Let’s face it: None of us woke up today with a goal of holding a great technical support call, did we? But if you’re reading this article, you’re in a career where delivering amazing support is your passion. And yet, the elimination of those technical support tickets is the ultimate sign of our success. One way to achieve this level of customer support excellence is through Next Issue Avoidance.
Fewer callbacks, happier users, and lower costs — without adding headcount.
What is Next Issue Avoidance?
Traditional support ends when a ticket is resolved. NIA extends the interaction: after solving problem A, you proactively reduce the chance of problem B.
Think, “If they called for VPN today, they’ll likely ask about MFA tomorrow — let’s help them now.” NIA pairs with incident management by adding anticipatory steps (e.g., post‑ticket checks, device health nudges, access‑expiration look‑ahead) so the next call never happens.
Why it matters:
- First Call Resolution is the hallmark of most call centers SLAs. NIA, tracked through identifying repeat callers is paramount to understanding root causes, identifying process improvements to creating a proactive CX environment. One Call, That’s All - Contact Center Pipeline
- 50% of all support issues are not reported. They never become a ticket.
- 25-40% of tickets in many environments are avoidable follow‑ups (passwords, updates, peripherals, access). Reducing those improves user trust and frees up support agents to do other work. Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers
- It’s said that a positive Employee Experience (EX) equals a positive Customer Experience (CX). But that equation goes the other way as well when our customers are happy, our employees are more likely to be happy. Engaged Employees Create Better Customer Experiences
- NIA shifts the Service Desk staff from reactive work to predictive care, elevating both the agent’s experience and the customer experience.
- It makes XLA achievable!
How is it used?
- Anticipate: Recognize patterns to flag the “next likely issue” based on user profile, device posture, recent changes and seasonal trends.
- Alert: Establish agents to recommend short, context‑aware steps (KB, script, short video) while the agent still has the user engaged — or via automated follow‑ups.
- Act: Lightweight automations fix low‑risk items (clear cache, update driver, renew cert, push config) and schedule higher‑risk items for a controlled change.
- Ask: Ask the right question the right way. Always frame your questions as helpful and not as extra work.
You may take a hit on call length, but the payoff can be significant. When you get the right suggestion in front of the right person at the right time. The biggest win is end user trust.
Challenge: Why don’t we practice “Next Issue Avoidance” in Incident Management scenarios?
- Our SLAs favor speed
- It may become “scope creep.”
- Training issues. We need to learn to look for adjacent patterns.
- Lack of preparation. We don’t have a customer-facing KB article.
Now let’s add AI
An incident cannot be resolved unless you can properly define it.
- Ticket creation: Can your AI agent auto create a ticket in your ticketing system? (mine can!)
- Email or Teams message your ITSM system.
- Use smart templates to capture the right data.
- Ticket management
- Improve ticket data quality by improving their consistency.
- Reduce orphaned tickets.
- Backlog management
- Identify tickets that are part of an incident or independent.
- Conversation Analytics
- Use your conversation analytics to analyze customer sentiment and agent performance in real time as an indicator of gaining enough detail to solve the next issue.
- AI + Knowledgebase: AI can query your Knowledgebase and provide intelligent questions to triage tickets.
- Repeat Users: AI can identify repeat users — learn from them to anticipate questions from other users!
Mix in DEX
If your organization has implemented DEX (Digital Employee Experience), you already appreciate the data available to help you manage your systems. Solve an issue with an NIA approach, then use DEX to find all similar issues to auto-remediate before a problem even happens.
Practical Advice to use NIA now
Give your agents talk tracks, not just scripts:
“Before I let you go, folks with this VPN fix often hit an MFA hiccup tomorrow. I can send a 60‑second guide now. Click once and you’re set. Want me to text or email it?” Always ask, “Is there anything else not working as expected?”
Agents feel the lift quickly: Fewer boomerang tickets and more time for complex work.
NIA isn’t extra work. It’s doing the work once and making it more valuable.
Susan Smith is a Program Manager at GTS Technology and a 2025 HDI Featured Contributor. Connect with Susan here on LinkedIn.