Most of the time, support work is very busy: we're worn out answering customer questions, calming customers down, and trying every way to improve satisfaction. In daily work, we spend a big chunk of time repeating ourselves, saying the same things to different users and solving the same problems. It looks busy, but there's no sense of accomplishment, no output, and no real value created for the company.

So how can we work more efficiently and avoid repetitive busywork?

Categorize and count the problems you run into in support work to see which ones come up most often. These usually come from tasks people perform frequently and new tasks users aren't familiar with.

Then, for the frequent problems, think about how to reduce them, trace them back to the root cause, and push for a fundamental fix. For problems that can't be solved in the short term, write up in detail why they happen and the temporary workaround, as documentation or canned replies, so that when different users hit the same problem, you can get through the process and solve it quickly.

When the company launches a new business or feature, coordinate with the product team, prepare training and guidance in advance, anticipate likely questions and usage confusion, and turn them into an FAQ or user manual

The 10 most common questions make up more than 50% of all questions. If you can cut that part of the work, your workload drops by half. If you're always busy with what's in front of you and never summarize and organize past work, how are you different from a blindfolded donkey turning a millstone?
Organizing and counting isn't something one support person can do alone. Share it with the whole team, get everyone involved, and improve together.
These are just quick thoughts jotted down in my spare time. Later, I'll need a systematic way to improve efficiency and avoid repetition~