How do I stop routing every ticket by hand when IT and HR share one queue?

When one shared queue receives everything from password resets to HR access requests and production incidents, someone ends up reading and routing every ticket by hand. This article explains why that happens and how to fix it without building dozens of fragile automation rules. The core idea is to stop relying on a perfect first guess. Separate incidents, service requests and information requests at the front door, so people choose what kind of help they need rather than typing it into a subject line. Give requests a short category list with three or four levels at most, owned by one named person across IT and HR. Route on a few simple signals such as record type, top level category and department, set priority from impact and urgency rather than what the requester typed, and send anything unclear to a single fallback queue covered on a rota. Then confirm or correct the category when each ticket is closed, and review the mismatches every month, so routing improves over time. The article draws on John Sansbury's The Journey to Service Excellence, including his guidance on multi level categorisation and on using the close category for problem management. It also covers where AI triage can help, why it works best once categories are stable, a worked example for a 300 person organisation, and the most common mistakes teams make.