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Help Desk Solution - Making Default Category blank and forcing users to make a choice

Help Desk Solution - Making Default Category blank and forcing users to make a choice
vince@moxieinteractive.com's picture
Submitted by vince@moxieinte... on 9 April, 2008 - 10:30.

We rolled out Help Desk Solution about a year ago today and currently use the out of box Categories. They are fine but sometimes users do not understand some of the terms like Break-fix. Does anyone have a different list of Categories they would like to share for I.T. Support?

We have also noticed that some users do not choose a category drop down for IT Issues. They leave what ever is default and do not change it. This is crucial to our ticket automation and routing the ticket to the correct group to handle their problem. Instead, it sits and waits for me gather these incidents and assign to proper groups. Is there any way, I can set the default Category to "blank" and force users to make a selection before they can submit their helpdesk incident?

As for categories, I got

Submitted by George Wagner on 11 April, 2008 - 23:23.

As for categories, I got rid of Break-Fix and just have Hardware, Software, etc. at my top level (with their child categories accordingly). As for the default category, I made one called "not selected" and created a validation rule that requires the category to be something other than "not selected"--so the user has to pick a real one. There is another validation rule that makes sure the user picked the most specific category and not just something up at the top level without drilling down.

IT categories

mboggs's picture
Submitted by mboggs on 19 June, 2008 - 09:32.

Our top level categories are:

  • Account Admin - network accounts, VPN, etc
  • Asset Request - hardware and mobile phones/data cards
  • Authorize-Approve - grant access to secured area, like a dept share
  • How to/Assist - pwd reset, internet, email
  • Break-Fix - includes very basic subs like Desktop or Laptop or Email
  • Telephony - voicemail, extension, phone service/quality
  • Install-Deploy - hardware/software
  • Change-Move - mostly used for employee moves/equip
  • Delete-Remove - remove access or an application



I hope this is helpful. Our categories went thru several tweaks before we ended up on these. It is hard to make them mutually exclusive and clear to the end user on what to choose.

I made the default category something that was uncommon so they are forced to see what else it there, but I really like this other idea of "none selected". I might have to try that!

Validation Rule

Submitted by krh76 on 19 June, 2008 - 12:54.

I have my default category set as 'Other'. I have a validation rule in place to force the user to chooase an applicable category other than 'Other' which is the default.

Catagories

johnquinn's picture
Submitted by johnquinn on 20 June, 2008 - 07:16.

I too am altering the categories in the Helpdesk. The break-fix ones were a liitle too vague for my taste, but I do especially the Break-Fix Employee one. It is enough for a good chuckle.

As for forcing the users to select a category, all the other posters are right in a validation rule will take care of that. Right now I force only the top level category, which is basically the group it would go to. Once I get my own category structure in place, I plan to enforce the need for at a minimum of a second level.