How do you handle angry or frustrated customers who submit tickets?

One thing I was told early in my career was that "Perception is reality." On the surface it's a simple quote but digging deeper you see what the context is. A clients perception of the problem is their reality. It doesn't matter what what your view is on the subject, what matter's is how the client perceives the issue. With that said, understanding the issue is by far the most important step to resolving the issue. Understanding the clients perception of the concerns will help you to take the appropriate next steps in resolving it.

A ticket may not always refer to a problem. It may be a request such as access to a database or infrastructure server. This may require special authorization that may need to be included in the progress of the ticket. Security conscious organizations may require an audit trail included as the ticket proceeds. Remember people may need to be trained in how to write and use tickets. There may be mistakes made and it is best to resolve these sooner rather than later. Everyone is busy and has deadlines to meet. This includes those writing tickets and those servicing them. If anything can be misunderstood chances are it will be. So it may be useful to acknowledge the ticket with a custom message to ease the process.

Sometimes the issue is an easy one to solve, maybe something that can be resolved on the first call. But often times there are additional steps to it. Making the customer aware of those steps is important so they can have a clear understanding of what you are doing to support them. Keeping the client informed through each step as it progresses shows the client that you are on top of their concern. When it comes to timeframe, I often try to under promise so that I have room to over deliver, but also give myself additional time to avoid causing another client concern related to late solutions.

It may help to write down a series of simple steps to implement the solution. If reference to approval is needed, this will be one of them. Specify an achievable measurable time frame and notify if a delay is expected. (eg a critical person about to go on leave for a week)

In B2B area it is important to differentiate subject matter expert out of the line manager or general manager. Email signature shows the title. One person opens the case, another will work on the case and third set of people should be informed(including your peers from sales team). On critical cases resolution don't forget to inform account manager in your company about frustrating issue and its successful resolution. It helps in sales

Ensure the work is done and the customer is happy before closing the ticket. Tickets should not be rushed as this is not a competition. Almost certainly the customer will reopen the ticket if not happy. As always ask for feedback.

It's essential to know your brand's tone of voice and to have a clear understanding of how word choice will allow you to strike the right balance to come across as warm, empathetic, and professional. This is something we focus extensively on in our Customer Experience Fellowship at KindWork. Too often tone is an afterthought in customer support writing, but the best support teams know that it's all about HOW you say it!

This is great advice. Customer experience is important both internally and externally. Don't leave it until people complain. There should be feedback loops in place for all processes. Ideally use a consistent approach for feedback that people are familiar with and easily get used to using. It should become second nature in a short time.

This is an interesting one. Problems may arise when a ticketing system changes as the organization changes. Some systems may include progress on the ticket as it progresses through it's life cycle. Others just send emails as and when communications are required and these may get lost. If this happens tickets may be closed without work being done and this may result in trouble. For example, net zero targets may encourage people to clear their email to keep storage down. Filters sometimes misbehave so emails may not be where they should be. There is a lot that can go wrong. Communication is down to expectation but everyone is different including assumptions. Ideally all information should be appended to a ticket otherwise no audit trail.