SmartSuite Template: Managing Service Requests with SmartSuite

Simplify Managing your Service Requests with SmartSuite

You’re getting a lot of different service/support requests from a lot of different people from every communication method imaginable–emails, phone calls, text messages, Slack, Teams, etc–all day long.

In short, your organization needs an easier way to assign and track these requests.

With SmartSuite, you can build a simple solution that is designed (1) to help your managers assign and track the progress of all requests and (2) help your team members or technicians see what requests are assigned to them as well as the due date and priority.

In this blog post, we’ll walk you through a simple SmartSuite template for managing service requests.

Our Approach

At Simple Ops, we practice a process-first approach to building solutions for our clients. So we will first take a look at the workflows this solution needs to support and the requirements needed to make a “functional” system for this use case. Then, we will walk through how this SmartSuite template is built to support those workflows and meet those requirements.

Service Request Workflow and Solution Requirements

For this solution, the organization is looking to support a simple workflow for their client service requests.

Service Request Workflow

Client sends a request (email, message, phone call, online form, etc.)
Service manager reviews the request, asks any follow-up questions, assigns a due date, and assigns a team member to complete the task
Team member reviews the request, asks any follow-up questions, completes the request, and–if needed–assigns it back to the manager for review
Either the service manager or the team member lets the client know that their request has been completed

Next, let’s break down some requirements needed to build a solution that will support this workflow.

System Requirements

Track multiple requests from multiple clients
Track sub-tasks for requests
Track request status: new, in process, blocked, waiting on client, manager review, complete
Track progress on requests
Assign each request to a team member
Notes field so the service manager can relay any pertinent information
Service manager should be able to see and assign all requests
Team members should be able to manage their open and pending requests
Track the day/time the request is marked as complete
Any user should be able to log a new request and assign it to the service manager to review
Team members should be able to see the contact details/who to contact regarding the request
The solution should be fairly simple, easy to use, and intuitive

Users and Views

Now that we know what workflow we need to support and what our requirements are for building a solution let’s walk through who will be using the solution and what they will need to be able to do/see within the application.

Users

Based on our workflow and requirements, the following people/user types will need access to the SmartSuite solution and applications.

Service Managers - View and manage all requests in all statutes as well as summarize/report on requests.
Service Team Members - View requests assigned to them and track request sub-tasks and notes.
Administrative Team Members - Add new requests and assign them to the service manager to review.

Views

Next, let’s take a look at how the data will need to be displayed in the application.

Request Management - A page where Service Managers can view and manage all requests.
Open/Pending Requests - A page where Service Team Members can view and manage all open requests assigned to them.
All Requests - A page where Service Team Members can see all requests assigned to them (regardless of status).
Add Requests - A page where Administrative Team Members (or any other user) can add new requests received and see what tasks they’ve previously added.