Time to first response SLA - how to stop SLA if first response is not via the Service Desk?

[Firas Amer]

I need some advice on how to set up conditions for the "time to first response" SLA if the agent is contacting the customer not via the service desk but via phone, personal email, face to face... Currently the SLA counting is set up in a way that the counting will stop when there is a comment for the customer.

I have defined a custom field which shows if the customer was contacted outside of the service desk, but I cannot define this field to be set as a condition for stopping the clock. I can define the SLA starting, pausing and ending time only based on status, comment and resolution (set or cleared).

I thought maybe I can create a temporary resolution type (contacted via phone), however if I set any resolution the ticket won't be visible in the customer portal any more, so that is not a good workaround.

I found a feature request to stop SLA counting manually, but this is only for server: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSDSERVER-5172

I would like to avoid over-complicating the workflow by adding an additional status. Could you please help me out here? How did others solve this issue? Thanks!

[Tom Lister · Accepted solution]

Hi @Firas Amer

This isn't a solution to your question, but in a lot of orgs, even if the customer is contacted/called over phone, the agent still records a note of the conversation and updates the issue status.

is that an option in your case?

[Firas Amer]

thanks Tom! It makes sense.

However I would like to keep the option to stop manually - we have a very tight - 1 hour SLA for certain issues, and in most of these cases the first contact will happen via phone. The agent will not always be able to summarize the phone conversation within the given time... I also would like to track manually in how many cases the first contact does not happen via the service desk ( for this I guess I can use the custom field).

Would I be able to stop an SLA by adding an internal comment with a specific test?

[Tom Lister]

Hi @Firas Amer

The SLA rules don't cover that but you could add an Automation rule to transition the issue for you which should have the same effect

e.g.

Automation doesn't have custom field checks but there may be plugins that provide more conditions.

You could also set a workflow transition to do everything for you so either the agent can hit one button to 'Set a Phone contact' and do everything for you or the automation can trigger the custom transition.

[Firas Amer]

when an agent picks a ticket it is already in "In progress" status. But I guess I need to change the process then, meaning it can be moved to "in progress" status only once a comment was added (either external or internal containing" phone call") Thanks Tom!

[Tom Lister]

Hi You can use the approach to for any transition, I only suggested in Progress as an example.