Discover the strategies for using AI chatbots and self-service tools like Risotto to cut workload for your IT staff, speed up response times to employee support inquiries, and enhance worker satisfaction.

Understanding Automated Ticket Deflection

Automated ticket deflection’s role is to guide employees to AI-powered and self-service resources in order to help them solve IT-related issues on their own. This cuts the workload for your IT support staff and speeds up response times to your other employees.

Automated ticket deflection uses a combination of resources to help your employees with their requests. These systems may use AI chatbots, your company’s knowledge base, and employee communication platforms to give quick answers to common questions. More specifically, Risotto leverages the information it gains from past support tickets, your knowledge base, and your company’s Slack history to provide fast and accurate assistance.

For instance, a recently hired employee–Rita–needs access to your team’s Asana workspace. Rita has asked the coworkers around her, but they were unable to help. Rita then posts on your company’s Slack asking for help. Rather than waiting for a response from a member of the IT staff, Risotto swoops in with an answer, providing options and granting access to Asana for Rita within moments. It’s a routine task that your IT staff doesn’t have to get involved with, freeing up their time to tackle the complex issues that need human expertise. All the while, Rita isn’t neglected and gets the information she needs.

Benefits of Automated Ticket Deflection

Automated ticket deflection strategies bring big benefits to your IT support operations and to the overall efficiency and health of your company. These major benefits include:

Ticket reduction

The first and most obvious benefit is that automated ticket deflection reduces the number of support tickets that get sent to your IT support staff. Risotto deflects up to 60% of tier-1 tickets. If your IT staff gets 100 support tickets a week, that means they may only need to deal with 40 of those requests.

Help is available 24/7

This is especially advantageous for companies with remote teams or large enterprises with offices around the country or world. If an employee needs immediate support at 9:30 AM in their timezone, but it’s 6:30 AM in your IT staff’s timezone and no one is at the office, that employee can ping Risotto on Slack and get help right away.

It empowers employees

When employees can find solutions without needing the direct support of others, they feel more in control of their work and more self-sufficient. It provides them with a greater sense of place at your company.

It saves money

What company doesn’t want to save money? For one, using automated ticket deflection strategies as an organization grows, reduces the need for a large support team. Your IT department can remain lean, while tackling bigger tech problems. You can then allocate resources to those solutions, instead of in expanding the team. 

And with an application like Risotto, your company doesn’t need to spend a massive budget on integrating automated ticket deflection into your processes. Risotto works with tools you already use like Slack, Notion, Confluence, Google Drive, and more. 

It gives priority to what needs it most

As mentioned, with up to 60% of tier-1 tickets deflected with Risotto, priority is given to more-critical issues. For instance, say one employee sends a support ticket because he’s forgotten his log-in password, while another employee sends a support ticket about a possible security breach. Both issues will be addressed right away–the simple problem about a log-in password reset by Risotto, and the security breach by your IT and security team.

To delve deeper into how ticket deflection can optimize operations and enhance resource allocation for your IT support team, explore Risotto’s insights on streamlining support efficiency through an IT helpdesk chatbot.

Evolution of AI-Powered Solutions in Ticket Deflection

Like everything in the workplace, AI technology has reshaped ticket deflection strategies. The strategies, once static like knowledge bases, have moved to dynamic, AI-powered solutions. Key solutions are AI chatbots and smart search functions. Both offer instant assistance, guiding users to the right solutions quickly without human intervention. These tools learn from past interactions, improving their responses over time. For instance, Risotto, when integrated with your company’s Slack, will learn from your workspace’s history. It’ll identify common support questions and their solutions to help resolve future support tickets. 

Here's how AI advancement in automated ticket deflection is making a difference:

• Personalized Support: AI tailors responses based on user behavior and past interactions.

• Smart Chatbots: Provide immediate help, reducing the need for human intervention.

• Continuous Learning: Systems evolve by analyzing previous queries and feedback.

• Enhanced Search Functions: Direct users to relevant resources swiftly.

• Improved Satisfaction: Faster resolutions lead to more-satisfied employees.

For a deeper understanding of how AI is transforming help desks, you can explore Risotto’s comprehensive guide on improving ticket resolution with AI, which highlights the integration of machine learning and natural language processing.

Examples of Effective IT Ticket Deflection Strategies

Automated ticket deflection improves employee IT support. Here are effective methods to streamline your team’s support processes when using Risotto:

Keep knowledge bases and FAQs up to date

Providing up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge bases and FAQs is essential not only for your employees, but also for Risotto. Risotto uses this content to learn and address common employee queries, such as password resets, wifi information, and access management.

Provide employee forums and communication apps like Slack

Another way Risotto learns how to assist employees with their IT support requests is through your team’s collaborative communications. If an employee posts an issue on Slack and a coworker finds the solution, Risotto will learn from that and use the information to help future support tickets that are related.

Utilize AI-powered chatbots

Risotto’s AI help desk chatbots provide instant and personalized assistance to your employees. They handle simple questions, while routing complex IT issues to the right team members. For more insights on how AI and automation enhance support efficiency, explore our article on help desk automation and its transformative impact on support.

Produce tutorials and implement digital adoption platforms (DAPs)

Interactive tutorials and DAPs are two other great ways of providing assistance to your employees, while deflecting support tickets. They’re also another resource that Risotto can offer to employees when additional or visual instructions are needed for a support-ticket issue. By offering proactive assistance, you increase solved problems and reduce the chances of repeated support tickets for the same employee/request.

To further understand how these strategies can optimize support operations, consider reading about key features of ticket management systems that enhance efficiency.

Addressing Risks and Challenges of Automated Ticket Deflection Strategies

While Risotto advocates for automated ticket deflection, such a strategy doesn’t come without its challenges. A key issue is outdated or incomplete information in knowledge bases. It can frustrate employees and provide AI chatbots the wrong information to learn on, only compounding issues when the AI suggests incorrect solutions. However, this can be avoided easily; keep regular updates of this content, as mentioned.

Ineffective chatbots pose another risk. When chatbots struggle to understand or resolve queries, employees become frustrated and it will only exasperate your IT staff’s workload. Well-trained chatbots, like those powered by Risotto, handle a wide range of questions and know when to escalate issues to human agents. For more insights on enhancing chatbot effectiveness, Risotto’s article on streamlining internal support operations with AI discusses the role of AI tools like chatbots in providing 24/7 support and improving communication.

Measuring the Success of Your Automated Ticket Deflection Strategies

To measure whether your team is getting the most of automated ticket deflection and if your strategies are working, track these key metrics:

• Ticket Deflection Ratio

Measure your IT department’s ticket deflection ratio. Are enough tier-1 tickets getting deflected? Are critical requests unintentionally getting deflected as well? How many tickets are being forwarded to your IT staff and how many are they able to answer in a timely manner?

• First-Contact Resolution Rate

Measure the percentage of issues resolved on first interaction with an AI chatbot. It’s important that IT issues are getting addressed immediately, but do your team members have to open additional tickets to resolve an issue completely?

• Employee Satisfaction Scores

Obtain ratings from employees using your organization’s AI-powered support. Ask them for feedback about whether issues are getting resolved, how quickly they’re being addressed, and for suggestions for improvement. Risotto’s AI chatbot will use this information to learn and improve itself. And don’t forget to ask your IT staff as well. Is the automated ticket deflection helping them reduce their workload? Can they focus on important tasks?

Wrapping Up Automated Ticket Deflection Strategies

The technology is available to reduce the repetitive tasks for your IT staff and enables them to focus on what’s important, while providing your other employees with immediate and accurate help. So why not try a platform like Risotto? Your organization will save time, money, and improve employee productivity and satisfaction.