tickets

Implementing efficient tools and practices can sreamline the management of urgent tickets:

• Ticketing Systems 📋: Use robust ticketing systems like Jira (one of the most popular), Zendesk, orServiceNow to track and manage tickets efficiently.
• Automated Alerts 📣: Set up automated alerts to notify the relevant teams immediately when an urgent ticket is raised (We usually set this alerts on a slack channel, really useful)
• Regular Training 🎓: Conduct regular training sessions for the support team to handle urgent tickets effectively (this one it's REALLY hard to implement but everyone can dream, right?).

🤝 Best Practices

• Regular Updates 🔄: Provide regular updates on the status of urgent tickets to all stakeholders (one's of my favorite approachs).
• Clear Communication Channels📞: Establish clear communication channels between technical and non-technical teams.

📈 Metrics and Reporting

Tracking and analyzing metrics can help improve the handling of urgent tickets:

• Resolution Time ⏲️: Monitor theaverage resolution time for each urgency level (This can even become one of your future OKRs to work on).
• Customer Satisfaction 😊: Measure customer satisfaction through surveys after ticket resolution (I worked in really few companies that used that).
• Ticket Volume 📊: Track the volume of urgent tickets over time to identify trends and potential systemic issues.

🚀 Conclusion

Effectively managing urgent tickets is crucial for maintaining the stability and security of systems. By educating non-technical teams about the importance andcriteria of these tickets, we achieve more efficient collaboration and quicker responses to critical problems.