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Is there a plug-in for Service Desk indicates when another agent is in the process of responding?

Matt Hadaway

I am hoping find a way to incorporate functionality that will alert agents that have opened a request/ticket that another agent already has the request open, and also if they are in the process of typing a response. I was using Zendesk previously and this functionality is a huge time/money saver and prevents people from "stepping on each other's toes".

Accepted answers

All comments

Ivan Tovbin

Hi Matt,

I know I'm not familliar with your business logic, but if a ticket has an assignee isn't that a good enough indicator that someone's already working on it and other agents should not interfere unless specifically asked to?

Sebastien Jacques

@Matt Hadaway, the way I handle this is through self-assignment.

Any agent who decides to pick up a request clicks the 'Assign to me' link in the request detail view.

Agents should only look in the unassigned queue for new requests to address. It also works for requests previously assigned as the previous assignee will be notified when someone else picks it up.

Matt Hadaway

I guess it's ok, as long as your agents remember to do that immediately upon opening the ticket every time. For me it's likely that an agent is going to open a ticket, take a moment to digest what's there before taking any action. And if 5 agents are doing the same thing unknowingly, you've wasted time and money.

Meg Holbrook

Hey Matt,

The way I have implemented this is to include a 'Triage' transition that does the following:

1. Opens a triage screen

2. Technician Evaluates for Impact and Severity by filling in the screen.

3. Impact/Severity trigger a priority update

4. Transition updates the assignee to the current user

5. Automated email sent to the requestor with the turn time and name of user who triaged

6. Ticket is placed back in support queue

I do all of this through automation for JIRA. While it isn't instantaneous, it does take care of all the steps my tech would have done to work and assign the ticket in their first few minutes.

Craig Castle-Mead_20fp9z

Agree that setting the assignee is a way of achieving this, however even with the process encouraged with our team, it’s still quite common to open a JSD request, forget to assign, and then do the same work as someone else. Having the system show what other agents have the same request open would be a benefit - and is supported by other service desk platforms.
CCM

Matt Hadaway

Thank you! The option of instructing all agents to assign tickets to them self as soon as they open them to prevent others wasting time is “loosey goosey”

João Fernandes

The assign option should be enough to say that someone is working in an issue. This is how Service Desk works. There is no way to say that another agent is with the same request opened in the same time, is just how service desk works, no plugins also.

The agent should assign to him as soon as he starts effectively working in the issue. If he is just looking at it and does not know if wants to take it or not, should not take it yet, and if he decides to take it, refresh the page to see if no one already took it.

If agents forget about assigning to themselves the issues, you can configure automations to auto assign the issue when he firsts update a field, or comment on it perhaps.

Regards,

João Fernandes.

Alexander Auer_2fls49

Hi,

i have written such a plugin. It is really untested and not sure if performancewise feasible. But maybe, if you would be interested, i could publish it. Not sure about the marketplace conditions and stuff.. It would look like that

Screen Shot 2018-03-16 at 14.45.33.png

That Plugin refreshes every 15 seconds, so you get kinda a liveview.

Greetings,

Alex

Matt Hadaway

Thanks, maybe Jira could hire you!

Craig Castle-Mead_20fp9z

@Alexander Auer - I'd be interested in testing it out.

Alexander Auer_2fls49

As I am not in the office until April 10th, I will post an update most likely after that date. Sorry guys

George Sopko

There is a plugin that detects for "collision" which is when two or more people open up a ticket.

Yes, assigning a ticket is the way to go, however, collision detection will alert you if someone else is viewing the ticket as well, like, with a new ticket. It's very possible for two people two click Assign to Me, and create confusion as to now who actually has it.

Matt Hadaway

Thanks, do you know the specific name of the plugin?

George Sopko

The answer would be in this JRA, there are both server and cloud versions:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-6146

Andrew Boeger

Should be, but is not. This is becoming a standard service desk feature (Solarwinds and ServiceNow at least) and should not be written off as unnecessary.

Ryan_7o55v0

has this feature been implemented or solved?
I have some great service agents and as soon as a ticket arrives they both jump on it and assign themselves and start answering.

from the JSM side, it will assign the first agent, then assign the second agent but it doesn't let anyone know of the change.

the agents are both on the same ticket and unless they look to see if the assignee changed they don't know, which results in both agents responding and then noticing afterwards of the issue.

also from reading the comments, I understand the purpose of the assignee. My team migrated from ZenDesk and this was a feature they appreciated and used frequently, therefore, I'm trying to replicate it.