Communicate effectively with customers in Jira Service Management
10 min
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Use best practices when responding to customers
- Comment on multiple requests at once
- Create a canned response
Comment on work items often
Customers like to know what's going on with their requests. To keep customers engaged, add a comment whenever you have new information to share. Let them know you've received their request and you've begun working on it. Alert them to any possible delays. When closing a request, add a final comment for the customer.
👇Here’s an example of an agent keeping their customer updated.
Comment on multiple requests at once
You can also add the same comment to multiple requests, if you have similar requests or if an update applies to multiple requests.
To comment on multiple requests:
- From your service space, go to a queue that shows all the requests you’d like to comment on.
- Select the box beside each request you want to comment on.
- Select Comment in the action bar.
- Enter your text comment.
- Select Comment to add the comment to the requests.
👇 Watch this video to learn how to add comments to multiple requests at the same time.
Keep your language clear and helpful
Customers who send in a request want it resolved as quickly and smoothly as possible. Clear, simple, and helpful language helps drive this process.
Use these tips the next time you communicate with a customer:
✔ Know the level of your audience. Customers may not have the same level of expertise as you. Keep communication simple so it's accessible to everyone.
✔ Use jargon and technical terms with caution. Customers may not be familiar with certain words, and this confusion can slow down the resolution. If you need to use a specific term, be sure to provide a clear definition.
✔ Be clear, but brief. Try to provide your solution in as few sentences as possible. Add bulleted or numbered lists to clearly illustrate steps in a process. Tell your customers what they need to know, but not more.
✔ Anticipate needs. Sometimes you can solve a problem before it's even brought to your attention. You can cut out a lot of back and forth and additional requests by anticipating needs.
👉 For example: A customer requesting a new laptop might also benefit from a knowledge base article on how to set it up.
👇 Here’s an example of an empathetic comment that is also clear and concise.
Create canned responses for frequent comments
If you find yourself commenting the same question or reply often, you can create a canned response that you can quickly select and respond to customers with.
👉 For example: Jeff, an agent, often works on requests where employees need help connecting to their company’s virtual private network (VPN). Jeff has a set of five basic troubleshooting steps he provides, so he creates a canned response to save time.
Both agents and space admins can configure canned responses. Admins can configure responses that all agents can use, but agents can only configure canned responses for themselves.
To create a canned response:
- In Jira Service Management, click on a request to open it.
- In the Comments section, click Internal note or Reply to customer, depending on who you want to see the canned response.
- Click Canned responses.
- Click Create new response.
- Enter a name for the canned response so you can easily identify when to use it.
- Enter your response. Use the toolbar to format your text as needed.
- If you want to use a dynamic component, click Insert variable. These variables, like Current User and Work item assignee, automatically fill in the relevant user’s name or other information depending on the context of each ticket.
- When ready, click Create.
You can access all of your canned responses and those created by your space admin by clicking Canned responses when commenting.
Learn more about variables in Atlassian Documentation.
Add general announcements to the portal
Space admins can enable agents to add announcements to portal. They appear as banners for customers at the top of the portal.
👉 For example: If you’re actively experiencing a service outage for your software, you can add an announcement to the portal to let customers know you’re aware of the problem.
👉 Another example: If your service team will have lower availability because of a holiday, you can announce that in the portal and provide guidance on response times.
Close requests when customers are ready
Before you close the work item, make sure the customer has everything they need. A customer might have another question, or perhaps your solution didn't work for them. Allowing space for their feedback cuts down on the frustrations of re-opening the work item, or creating a new request altogether.
When the customer indicates that they have everything they need, add one final comment that you're going to mark their request as resolved.
👇 Here’s an example of an agent checking in with the customer via comments.
