When planning your category structure, try to learn from the old system. If you are replacing an existing help desk system, take a close look at it—and invite the input of others who use it regularly. What worked? What didn’t? Ask your help desk representatives what they liked about it, and what they didn’t. What reports worked? What reporting requests were difficult or impractical to meet? What categories worked? Which ones went unused or caused confusion?
While it is good to evaluate what worked and what didn’t with your existing category set, don’t try to re-create your old category system. You will be losing a great opportunity if you simply replicate your existing categories—unless you are fortunate enough to have already created a perfect system. Begin with your help desk team, including help desk representatives and managers. They can provide a wealth of real-world, front-line perspective as to how categories—and their hierarchy—can help them more efficiently and easily get the job done.
See iSupport’s whitepaper Defining and Organizing Category Structures to learn more best practices for the category creation process.
