Sixth Insight - The Hidden C in Data

Sixth Insight - The Hidden C in Data

The Wheels of Ticketing - Desk Stories

The Hidden C in Data

[Importance of clean data]


Data cleaning

Data cleaning ensures ticketing systems' data is accurate, consistent, and complete. This process includes eliminating duplicates, fixing errors, and addressing missing information.
Quote
Clean data is happy data.

Why is data cleaning so important?

Data cleaning eliminates errors, inconsistencies, and duplicates within data, resulting in increased accuracy. Tools are available to help you swiftly address data issues. Enhancing accuracy enables the extraction of reliable insights. Inconsistent or inaccurate data can lead to misleading results, poor decision-making, and ineffective strategies.

Data hygiene

Data hygiene in a ticketing system refers to the processes and practices involved in maintaining accurate, complete, and consistent information. This is crucial for ensuring that customer support operations run smoothly and effectively.


  • Data accuracy
  • Data completeness
  • Data consistency
  • Data deduplication
  • Regular data audits


By prioritizing data hygiene, organizations can improve the efficiency of their support teams, enhance the quality of customer service, and gain valuable insights from reliable data analytics.

A story for better interpretation

Scrub your data clean

Once upon a time, a small but dedicated team in a tech company managed customer support through a ticketing system called "HelpNow." As the company grew, so did its customer base, leading to an overwhelming influx of support tickets. Although the team worked diligently, the increase in tickets created clutter. 
 
Once efficient, the HelpNow system became cluttered with old tickets, unresolved issues, and duplicate requests. Customer satisfaction started to decline as users waited longer for their problems to be resolved. Frustration lingered not only in the hearts of customers but also within the support team, which they found increasingly challenging to navigate through the cluttered ticketing system.
 
One day, the team lead, Joey, called for a meeting to address the urgent situation. "We need to scrub our data clean," he announced. The team discussed various strategies, but he had a vision of what needed to be done and a systematic approach to decluttering their HelpNow system.
 
The initial step entailed thoroughly reviewing and categorizing all existing support tickets utilizing a custom view. The team reached a consensus to archive tickets over six months old and lacked follow-up, as these were likely associated with resolved issues. To ensure efficient progress, they established a clear deadline for this undertaking, fully aware that collaborative effort and focused teamwork were essential for effectively addressing the backlog. Their strategic approach aimed to organize the current workload and foster a more streamlined process for ticket management.
 
Joey organized a “Scrub-a-thon” a week later, encouraging everyone to join forces. Each team member was assigned a category of tickets to review. Deleting duplicates became a friendly competition. Teams found ways to delete tickets using mass updates and automation, rewarding those who could clear the most entries. They quickly learned that many tickets had been created multiple times due to customers submitting the same request across different channels.
 
During this process, the team discovered an unexpected treasure trove of information. Many old tickets contained insightful feedback about the product, creating a new FAQ section that addressed common user questions. They also realized that some bugs needed urgent attention, leading to prioritized fixes for the product.
 
As the Scrub-a-thon continued, the team also acknowledged the importance of customer communication. They crafted an email update to inform customers about their efforts to improve support quality. Customers appreciated the transparency and felt confident that their concerns were being taken seriously.
 
After two weeks of hard work, their system was transformed. The volume of tickets had been dramatically reduced, and the remaining tickets were prioritized and categorized effectively for quicker solutions. Customer agents could easily navigate the system and focus on resolving issues rather than wading through a digital maze.
 
Reports generated from the cleaned data helped Joey and her team identify trends in customer inquiries and revamp their product support resources accordingly. Inspired by their findings, they implemented a new self-service help widget to empower users with immediate solutions. 
 
The results were incredible: response times dropped, customer satisfaction surged, and the support team thrived in their more organized environment. The HelpNow system became a case study in transforming mess into clarity, demonstrating the power of scrubbing away the unnecessary to unveil the valuable.

Best practices

Scheduled data audits

Scheduled data audits are the systematic process of regularly reviewing and analyzing data within a specific timeframe to ensure accuracy, compliance, quality, and relevance. This practice is essential for businesses and organizations to maintain the integrity of their data, identify errors, and ensure adherence to regulations and standard policies.

Removing inaccurate data entries

Removing inaccurate data entries means eliminating incorrect, erroneous, or misleading information entered into a system. These inaccuracies can occur for various reasons, including human error, technological glitches, data migration issues, or a lack of standardized procedures. 

Setting up field validations

Setting up field validations is crucial in ensuring data integrity and enhancing the user experience in any application. Field validations check users' input to ensure it meets specific criteria before being processed or saved. Validation rules in Zoho Desk help you overcome this problem by arresting incorrect data even before it can enter your help desk. Refer here for more details.

Detecting duplicate data

Duplicate data detection is crucial for maintaining data integrity and accurate records. The deduplication feature in Zoho Desk helps you find duplicate records in bulk and merge them.  Refer here for more details.

Addressing data security

Addressing data security involves implementing measures and practices to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access, breaches, and other cyber threats. Encryption takes the final stand against attempts to steal your data. It completes data protection by ensuring your data can neither be damaged nor stolen in the unfortunate event of a security breach.. Refer here for more details.

Inactive record management

Inactive record management involves managing records that are no longer in active use or required for daily operations. This encompasses outdated documents, files, or data that must be preserved for prospective reference, even though they do not require frequent access. In Zoho Desk, ticket management is simplified by automating the archiving of follow-up-less tickets over six months old by a deadline.. Refer here for more details.

Integrate data with analytics

Data analysis helps identify inconsistencies. Data analytics can automatically identify and flag inconsistencies within datasets. This helps agents quickly pinpoint errors or anomalies that might go unnoticed, improving the overall data quality. Data analytics can assess the quality of the data in real-time. It can provide metrics on completeness, accuracy, and consistency, giving agents the insights needed to ensure that the data they are working with is reliable. Refer here for more details.

Summing up

Ensuring a clean and accurate database is crucial for the effective operation of Zoho Desk. Data cleaning is not simply a one-time task; it requires a continuous effort to maintain the integrity and reliability of customer information. 


Establishing clear protocols and guidelines for data cleaning will ensure that agents understand their responsibilities and take accountability for upholding data quality. Mastering data cleaning practices will enhance your success.


Please stay tuned for more Desk Module stories.

 

Cheers,

 

Kavya Rao

The Zoho Desk Team

    • Recent Topics

    • Building toppings #1 - Serving your needs with Bigin toppings

      Hey Biginners! We're excited to kick off our Developer Community series on building toppings for Bigin, and our goal is to provide an accessible, beginner-friendly, and relevant path for every developer. Imagine creating tiny pieces of software that unlock

    • Can we create Sprint with tasks from Multiple projects?

      Hi Team, We were using Zoho Sprints for quite sometime. Currently we have started the process of Sprint method. We couldnt create the active sprint board with the tasks from multiple projects. I would like to know whether this is possible or Any timeline

    • Tip of the Week #74– Create automated workflows in MS Power Automate

      Zoho TeamInbox now connects directly with Microsoft Power Automate, letting you streamline everyday routines tasks such as from sending emails to managing threads, with automated workflows. About the integration Zoho TeamInbox integrates with Microsoft

    • Account validation

      Hello everyone, I registered my account on ZeptoMail to use the system, but the problem is that the verification period on Zepto's end has already passed and I have limited functionality.

    • Paste issues in ZOHO crm notes

      Hi, since a week or so I have issues with the paste function in ZOHO CRM. I use "notes" to copy paste texts from Outlook emails and since a week or so, the pasting doesnt function as it should: some text just disappears and it gives a lot of empty lines/enters.....

    • Is it possible to add a gradient color to a newsletter im designing?

      From where i sit it looks like you can only choose a single color but not combine 2 colors?

    • New Feature: Audit Log in Zoho Bookings

      Greetings from the Zoho Bookings team! We’re excited to introduce Audit Log, a new feature designed to help you track all key actions related to your appointments. With Audit Log, you can maintain transparency, strengthen security, and ensure accountability.

    • Custom validation in CRM schema

      Validation rules in CRM layouts work nicely, good docs by @Kiran Karthik P https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/customize-crm-account/validation-rules/articles/create-validation-rules I'd prefer validating data input 'closer to the schema'

    • Customised Funnel

      We are running the standard plan for our ZOHO CRM. I have been asked if there is a way to combine data from the Calls module, Deals module and Contact Module into 1 funnel, similar to the view you can get when viewing Deals By Stages, you can see the

    • How to restrict user/portal user change canvas view

      Hi , I would like to restrict user / portal user change their canvas view because I hide some sensitive field for them. I dont want my user switch the canvas view that do not belong to them But seems Zoho do not provide this setting?

    • Good news! Calendar in Zoho CRM gets a face lift

      Dear Customers, We are delighted to unveil the revamped calendar UI in Zoho CRM. With a complete visual overhaul aligned with CRM for Everyone, the calendar now offers a more intuitive and flexible scheduling experience. What’s new? Distinguish activities

    • Account disabled

      I have an issue I need help with. Whilst trialing ZOHO CRM I created the following: Account1 (-------------) using m__ame@m__rg___s__i__.___.__ and 2 personal emails Account2 (-------------) using a personal email and 2 users _al__1@______________._o_.__

    • Blocked Email

      We are a Zoho One subscriber and use Yahoo as our MX provider. A few times each year, for the past four years, CRM blocks one or more of my Zoho One users from receiving internal email from CRM. This includes "@mentions" in all modules, and emails from

    • message var is empty in bot mention handler

      Hi, I'm encountering a problem: in my bot's mention handler, I want to retrieve the text the user typed when mentioning the bot. Example: On the #tests-cyril channel, I send this message: “@Donna hello how are you ?” I expect the system variable "message"

    • Remembrance Day to Remember – Recalling Values

      The phrase “at the eleventh hour” refers to the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, when the hostilities of World War I came to an end—but it still holds meaning today. Remembrance Day (Veterans Day in the US) is observed on November

    • Enhancing Zia's service with better contextual responses and article generation

      Hello everyone, We are enhancing Zia's Generative AI service to make your support experience smarter. Here's how: Increased accuracy with Qwen One of the key challenges in AI is delivering responses that are both contextually accurate and empathetic while

    • How to display two measures (sales and price) divided by categories on one line chart

      Hi everyone, I’m having trouble figuring out how to display two columns on a line chart with category breakdowns. What I need is a line chart where one line represents Sales and the other represents Price. However, the Price data is divided into around

    • Create custom rollup summary fields in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, In Zoho CRM, rollup summary fields have been essential tools for summarizing data across related records and enabling users to gain quick insights without having to jump across modules. Previously, only predefined summary functions were

    • Introducing the locking option for CRM records

      Last modified on 06/04/2023: Record locking option in CRM is now available for all Zoho CRM users in all DCs. Note that it was an early access feature available only upon request. Hello All, Hope you're doing well! We're thrilled to introduce our latest

    • Two new enhancements in Zoho CRM: Introducing new criteria for user fields and displaying group information in users page

      Announcement moderated on 14th June, 2023. Dear All, These enhancements are opened for all users in all DCs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear All, Hope you're well! We are here with two useful

    • Tip #49- Navigating the Remote Support Dashboard in Zoho Assist- 'Insider Insights'

      The Remote Support dashboard in Zoho Assist is designed to help technicians quickly access, manage, and monitor all their support sessions from a single, intuitive interface. Whether you’re starting a new session, managing ongoing connections, or reviewing

    • BMI formula

      I've been trying for hours to calculate BMI using height and weight as my only inputs. It's a simple calculation and I even went to ChatGPT to help me figure this out in Zoho Forms, but it led me down a path of "try this" and "try this". None of my attempts

    • SEO on blogs

      Hello, google is not able to find my blogs. Can you advice me if I need to change some settings or anything else to make it retrievable via SEO many thanks, hans

    • Duplicated Notebooks

      Out of the blue, almost all of my notebooks got duplicated and the different copies contain different information. Some seem like older copies than the others. I use the linux desktop app and sometimes the Android app. I assume that the sync failed at some point and was unable to merge the two versions together. But I'm afraid to add anything else to my notebook because if it can't properly sync 5 notebooks with only a handful of notes each, what will happen when I have hundreds of notes and I lose

    • Samsung Keyboard Issues with Notebook

      Dear Users, We're sorry to inform you that some of our users are experiencing certain issues like scrolling, delay/lag, cursor placement especially within the text notes. This occurs mainly due to Samsung Keyboard compatibility with Android 13 and some

    • Mind mapping in Zoho Projects

      Good morning,   I would like to congratulate the Zoho team for building such an inovative and responsive application that fits in the daily challenges of so many work groups. I would like suggest you another functionality that helps a lot in project planning and development: mind mapping. Mind mapping would be of great help for brianstorming, knowledge management and other needs in online collaboration.   Thanks and wish you all the best! George Maha Empresa Júnior Multidisciplinar do Instituto de

    • Retainer invoice in Zoho Finance modlue

      Hello, Is there a way of creating retainer invoices in the Zoho Finance module? If not can I request this is considered for future updates please.

    • What's New in Zoho Inventory | August – October 2025

      Hello customers, The last quarter has been incredibly productive! We've released a powerful slate of new features and enhancements in Zoho Inventory designed to give you better control, greater efficiency, and expanded functionality across your inventory

    • Documents don't sync properly

      Hello, My team recently moved to Zoho workDrive, some of my team, work remotely so we believed Zoho would be the best way to share and edit files as well as access files withing the team. However we are experiencing sync issues, when a file is uploaded in the file explorer and shows sync complete, same file can be seen on the Zoho web app but other team members can't see the said file because it is not syncing properly. i figured out that if i were to go to preferences in settings and resync the

    • We are looking for an experienced Zoho Developer

      Hi Everyone! We’re on the lookout for a skilled Zoho Developer with hands-on experience in the Zoho Developer Platform (The Vertical CRM Platform) and if you don't know what that is, then you are not the person we are looking for. You would also need

    • Initiate approval workflow after "on edit --> on success"

      Dear Community,  currently I am working on a initiative tracker which should handle approval workflows based on different initiative status. As far as I understand, an approval workflow can be triggered (only?) when data is entered for the input form to the database.  Example: A new initiative is created and submitted. --> Approval Workflow triggered Here comes my question: Is it also possible to trigger an approval workflow if the form was "simply" updated? (on edit --> on success) Imagine the initiative

    • Tax Deductible Donations to a Charity Organisation

      For Australia, what's the best/proper method for entering an expense that is a tax deductible donation to a charitable organisation. And thus is appears correctly in Accounts and BAS as a GST payable deduction?

    • Simultaneous use of WhatsApp Account in SalesIQ and ZohoDesk

      Hi, We have only one number registered in Meta, it's possible use same account for two apps? All times here we try is stopping in SalesIQ. Regards,

    • External lookup fields to synchronise with Analytics

      Hello. I suggest adding external lookup custom fields to the Zoho Analytics integration settings. Currently, these types of fields are not available for synchronisation, so they cannot be used to generate reports with related tables in Analytics. Thank

    • We should have an option to Toggle Off KB Article Links in AI Answer Bot Replies

      Hi everyone, I'm creating this topic to share a feature idea that I think would improve the customer experience when using the AI Answer Bot for self-service. The Current Behavior (The Problem) Currently, when the AI Answer Bot generates a summary or

    • Boot Loop After Removing Service from Client via Admin

      We have multiple laptops experiencing a boot loop / unable to login after the Zoho Remote service was removed from their machine remotely via the desktop client. The Windows sign-in screen is not available, and users are unable to login. This seems like

    • Request Backend Correction — Domains Mapped to Same Help Center (Multi-Brand Setup Failure)

      Hello Zoho Desk Support Team, I need assistance correcting a domain-to-brand mapping issue in our Zoho Desk instance (The Blue Ribbon Project). Both of our verified domains currently point to the same Help Center instead of separate brand portals. Current

    • is there any option to enable the participants interact - can write on the screen, while the screen is shared by the host?

      this is most expected features - for teaching children. is there any option to enable the participants interact - can write on the screen, while the screen is shared by the host?

    • How to disable the Login button in Desk Helpcenter

      Hey there, I'm testing out whether the help center within Zoho Desk could replace our existing Customer FAQ. I tried to customize the themes for the public help center frontend, but stumbled across the login button in the navigation bar. Is there any

    • Very long loading times | bad performance [ZOHO DC: EU]

      Hello there, we have recently noticed that the loading times have become extremely long when retrieving tickets and ticket details. For example, I open any ticket and get the following view. The subject and standard information (ticket owner, status etc.)

    • Next Page