Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Ticketed Customer Service Advisor

🎯 Role Definition

A Ticketed Customer Service Advisor owns the end-to-end lifecycle of customer support requests submitted through ticketing platforms, delivering timely resolutions across email, web forms, chat and portal channels while adhering to SLAs and quality standards. This role requires strong written communication, system-savvy troubleshooting, CRM proficiency, empathy, and a continuous improvement mindset to reduce repeat contacts and improve customer satisfaction (CSAT).

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Customer Service Representative (phone-focused)
Retail or frontline customer support roles
Technical support intern or junior helpdesk associate

Advancement To:

Senior Ticketed Customer Service Advisor
Team Lead, Customer Support
Customer Support Manager
Escalations or Incident Manager

Lateral Moves:

Quality Assurance Analyst (Customer Support QA)
Implementation or Onboarding Specialist
Account Coordinator / Customer Success Associate

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Manage a high-volume queue of inbound support tickets across multiple channels (email, web portal, chat, social) using ticketing systems such as Zendesk, Freshdesk, ServiceNow or JIRA Service Desk, ensuring each ticket is accurately categorized, prioritized, and routed according to SLA guidelines.
Respond to customer inquiries with clear, professional, and solution-oriented written communication; craft concise responses and use templates/macros where appropriate while customizing to preserve a personalized customer experience.
Troubleshoot account, billing, and product issues by extracting and analyzing relevant data from CRM and internal systems, guiding customers step-by-step through diagnostics, reproducing issues when possible, and confirming resolution.
Prioritize tickets based on severity, impact, and SLA targets; escalate incidents to second-line support, engineering, or product teams when necessary and follow through on escalations until closure.
Document all customer interactions comprehensively in the ticketing system, including steps taken, timestamps, root cause hypotheses, and any workarounds, to support traceability and knowledge sharing.
Execute ownership of repetitive or complex tickets from first contact to final resolution, scheduling follow-ups and proactively updating customers until the case is satisfactorily closed and CSAT goals are met.
Identify and recommend process improvements by tracking recurring ticket trends and root causes; work with cross-functional teams to implement permanent fixes, reduce ticket volume, and improve first-contact resolution (FCR).
Perform account changes, refunds, returns, subscription modifications, and access provisioning/de-provisioning within defined security and compliance protocols; ensure proper authorization and documentation for sensitive actions.
Maintain and update the knowledge base and internal FAQs with clear troubleshooting guides, diagnostics steps, and approved templates to improve team efficiency and customer self-service success.
Monitor and meet key performance indicators including response time, resolution time, backlog, SLA compliance, CSAT, and NPS; proactively flag risks to managers and propose mitigation steps to protect SLA metrics.
Participate in on-call rotations or weekend coverage where required, handling priority incidents and ensuring continuity of support across global or extended-hours operations.
Coordinate with product, engineering, and QA teams to log reproducible defects, provide detailed reproduction steps, attach logs/screenshots, and validate fixes in staging and production environments.
Provide proactive communication during outages or system incidents: create status updates, escalate to incident management, and communicate timelines to customers while aligning with internal incident response processes.
Offer tailored support for high-value or enterprise customers, including account-specific troubleshooting, tailored SLAs, and documented communication plans to maintain strong customer relationships.
Conduct outbound follow-ups to verify resolution, gather feedback, and drive upsell or cross-sell awareness only where appropriate and in alignment with company policy.
Manage multiple concurrent tickets efficiently while maintaining attention to detail and avoiding errors during data entry, billing changes, or account updates.
Train and mentor new advisors in ticketing workflows, escalation procedures, and quality expectations; lead by example in written communication and ticket handling best practices.
Execute periodic quality checks and participate in coaching sessions to improve response quality, tone, and technical accuracy based on QA feedback and performance reviews.
Ensure compliance with data protection policies (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) when handling personally identifiable information (PII) and perform identity verification steps as required before disclosing sensitive details.
Collaborate with marketing, product, and operations teams to share front-line customer feedback and help prioritize product enhancements and self-service content that will reduce future ticket volume.
Assist in migration and optimization of ticketing tools — help develop ticket forms, triggers, automation rules, and SLA configurations to streamline workflows and improve routing accuracy.
Support billing and invoicing escalations by reconciling account histories, generating billing statements, coordinating with finance teams, and offering clear explanations to customers.
Analyze ticket metrics and generate weekly or monthly reports summarizing trends, hot topics, SLA adherence, and recommendations for leadership to drive strategic support improvements.
Maintain professional demeanor and positive tone in high-stress interactions, de-escalating frustrated or upset customers and turning difficult experiences into positive outcomes where possible.

Secondary Functions

Contribute to the ongoing development and maintenance of the internal knowledge base, canned responses, and troubleshooting playbooks to increase team FCR and reduce average handle time (AHT).
Support quality assurance initiatives by participating in ticket audits, providing constructive feedback, and implementing QA improvements suggested by the team lead.
Participate in product release reviews and testing for new features to understand potential support impacts and prepare appropriate support materials or escalation paths.
Assist with onboarding of new support tools and integrations (e.g., CRM syncs, chatbots, remote access tools) by testing flows and creating user-facing documentation.
Provide ad-hoc analysis of ticket trends and customer sentiment to help marketing and product teams prioritize fixes and messaging.
Collaborate in cross-functional projects to improve the customer journey, including knowledge base SEO optimization, self-service portal enhancements, and IVR improvements.
Help coordinate and document major incident post-mortems, capturing lessons learned and recommended actions to prevent recurrence.
Take part in periodic training sessions on compliance, product updates, and customer handling techniques to remain current with policies and service offerings.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proficiency with ticketing and helpdesk systems (e.g., Zendesk, Freshdesk, ServiceNow, JIRA Service Desk) including creating, tagging, routing, and resolving tickets.
Experience with CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot) to view customer history, update records, and log interactions accurately.
Strong written communication skills for professional email and chat support; ability to create clear, concise, and customer-centered responses.
Familiarity with SLA management and monitoring tools to prioritize work against time-based targets and maintain compliance.
Basic troubleshooting skills for product or platform issues, including reproducing bugs, collecting logs/screenshots, and guiding customers through diagnostic steps.
Knowledge of data protection and privacy principles (GDPR/CCPA) and best practices for handling PII and secure verification processes.
Ability to use macros, templates, and automation features in helpdesk tools to increase efficiency while maintaining personalization.
Experience preparing and interpreting customer support metrics (CSAT, NPS, FCR, AHT) and translating them into actionable improvements.
Comfort with basic account management tasks: billing reconciliation, subscription adjustments, refunds, and order lookups.
Familiarity with collaboration tools (Slack, Microsoft Teams, Confluence) to work effectively with cross-functional teams.
Ability to produce clear documentation and KB articles, including screenshots, step-by-step instructions, and troubleshooting flows.
Practical knowledge of escalation procedures and incident management frameworks to coordinate with technical teams during outages.

Soft Skills

Empathy and active listening: demonstrates patience, understands customer emotions, and responds with compassion while staying solution-focused.
Clear written empathy and tone control for digital-first support where voice cues are absent.
Problem-solving mindset: quickly analyzes information, identifies root causes, and proposes practical solutions or workarounds.
Time management and organization: balances multiple open tickets, prioritizes tasks, and meets SLA-driven deadlines.
Resilience and stress management: maintains calm under pressure and recovers quickly from difficult interactions.
Collaboration and cross-functional communication: coordinates smoothly with engineering, product, and operations teams to resolve issues.
Attention to detail: accurately records customer data, follows compliance procedures, and avoids errors in account actions.
Adaptability and continuous learning: stays up-to-date with product changes and iteratively improves support techniques.
Customer advocacy: represents the customer's voice internally and pushes for fixes or enhancements that improve customer experience.
Coaching and mentoring: supports new hires and peers with constructive feedback and practical guidance.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or equivalent; demonstrable customer-facing experience accepted in lieu of formal degree.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Communications, Information Technology, Hospitality, or related fields.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Communication Studies
Information Technology / Computer Science
Hospitality Management
Customer Experience / Service Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

1–4 years of customer service or technical support experience, with at least 6–12 months in ticketed, multichannel support environments.

Preferred:

2+ years handling ticket queues in Zendesk, Freshdesk, ServiceNow, or similar platforms.
Experience supporting SaaS, e-commerce, telecom, or financial services customers with demonstrated SLA achievement and strong CSAT results.
Prior exposure to CRM tools (Salesforce, HubSpot), billing systems, or enterprise account support for B2B or enterprise customers.