15 Essential IT Help Desk Ticket Response Templates + Examples
Use these help desk ticket response templates to simplify your workflow. We’ve also included ready-to-use examples and success tips!
Delays in IT incident handling can be frustrating for users. A recent study shows that end users perceive that they lose an average of three hours and nine minutes in productivity waiting for their issues to be resolved. While your IT team may be working their hardest to find a solution, the user might not be aware of the progress of their ticket, causing concern about whether they will be able to meet their own deadlines.
Sending a freshly written response to each person who has submitted a query requires significant resources and staffing levels that would make the whole department unviable. This is why you need to find ways to reduce the workload while maintaining the engagement level with those who have submitted issues. And that is where IT help desk ticket templates come in.
This article provides best practices for creating templates that keep your users up-to-date and engaged through the resolution process, tips on how to handle angry users, and a wealth of help desk ticket response templates.
Key elements of an effective help desk ticket response template
Here are the main aspects your internal help desk ticket response templates need to cover to create an informative and engaging experience.
Examples of help desk ticket response templates
Creating templates to respond to help desk ticket actions can save teams a lot of time. Take time to consider the wording and consult with internal stakeholders to make sure these templates are clear, informative, and helpful.
Also, consider how you will deliver them. For example, email can feel formal and impersonal, while Slack is a messaging tool your users are already spending time on throughout their workday, interacting with colleagues in a more personal and conversational way. Using Slack can humanize the process, helping keep things calm when dealing with frustrating IT issues.
Here are some canned response templates to help you improve your workflows.
Acknowledgment of ticket receipt
Every user submitting a ticket to your help desk should receive an initial response to confirm receipt and reiterate their issue so that all parties know they are on the same page:
Request for more information
Sometimes the initial issue report will be incomplete or difficult to fully understand. This means your IT team will need to reach out for additional details:
Tip
Create a custom form that allows users to add relevant details about their issue. This allows you to gain as much data as you can, reducing the need to keep reaching out to the user with additional questions.
Ticket escalation notification
There are many reasons why your Tier 1 team might not be able to resolve the issue. This could be due to it requiring specialized knowledge, managerial authority, or something else. In this case, explain what is happening with the ticket escalation:
Tip
Use ticket tags to categorize issues based on the type and severity of the request and to track the progress of the ticket. This allows for more streamlined escalation and helps agents refine their messages relating to common requests.
Out-of-scope issue
Sometimes, the tickets issued will be for problems that simply do not come under your IT support desk’s remit. In this case, inform the user and direct them to the right place.
Tip
Having a workflow in place to route the ticket to the relevant team creates a more helpful user experience. This means they do not have to take any action to reach the correct department. Wrangle offers this functionality as part of its ticketing system process flow.
Temporary fix/workaround
Getting the user back to work as soon as possible is important. Even if you cannot fix the issue right away, it might be that you can put in place a temporary fix that will help them use their device or software while you work on the solution.
Issue resolved confirmation
As soon as you have a solution to the user’s issue and it is tagged as resolved, let them know about it. Then invite them to confirm that it has worked:
Tip
Some platforms can do this for you, in the background. When you use Wrangle as your ticketing system, you can send a confirmation that the issue is being resolved as soon as the agent marks it as closed. This automation saves time and ensures the user is aware of the status of their ticket.
General follow-up
In situations where you have not heard from the user after requesting further information, you have to check if the issue is still active:
Request closed after no response
Sometimes, users will send a ticket about an issue that they later fix themselves. Although many will tell you about this, sometimes they just go quiet. When there is no response from the user for a certain amount of time, automate a closure notice to be sent to them:
Ticket reopened notification
It could be that the user has been busy, ill, or away from their desk and has not had the chance to reply to your messages about closing their ticket. If they request reopening, have a template ready to confirm this action:
Tip
Some systems have a feature that instantly reopens tickets when the user responds to the thread. However, this can sometimes be triggered simply by the user thanking the agent for their help. Find a solution, such as Wrangle’s smart reopen, that uses AI to detect whether the user really wants to reopen the ticket or not.
Service delay apology
Under your service level agreement (SLA), you might have a deadline within which you promise to resolve problems. Of course, it is not always possible to meet these time limits, so you should update the user if you will not be able to meet the deadline. Give them a timeframe for another update:
Apology for an error
In case the issue the user encountered was caused by an error made by the IT team, a direct apology and statement of corrective action is in order:
Unable to replicate issue
To diagnose a problem, it is important to be able to replicate the user’s issue. Sometimes this is not possible, so it makes sense to reach out to the user and ask for more details about the situation:
Feature request acknowledgement
Your users will often find that they need some other form of functionality from your product or service and this can be useful to know when your company develops updates and upgrades. Make sure you thank and acknowledge the input of users. At the same time, be sure to manage their expectations as to whether you will take action:
Issue beyond company control
If the issue experienced by the user relates to something that is not in the power of your team to fix, you should inform them of this. Also, keep them updated so that they know they are not being abandoned:
Employee survey request
After the ticket is resolved, it is good practice to ask your user to evaluate the support they received. This valuable feedback helps you consider how effective your ticketing system is and improve the processes:
How to deal with frustrated or angry customers
Working at a help desk often brings you into contact with unhappy users who want their product or service to be up and running. So, it makes sense to learn some techniques that will help diffuse the situation and offer reassurance.
Here are some ways to deal with frustrated or angry customers:
- Stay calm and listen actively. When two angry people talk, it only makes the situation worse because both try to outdo each other. If you stay calm, it will eventually bring their anger level down to meet yours. Allow them to express their concerns and listen to what they are saying, showing empathy and understanding.
- Acknowledge their feelings. Validate their emotions by acknowledging the gravity of the situation and express genuine concern for their situation.
- Apologize sincerely. You do not have to apologize for the issue if it is not the company’s fault, but a candid apology for their inconvenience or frustration experienced can help diffuse the situation.
- Provide clear solutions. Explain the steps that you will take to resolve the issue, setting a realistic timeline, and managing their expectations.
Our top tips for using help desk ticket templates
- Personalize: Use the customer’s name and have a place in email templates to address their specific issue so that they are reassured that you are invested in them and are treating them as an individual who needs help.
- Utilize AI: So many IT tickets are repeat questions and that can take up a lot of time for your team. Wrangle’s AI-powered ticket deflection can use the information in your knowledge base to answer these queries comprehensively without them ever reaching the desk of a human agent.
- Keep templates updated: Regularly revise your helpdesk templates with canned responses to reflect your new products and the common issues that you deal with on a regular basis.
- Use simple language: Keep the messages simple and straightforward so that users can understand exactly what is happening. Avoid using jargon and break the instructions into clear, actionable steps.
- Acknowledge emotions: Show empathy and understanding for the problems the users are facing, especially for any delays or frustrations resulting from the issue.
- Prioritize responses: Modify templates for urgent issues to reflect quicker response times to those that you tag with a priority label.
- Use canned responses: Create a set of pre-written replies to common q
- ueries. Your agents can customize them for the situation and send them to users in a fraction of the time it would take to write answers out in full.
FAQ
How often should you update your help desk templates?
It makes sense to review your templates on a regular basis to ensure they are still relevant and set a reminder every year in case anything happens in between. For example, your agents may have feedback about the effectiveness of the templates and users may spot problems with them.
How do you prioritize help desk tickets?
Prioritize help desk tickets based on factors that matter to your organization, including urgency, impact on your business operations, the severity of the issue, and the order in which they were received. Tag the tickets so that agents can see the level of priority and your triage specialist can route them to the appropriate team or agent.
Why Use Canned Responses for Customer Support?
Canned responses allow you to craft the ideal wording for a range of different situations, saving your team time. They are effective for dealing with common questions and technical issues. You can also automate their delivery to help create a smooth and streamlined workflow. For example, you can set up an automation to send canned responses to specific questions in Slack.
What should be included in an IT ticket?
An IT ticket should include a clear description of the issue, steps to reproduce it, affected systems or users, urgency level, contact information, and any relevant screenshots or error messages.
Conclusion
We hope these IT help desk ticket response templates will help you improve your customer experience workflow. By creating them in advance, you save your team’s time while maintaining communication with users and keeping them in the loop.
If you want to save even more time, get Wrangle. It helps you simplify your help desk workflow with smart ticketing features built directly into Slack. With Wrangle, you can quickly:
- Turn Slack messages into tickets with tracking on an intuitive dashboard
- Use customizable canned replies that save agents time and effort
- Employ AI-powered smart replies for efficient, personalized responses
- Deflect repetitive tickets using AI that pulls answers directly from your knowledge base
- And more
These solutions go beyond templates, helping you create a seamless support experience that’s faster, friendlier, and right where your team works. Request a demo today or add it to Slack straight away.
References and further reading
- How to design a ticketing system process flow
- IT service desk KPIs
- What makes a good ticketing system
- How to automate Slack messages
- 10 ticket handling best practices
- Introduction to Jira ticketing
- Ticket categories you need for your help desk
- Try Wrangle free for 14 days
- Turn messages into trackable tickets
- Build a scalable help desk
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