Product Design · Simplilearn•Sep 21, 2022

Reducing Duplicate Support Tickets at Simplilearn

How I analyzed 21,000+ LMS helpdesk tickets, interviewed 25+ learners, and redesigned ticket status UX — eliminating LMS duplicate submissions and cutting overall ticket bloat by 6%.

Simplilearn Help and Support page with open ticket status block
Simplilearn LMS Help page — open ticket status surfaced so learners see progress without submitting duplicates.

Problem

Learners at Simplilearn were opening duplicate support tickets for the same issue within a single day, consuming agent hours and slowing response times. An analysis of August 2022 helpdesk data showed almost 6% of all tickets were duplicates — concentrated in the LMS dashboard, mobile apps, and email follow-ups.

"Duplicate support requests were bloating queue sizes, leading to longer response times, which in turn provoked users to open even more tickets."

My Role

  • Lead Product Designer on the Simplilearn Helpdesk team — owned research synthesis, UX flows, and phased rollout specs.
  • Aggregated and classified 21,000+ ticket logs; led voice outreach to 25+ learners who had submitted duplicates.
  • Partnered with support ops and engineering on a 3-phase release inside the existing LMS layout.

Constraints

  • Legacy LMS: Changes had to integrate into the current Help & Support page — no full platform rewrite.
  • Phased rollout: Features shipped in 3 stages to limit regression risk across web, mobile, and email touchpoints.
  • Agent workflows: New learner-facing status UI could not disrupt existing consultant ticket-handling tools.

Process

I followed a research-first framework before proposing UI changes:

  • Data gathering: Aggregated 21,000+ support logs from August 2022 in Google Sheets.
  • Duplicate classification: Matched tickets by Agent Child Category and similar descriptions; flagged learners with 2–3 same-day submissions.
  • User interviews: Called 25+ learners who had opened parallel tickets to understand anxiety and missing feedback loops.
  • Design & rollout: Prototyped status blocks, ETAs, and email templates; shipped in 3 phases with post-release monitoring.

Duplicates clustered in the LMS dashboard first, then mobile apps and email follow-ups — confirming the fix needed to live where learners already seek help.

Key Design Decisions

By interviewing 25+ users who had created multiple parallel tickets, I mapped two core pain points before designing solutions:

User Pain Point 1: Lack of ETA

"I raised a ticket early in the morning, but as expected no one reverted. So I had to write here: my Excel course ended yesterday but the next course is still not visible."

User Pain Point 2: Missing Ticket Tracker

"How do I view my old support tickets? I need to access the information I sent earlier to make sure it was received."

Integrated into the existing LMS layout without a visual overhaul:

  1. Ticket status on Help page: Persistent status block for open tickets directly on Help & Support.
  2. Clear ETAs: Real-time resolution estimates (e.g., "Usually resolved in 2 hours") shown at submission.
  3. Resolved ticket UX: Updated follow-up path so resolved tickets don't spawn new duplicates.
  4. Contextual emails: Receipt emails with tracking links, ticket ID, and expected resolution time.
Help and support page with open ticket status block
Ticket status surfaced on the Help page so learners see progress without opening a duplicate.
Support ticket tracking and ETA states in the LMS
Clear ETAs and resolution states added to reduce anxiety-driven repeat submissions.

Measured Outcome

100%
Decline in LMS Duplicates
-6%
Reduction in Ticket Bloat
21k+
Tickets Analyzed

What Changed Because of This Work

After the 3-phase rollout, duplicate tickets from the LMS dashboard, LMS Live Chat, and mobile components dropped to zero. Support consultants handled fewer redundant inquiries and could focus on complex cases. System bug tickets were flagged faster, reducing mass duplicate creation during incidents. The Help page became the primary self-serve status channel — learners stopped guessing whether their original ticket was received.