What is a common method for prioritizing support tickets?

Using a combination of impact and urgency is a widely accepted best practice for prioritizing support tickets in a technical support environment. This method evaluates both the significance of the issue (impact) and how quickly it needs to be resolved (urgency).

Impact considers how the issue affects the user or business operations—whether it's a minor inconvenience or something that could halt productivity. Urgency assesses how quickly the resolution is needed. By combining these factors, support teams can categorize tickets in a way that ensures the most critical issues are addressed first, which optimizes resource allocation and enhances user satisfaction.

This approach helps maintain efficient workflow within the support team, as it establishes clear guidelines for which issues should be dealt with promptly and which can be scheduled for later. The balance of assessing both impact and urgency also aids in setting user expectations about resolution timeframes, fostering better communication and trust.

The other methods mentioned don’t effectively prioritize support tickets based on necessity and impact. Random assignment could lead to critical tickets being overlooked, while a first-come, first-served system might not address urgent issues in a timely manner. Delegating only to senior staff can create bottlenecks and may not utilize the entire team's capabilities effectively. In contrast, using impact and urgency provides a structured