Top 8 common help desk problems and solutions to them. A troubleshooting guide.

Updated for accuracy on 25.06.2024.

Did you know that nearly 46% of companies prioritize customer experience as their top goal for the next five years? A customer-centered approach is now the industry standard. This is why mastering IT service management is crucial. Here are the top 8 help desk problems in Jira Service Management and how to solve them.

You can break down common help desk issues into technical and user problems.

Technical issues relate to the systems and software that users rely on. These can include:

User problems result from a lack of knowledge or confusion about using the technology. Here are some examples:

In addition to these, help desks can also face issues with internal processes, such as:

Tier 1 help desk issues are the everyday problems of the customers. Usually, it is possible to fix them quickly with a little know-how. They include, for example, password resets, printer problems, or internet issues. Tier 1 reps handle help desk tickets by following clear instructions to get you back up and running. There’s usually a playbook for these issues. Tier 1 reps can walk you through step-by-step instructions to get things working again.

If the problem is more complex, tier 1 will most likely hand it off to the Tier 2 crew for a more in-depth examination.

Tier 2 help desk problems are more complex. They require advanced knowledge and experience to diagnose and solve problems. Think of software glitches that don’t follow the usual script or unexpected hardware malfunctions. These are the examples of issues that tier 2 reps fix. Help desk software plays a crucial role in managing these problems. It tracks incoming issues, automates responses, and provides analytical insights to support processes.

While tier 1 team relies on established solutions, tier 2 reps often need to think outside the box. They may need to analyze logs or collaborate with other specialists to find the root cause. If the problem falls outside their expertise, they’ll escalate it to the tier 3 team. 

Tier 3 help desk issues challenge even the most advanced professionals. They include systemwide performance issues, security breaches, or integration problems. Tier 3 specialists should have an in-depth understanding of how the system works.

These level 3 problems demand innovative solutions. We mean by that writing custom code, developing workarounds, or collaborating with developers.

Now that we’ve covered technical issues, let’s move on to common help desk problems and solutions.

A project administrator can check SLAs. The support team also has access to tickets. But what about the users? They can only wait patiently. By default, as a client you can’t check Jira SLA on the Customer Portal. But people want to know what’s going on. Not only their ticket status but also the waiting time. 

To make it possible for them, use apps for Jira Service Management, like Extension. With its Request Detailed View feature, you can show SLA details to everyone involved. 

Long wait times can cost companies 82% of their customers. Clients not only want to have their answers right away but also like staying up to date when it comes to their cases. That is why it’s important to watch the time-to-resolution metric. The time-to-resolution is crucial — it’s the key to maintaining customer satisfaction by ensuring timely responses. This knowledge will keep your customer service efficient and clients in the loop. 

a. Metrics by choosing the SLA metrics you want to show.

b. Request types by choosing request types for which the SLA metric should be shown.

c. Jira groups by choosing Jira groups for which the SLA metric should be visible.

Let’s imagine a situation where one day your company laptop gets broken. Thankfully, your company uses the Jira Service Management help center. All you need to do is to raise a request. You go to the Customer Portal, select Request new hardware… and see a whole bunch of fields that are related to different things: laptops, phones, screens, TVs, printers, and so on. How to limit these fields?

You can try the feature called Dynamic Forms, which is available in Extension for Jira Service Management. It enables reducing the number of custom fields, as well as setting user or group permissions.

Another helpful feature is Bundled Fields. It enables bundling all related information into one custom field. You can display Bundled Fields as an additional form, such as a checkbox, text, select list, and more.

Unclear request forms leave clients confused about which fields they should fill in. It leads to frustration and abandoned requests.

The Dynamic Forms feature in Extension enables agents to define which custom fields should be displayed on issues. You can show particular fields, depending on the previous selection. If you need a cell phone, the next question will be about the phone brand. If you choose a new screen, you’ll get a question about its resolution. The Extension app also lets you restrict the display of options for selected user groups. For example, you can set up the Apple option in the Brand custom field to be visible only to the people from the management staff.

Creating a more user-friendly Customer Portal is not only about the forms. It starts one step before, during request type selection. Let’s say you work in a software house which offers different services. One team develops applications for Atlassian products, another creates mobile apps, and yet another one is responsible for marketing. These teams have common issues, such as holidays, but the marketing guys work for a fixed price and can’t report overworking hours. So the question is: why do I see the request type named Report overworking hours if I belong to the marketing team? It can be confusing, but we can do something with it. 

Another way to effectively shorten the customer’s or employee’s path to make a specific request is to use the Categorization feature in Theme Extension for Jira Service Management. The feature is available on Data Center hosting. 

Categorization enables creating specific categories and hiding those that are irrelevant to a given user or a group. We can add more categories, for example, for every department in the company. This allows us to create a Customer Portal that will be maximally tailored to the needs of a specific person. It will also be free from unnecessary categories.

To set the configuration, simply go to Jira Administration > Manage apps, select Categorization, and click Edit. Now, you’re allowed to select specific groups or organizations. They will be able to see a specific category in their Customer Portal. Simply hide all of the categories that are not relevant for a given department.

Sooner or later, every person in a company uses the internal Customer Portal. You must be requesting something: ordering new hardware, booking a day off, or reporting overworking hours. If you have an issue on the Customer Portal, you can move your ticket to a different status. Unfortunately, you can’t add extra information during these transitions. Of course, there’s a possibility to add a comment, but you can’t extend the range of fields on the transition screen. For example, if you want to reopen the ticket, you are not able to change its priority or the due date.

With the Actions for Jira Service Management app, you’re able to add extra information on workflow transitions as a user.

To configure Actions, go to the Workflow actions section. Click the expand arrow icon next to the Displayed title section of a chosen Workflow action. You can see the details of its configuration. To change it, click the pencil icon. You will be redirected to the Configuration view.

Queues for Taylor Swift’s live show and Jira tickets queues can both be annoying. Especially as the default queues in Jira Service Management are not the most user-friendly. You can’t create cross-project queues, copy them to modify quickly, or sort the list by any column. 

You can go past these limitations thanks to Queues for Jira & JSM. The app lets you group your queues into folders, or hide the unused ones. The Hidden folder is not refreshed, so there’s less risk that your Jira will crash or slow down due to data overflow. You can restore them anytime you wish, and every user can adjust the queues’ display individually. What’s more, Jira administrators can create visible queues only for selected groups. Thanks to this, every part of the team sees only what’s relevant to them. You can restrict the developers to the development issues, let your sysadmins handle hardware requests, or remind the HR department of their tasks.

According to HubSpot research, a tremendous number of 93% of consumers are more likely to make repeat purchases at companies with excellent customer experience. This leads us to the last problem: the language barrier. Due to the rapid global development of multicultural companies, users usually stick to using the Customer Portal in English. For some of them, it is not a big deal, but many people still prefer to read in their mother tongues. That’s why if we’re able to support customers in their native tongues, we’ll experience a boost in customer satisfaction.  

Jira Service Management enables translating the Customer Portal and support in multiple languages, but only for Cloud instances. We can do the same in the Data Center, however, the translations will be incomplete. To provide clients with custom field translations you can use apps like Extension. Here’s how to configure it on the Dynamic Forms configuration page.

Translate your request forms:

Still curious? Go through the Arcade tutorial to learn how to do it step by step:

My Requests screen helps collect all the requests we’ve created. It works even when we’ve used different Customer Portals. One glance is often enough not only to view the basic information about the tickets. It is also sufficient to perform actions, such as filtering by status or searching. Still, the default view of the My Requests screen in Jira Service Management lacks the possibility of an unlimited choice of fields. 

Using My Requests Extension for Jira Service Management helps a lot. It enables users to customize the requests list to their needs. This app, dedicated to the My Requests list, allows admins to choose which fields the customers can add as columns and which will be displayed by default. To do it, go to the Columns bar. Fill in the field’s name or choose it from the list. The field is automatically added as a column. You can also limit the field’s visibility for selected groups. 

Troubleshooting IT issues is methodical, like detective work. You start by gathering clues (symptoms, error messages) and retracing your steps (recent changes). Then, you isolate the problem (one device or entire network?) and consult resources (manuals, forums) to form a hypothesis (outdated software, conflicting settings). Finally, you test solutions logically (updates, restarts).

Don’t forget to document your findings for future reference. 

Sometimes you need a more technical approach. There is no one, universal way to troubleshoot Jira Service Management issues. However, there are general steps you can follow to diagnose and fix most problems. Here are 7 troubleshooting steps you can take:

Getting familiar with common help desk problems and solutions is a great first step. By following the next steps, you should be able to troubleshoot most Jira Service Management problems. If you’re still having trouble, you can contact Atlassian support for further assistance.

The first step is to clearly define the issue you’re facing. Is there a problem with users submitting requests? Are agents unable to see certain information? Is Jira Service Management performing slowly? The more specific you can be, the easier it will be to pinpoint the cause.

Once you know what the problem is, gather as much information as possible about it. This may include things like:

Jira Service Management logs can provide valuable clues about what’s going wrong. You can access the logs by going to Administration > System > Troubleshooting and Support > Logging and Profiling.

Sometimes a simple restart can resolve the issue. This is especially true if the problem is caused by a temporary glitch.

Jira Service Management caches data to improve performance. However, sometimes the cache can become corrupted, which can lead to problems. You can clear the cache by going to Administration > System > Troubleshooting and Support > Caching.

If you’re using any third-party apps for Jira Service Management, try disabling them one by one. Then you will see if one of them is causing the problem.

The Atlassian Community is a great resource for finding solutions to common Jira Service Management problems. You can search the community for issues that are similar to the one you’re experiencing. If you can’t find a solution, you can also post a question in the community and ask for help from other Atlassian users or support staff.

To overcome common help desk problems, transparency is key. Display estimated wait times (SLAs) so customers know how long resolving their requests might take. Optimize request forms by reducing fields and grouping related information. Make them dynamic to adapt based on user selections.

Clear and organized request types are also important. Categorize them and restrict visibility based on user groups to avoid confusion. Support self-service by allowing users to add extra information during ticket transitions.

Simplify queue management and user experience by managing queues from a central location. Translate the Customer Portal into multiple languages to meet your customers halfway. Finally, allow users to personalize their My Requests list view based on their needs. To give your customers the help desk they deserve, implement these solutions today!