{"_widget":{"name":"grid-stack","data":{"width":"1-3","align":"left","breakpoint":"m","alternate":true,"gutter":true,"gutter_vertical":"default","divider":true,"panel":true,"content_align":true,"animation_media":"none","animation_content":"none","media":true,"image_width":"auto","image_height":"auto","media_border":"none","media_overlay":"none","overlay_animation":"fade","media_animation":"scale-up","title":true,"content":true,"social_buttons":true,"title_size":"h2","text_align":"center","link":false,"link_style":"button","link_text":"Read more","badge":false,"badge_style":"badge","badge_position":"panel","link_target":false,"class":""}},"items":[{"media":"wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/blog_triage_priority.png","options":{"media":{"width":1000,"height":1000,"type":"image"}},"content":"You may have heard the term while watching Grey\u2019s Anatomy (or ER for our older users). Wikipedia tells us the following:\n\n<blockquote><p>\u201cthe process of determining the priority of patients\u2019 treatments based on the severity of their condition.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThat may sound extreme but that is exactly what we are doing for support issues. We are sorting and prioritising, putting the support ticket in front of the best person(s) so requesters gets the reply they deserve in the time frame they require. Judging severity and priority are vital. These factors are weighed not only for the customer and partners but also against our own business values.","title":"So, what is triage and how does it work?"},{"media":"wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/triage_blog_post.jpg","options":{"media":{"width":2946,"height":1935,"type":"image"}},"content":"<p>The real benefit of the triage system is that as a group we learn. Our support team has a broad range of unique skills. Some are ex System Admins with experience of \u00a3500,000 budgets and 1000s of demanding users. Others are experts in their field, be it Mac, Linux or all the secrets of SSL and Javascript. No one person knows everything, so the Triage session is an education tool internally.<\/p>\n<p>Once a question is asked, it is all too easy for the more experienced (in that area) support team member to offer to take the ticket. Instead of just answering it, Triage allows them to discuss and leave notes as to what they would do in the given situation. Then if someone else is feeling brave, they can run with it. This process creates a self-policing-cross-training system (we just made that up) but you get the point. The system is inherently designed to spread knowledge and not build dependencies into people. Someone may have been confused about SSL certificates one day, but then works through a support ticket with help from the team. Being outside of your comfort zone increases confidence and knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>Making sure support staff play to their strengths is vital when we are training new members of the team. Incumbent support agents will leave highly detailed notes during triage on support tickets for newer members to follow up and (hopefully) learn from.<\/p>","title":"Knowledge sharing - Peer Review"},{"media":"wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/blog_triage_shapes_sizes.jpg","content":"<p>\nSupport tickets can come in various flavours. There will always be \u2018low hanging fruit\u2019 for support to answer but mixed in with simple links to a knowledge base article or manual can be a broad combination of questions or problems of varying severity.\n<\/p>\n\nTriage helps us sort and prioritise not only at a technical level but also from a relationship perspective. Is the customer disappointed? Is it a ten user license or a 100,000 user install? Has all hell broken loose? Is one of our global partners on a strict timescale? From a business point of view, we have to factor all this in and quickly.<p>\nBuilding and maintaining relationships is probably half the job for our support staff. They are often the first interaction with our company and how they act in the \u201cfront of house\u201d role is pivotal to our success now and in the future.\n<\/p>\n","title":"All shapes and sizes","options":{"media":{"width":4724,"height":3149}}},{"media":"wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/blog_triage_workflow.jpg","content":"<p>\nThe triage workflow kicks off at the start of the day for our coffee fuelled support team.     \n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe day\u2019s new support tickets are opened up and reviewed \n   \n<\/p>\n<p>\nNot all tickets are equal (or, as discussed, actual problems). Some can be easily answered or at the very least some data collection can happen (debug logs, version info, spool files, etc.) while some tickets are by their very nature time-consuming.   \n<\/p>\n<p>\nEach ticket is then discussed verbally together and notes are created. Once done, the ticket is assigned to anyone who volunteers as they are confident they can help (a worthy tribute!) or it is given to the person the group feels best in the position to answer.    \n<\/p>\n<p>\nWho gets what has to be a healthy mix of common sense and ability. Usually each staff member already has a backlog of tickets they are working on from the previous day so it is futile to give anyone more work than they can handle for the day. Plus, we have to make sure the person assigned the task is willing and able to assist with the topic.    \n<\/p>\n\n\n","title":"...Workflow...","options":{"media":{"width":4000,"height":4000}}}],"_fields":[],"parse_shortcodes":1}