Every once in a while I file a support issue with some service I use. The customer service rep confidently replies with an answer. The last one, at a place I won’t name, suggested that I clear my browser cache. Of course, I had done that, multiple times on multiple browsers. That’s fine though. That response probably works most of the time. But here’s the thing: he then marked my ticket as “Closed”, problem solved. This is the second time in a couple of months that I’ve had to deal with a business who operates this way.

Here’s the First Law of Support Ticket Management: Only the customer can close a ticket.

I had a friend who worked at Disney World in the late 1970s at the complaint desk. Do you know what rule of thumb they used was for how long she should spend responding to each complaining customer? Answer: as much time as it took until the customer was happy. “But what about the people lining up behind them?” she asked. Answer: they’ll just be that much madder when they get to you and they’ll take even more time, but don’t send anyone away angry. If they’re lining up, it’s our job to get more people out here. It’s your job to make sure that the person who is upset, goes away happy.

So when I ask for support, it’s up to me to decided when my issue is closed. Strangely, I used to find it odd, even slightly annoying, that the tech reps at JaguarPC, my web host, never closed tickets, even when I said, okay, I’m fine, close the ticket. It’s always up to me to close the ticket and I’m not even sure the reps have the authority to close your ticket. As near as I can tell, only you do. Foolishly, I used to see that as a chore. Now I realize that it is a privilege and a best practice. That how it should be done. How does the Joni Mitchell song go?

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone

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Filed under: Consumer Chronicles • Software and Computing

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