Top 5 Categories/Subcategories – Part of the Report Series: Mastering the Art of Reporting: Your Essential Guide to Data-Driven Storytelling
This report showcases the type of work that is being requested the most or generating the most issues within the organization. It can be run for a specific team, category, or the entire organization.
What Story Does This Report Tell?
This report unfolds the narrative of "What is causing the most problems" or "What is being most requested." Another perspective from the servicing team is, "Where are we spending most of our time?"
Creating this report is straightforward. Choose your desired time frame, locations, or departments, and group the data by Category. For a more specific and granular view, Subcategory is recommended (I prefer Subcategory).
If you've ever heard the phrase "The squeaky wheel gets the grease," this is the perfect way to think of this report. It helps you delve into what services are experiencing the most outages, interruptions, or are being most requested. Use this to tell the story of where you're spending most of your time as service providers, at least in terms of the volume of tickets. Keep in mind, this doesn't factor in the time spent on specific types of tickets, but you can find that in a separate report and combine the data for a more comprehensive understanding of the services you support!
So, what can you do with this information?
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If, for instance, the Printer subcategory has the highest volume of submitted incidents, it shows where investment may be necessary. Investing in better printers or a different process to support printing, such as transitioning from individual printers to a shared multi-function printer, may have a significant impact on supporting the service as a whole.
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Similarly, identify areas where you can implement better Knowledge or Self-Help resources. If there's something that cannot be fixed but can be educated, this helps guide your investment of time in creating those resources or building automations to streamline ticket handling.
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Use this data to determine what could be incorporated into the Service Catalog. If the reported service can be put into a workflow with a static set of outcomes, consider streamlining it by adding it to the Service Catalog.
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Identify the most requested or consumed services. This information can reveal insights into service requests already in the Catalog, helping you answer questions like: What services are being most requested or consumed? It might also highlight potential needs to address frequently requested services, such as password resets or access requests, indicating potential policy adjustments.
As with all reports, you can add filters to focus on specific parts of the organization or certain types of issues.
I hope this review of the Top 5 Categories/Subcategories Report was helpful. Remember, this is a discussion post, so I encourage you to share your thoughts, collaborate, and discuss!