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

        • Filter contacts based on selected category in Zoho Desk ticket

          Hello community, I’m setting up the Tickets module in Zoho Desk and I need help implementing the following: When a category is selected in a ticket, I want the Contact field to be filtered so that it only displays contacts that are related to that category.
        • Profile Page View Customization

          I need to change the fields, sections from the profile view of an emplyoyee.
        • Zoho Desk Android app update: Filter, Sort and Saved filters Enhancements

          Hello everyone! We are excited to introduce the below features on the Android version Zoho Desk mobile app: 1. Filter & Sort support has been introduced for the Contacts and Accounts modules. 2. Sort options is now available in Custom Modules as well.
        • Accessing shared mailboxes through Trident (Windows)

          Hi, I have a created a couple of shared mailboxes. The mailboxes are showing up on the browser based Zoho workplace, but I cannot seem to figure out how to access my shared inboxes through Trident (Windows). Am I missing something or is this feature not
        • filtering lookup field options based on information in another module.

          In our CRM system. We have the standard Accounts and Deals modules. We would like to introduce the ability to classify Accounts by Sector. Our desired functionality is to have a global list of all sectors that an Account can select, with the ability to
        • Service op locatie organiseren met Zoho FSM: waar lopen organisaties tegenaan?

          Bij organisaties met service teams op locatie merken we vaak dat de complexiteit niet zozeer in de planning zelf zit, maar in wat er rond die planning gebeurt. Denk aan opvolging na interventies, consistente servicerapporten, en het bijhouden van installaties
        • Introducing Assemblies and Kits in Zoho Inventory

          Hello customers, We’re excited to share a major revamp to Zoho Inventory that brings both clarity and flexibility to your inventory management experience! Presenting Assemblies and Kits We’re thrilled to introduce Assemblies and Kits, which replaces the
        • Does the ability exist to make tax on the customer profile mandatory?

          I am reaching out to inquire about the possibility of making the "Customer Tax" field mandatory when creating a new customer in Zoho. We want to ensure that all customers have their tax information recorded to maintain compliance with our internal processes.
        • email association with CRM

          Why is it 2024 (almost 2025) and Zoho has not figured out how to integrate email with CRM? It is so inconsistent at associating emails within CRM. I am an attorney. I have clients and work with other attorneys. Attorney John Doe is associated with multiple
        • Credit Note for Shipped and Fatoora pushed invoices

          We have shipped a Sales Order and created an Invoice. The Invoice is also pushed to Fatoora Now we need to create a credit note for the invoice When we try it, it says we need to create a Sales Return in the Zoho Books, we have already created a Sales
        • FSM - Timesheet entires for Internal Work

          Hi FSM Team, Several of my clients have asked how they can manage internal timesheets within Zoho FSM. Since their technicians already spend most of their day working in FSM, it would be ideal if they could log all working hours directly in the FSM app.
        • Add a way of clearing fields values in Flow actions

          It would be great if there was an option to set a field as Null when creating flows. I had an instance today where I just wanted to clear a long integer field in the CRM based on an action in Projects but I had to write a custom function. It would be
        • Role Management

          I am creating an analytics dashboard for a company that will be utilized by its various departments such as Finance, Marketing, and HR. My goal is to design the dashboard with separate tabs for each department. Additionally, I plan to implement role-based
        • Announcing new features in Trident for Windows (v.1.37.5.0)

          Hello Community! Trident for Windows just received a major update, with a range of capabilities that strengthen email security and enhance communication. This update focuses on making your mailbox safer and your overall email experience more reliable.
        • Early Payment Discount customize Text

          Hi, I’m currently using Zoho Books and am trying to customize the standard “Early Payment Discount” message that appears in the PDF invoice template. I’ve reviewed the documentation here: https://www.zoho.com/books/help/invoice/early-payment-discount.html
        • Deprecation of SMS-based multi-factor authentication (MFA) mode

          Overview of SMS-based OTP MFA mode The SMS-based OTP MFA method involves the delivery of a one-time password to a user's mobile phone via SMS. The user receives the OTP on their mobile phone and enters it to sign into their account. SMS-based OTPs offer
        • DKIM Now Mandatory - Changes to Zoho Forms Email Policies

          Hello Zoho Forms Users, This post is to inform you about an important update regarding the authentication of all email domains in your Zoho Forms account. This year, we are doubling down on our commitment to deliver a secure, seamless, and empowering
        • Call description in notes

          When completing a call, we type in the result of the call in the description. However, that does not show up under the notes history on the contact. We want to be able to see all the calls that have taken place for a contact wihtout having to go into
        • Email Address for Contact not Populating

          When I click "Send Mail" from a Contact's page, their email address does not auto populate the "To" field. How do I make this happen?
        • New in CRM: Dynamic filters for lookup fields

          Last modified on Oct 28, 2024: This feature was initially available only through Early Access upon request. It is now available to all users across all data centers, except for the IN DC. Users in the IN DC can temporarily request access using this form
        • Why hybrid project management might be the best fit for you?

          Project management techniques are designed to equip teams with proven methods for easy and efficient project execution. While management teams may have apprehensions about adopting the hybrid method of project management, we’ve compiled the top reasons
        • Allow all Company Users to view all projects, but only owner/admins can change projects

          I was wondering if there was a permission setting I could adjust to allow all our company users to see all projects created. Then, only the project owners and admins with the change permission. Thanks
        • Seeking help to be able to search on all custom functions that are defined

          Hello I have a lot of custom functions defined (around 200) and i would like to search some specific strings in the content of those. Is there a way to accomplish that? If not, is there a way to download all existing custom functions in some files locally
        • Totals for Sales Tax Report

          On the sales tax report, the column totals aren't shown for any column other than Total Tax. I can't think of a good reason that they shouldn't be included for the other columns, as well. It would help me with my returns, for sure. It seems ludicrous
        • Add Bulk Section / Grid Layout Duplicate Feature in Zoho Forms Builder

          Currently in Zoho Forms, users can only duplicate individual fields. There is no option to duplicate an entire section or two-column/grid layout with all internal fields. This becomes inefficient when building structured forms such as Family Details,
        • Leistungsdatum in Rechnungen (Zoho Books)

          Hallo, ist es irgendwie möglich den Leistungszeitraum in der Rechnung aufzuführen? Beste Grüße Aleks
        • Zoho Trident Windows - Streams Not Visible

          Namaste We’re having an issue with Streams not being visible in Trident (Windows), which is important for us as we share many emails internally. It appears that the feature to show Streams above the Inbox folder, as seen in the default mailbox view, is
        • Sales IQ Chat Widget is Only Displaying Last Name

          Can anyone suggest why the widget is only displaying "last name"?! We have the latest version of the wordpress plugin installed. Thanks Thanks!
        • Shopify - Item sync from Zoho Inventory

          Hi team, We’ve connected Shopify with Zoho Inventory. We want that when an item is created in Zoho Inventory, it must create a product in Shopify. But currently, new items created in Zoho Inventory are not getting created in Shopify even after clicking
        • Kill zoho meeting

          Saying the quiet part out loud. Can zoho please just give up on the idea that they can make a meeting platform and just make our workplace licenses cheaper when you remove it so people can switch to zoom or teams. Tired of the excuses, you guys cant make
        • Utilisation de Zoho en conformité avec l’article 286 du Code général des impôts (CGI)

          Cher(e) client(e), Conformément à l’article 286 du Code général des impôts (CGI) impose aux entreprises assujetties à la TVA d’utiliser des systèmes de caisse ou de gestion commerciale certifiés lorsqu’elles enregistrent des ventes à des particuliers.
        • Unable to Create Task as a Support Administrator

          Hello! I want to ask for help regarding creating tasks within the tickets. I am by default the Support Admin. I should be able to create tasks or activities right? But there's a prompt that I need to contact the Administrator. See photos for reference.
        • Introducing Forms in Zoho Sheet

          We hereby bring you the power of ​forms in Zoho Sheet. ​Now, build and create your own customized forms using Zoho Sheet. Be it compiling a questionnaire or rolling out a survey, Zoho Sheet can do it all for you. Forms is an excellent feature that helps you collect information in the simplest of ways and having it in Zoho Sheet takes it a notch higher. Build Simple yet Powerful forms Building forms using Zoho Sheet is fairly simple. The exclusive 'Form' tab lets you create one quickly. Whether you
        • Layout one survey question in a time & redirect next Page based on previous response

          I have doubt while, I am scripting survey on the Zoho where I redirecting to next page based on my previous response but didn’t get success on this. Please help me on this and tell me how I layout one survey questions in a time when I submit response
        • Zoho Bookings form pre-filled with Zoho Forms in

          Hi, I've got a contact page on my website and I'd like to have the option to book an appointment (redirected to zoho bookings page) after an option is submitted on the contact form. how would I go about doing this? thanks
        • Support “Other” Option with Free Text in Dropdown Fields

          Hello Zoho Bookings Team, Greetings, We would like to request an enhancement to the registration form fields in Zoho Bookings, specifically for dropdown fields. Current Limitation: At the moment, dropdown fields do not support an “Other” option that allows
        • Detailed Balance Sheet for tax preparer

          I'm using the free edition of Zoho Books. My tax preparer is asking for "detailed" Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet reports which include all the activity and transactions within the various categories. The default reports do not include these details.
        • Sending automated messages that appear in the ticket's conversation thread

          Good morning, esteemed Zoho Desk community, warm greetings Today I am here to raise the following problem, seeking a solution that I can implement: I need to implement an automation that allows me to send reminder messages to customers when I am waiting
        • Payment Card or Identity form-fill from Vault?

          Hello! I'm working on replacing Bitwarden with Vault and one issue I've run into is that I can't find any option to fill address and payment forms from Payment Card or Identity info that has been saved in Vault. Is there a way to do this? Is it a planned
        • Ability to add VAT to Retainer Invoices

          Hello, I've had a telephone conversation a month ago with Dinesh on this topic and my request to allow for the addition of VAT on Retainer Invoices.  It's currently not possible to add VAT to Retainer Invoices and it was mutually agreed that there is absolutely no reason why there shouldn't be, especially as TAX LAW makes VAT mandatory on each invoice in Europe!   So basically, what i'm saying is that if you don't allow us to add VAT to Retainer Invoices, than the whole Retainer Invoices becomes
        • Next Page