supportConnection™

supportConnection™ has been created as a tool to better track our customer support requests and daily tasks. This tool will be continuously updated and features will be added so if you can think of a feature that you would like added or a way in which the tool could be improved, please send your comments to jeremy@ci-inc.com

Support Tickets

Tickets are meant to track individual customer support requests to ensure that every customer request is handled in a timely manner. Tickets should only be used for tracking customer support requests and ideally should not stay open for more than 1 day. If a ticket has been opened for 24 hours or longer please re-evaluate the ticket and determine if this ticket should be closed and a task created in its place.

When a customer calls in with a request you should ask the customer if this is a new issue or an existing issue. If this is an existing issue you should search the open and closed tickets to see if you can find a ticket for the issue and enter your additional notes in the existing ticket.

If a customer calls in and this is a new issue, you should create a new ticket.

General Support Requests

When a customer calls in requesting support we should be creating/updating tickets and then assigning those tickets to staff when appropriate. The correct process for handling a customer support request is to :

Find / Create / Edit support ticket with details of issue.
IM staff members to find one available to help with issue
Update Ticket to assign to staff member and click “Notify” button to notify user via Email/IM of the ticket.

Open Tickets

The Open Tickets tab is meant as a place to display all of the open tickets where customers are waiting for support or a response from Computer Insights. If a ticket has been opened for 24 hours or longer please re-evaluate the ticket and determine if this ticket should be closed and a task created in its place. At the end of each day we ideally would like to see 0 open tickets, which means that all customer support requests have been handled and that each customer is aware of the status of their request (either fixed, being researched, or task created to fix issue)

Creating a Ticket

If a customer is requesting support and this is an existing issue then you should create a ticket to track this request. To create a new ticket simply click the “Create Ticket” button located in the main menu. Once the create ticket form appears you can enter or select the customer name.

To select a customer you can click the down arrow to expand the field (you can also press the down arrow to expand the field) to view the full list of customers and select the correct customer. In addition you can type a customer uname or partial customer name and the field will expand to show you the customers that matched your query. Once you have selected a customer the “Create Ticket” screen will be updated to display the customer information to the right of the form.

To select a contact you can click the down arrow to expand the field to display a list of all contacts. If the person you are speaking with is not listed in the contact field dropdown then you can simply type the contact’s name and press enter to move to the next field

The “Reported Via” field is to track how this request came in. You can click the down arrow to expand the field and select the appropriate option. In addition you can simply type a single character to jump to a specific option. The keys you can press are :

E = Email
I = Instant Message
S = Staff
P = Phone Call
W = Website

The “Request Type” field also allows for a single character to jump to a specific option. The keys you can press are :

E = Error / Problem Has Occoured (PHO)
F = Feature Request
H = Hardware
M = Miscellaneous
U = Schedule Upgrade
T = Training

The “Assigned To” is a field to track who this ticket gets assigned to before it gets closed. When first creating a ticket you should almost always assign the ticket to yourself and enter the basic information about what the issue or request is and click Ok so that the ticket is created. Once a ticket is created if additional support is needed you can assign the ticket to anyone you would like and simply click the “Notify” button to notify the user via Email and IM that a ticket has been assigned to them.

The “Ticket Status” field also allows for a single character to jump to a specific option. The keys you can press are :

O = Open (default)
R = Resolved
C = Cancelled
P = Promoted to Task

If the customer has sent in additional information like a screenshot or a video, then you can attach the file to the ticket by clicking the “Attach File” button and selecting the file you would like to upload.

Finally in order to create a ticket you will need to enter some basic information about the issue or request in the “Ticket Notes” field. Simply type as much information about the request as possible and be as descriptive as possible about the issue or customer request.

Optionally if you know that this support ticket is going to require some work, for instance upgrading a client server, then you can create both a support ticket and a task at the same time by simply checking the checkbox next to “Yes, create a task and a related ticket” and entering a title for the task. When you click OK both a ticket and a related task will be created.

Note: In most cases where your creating a ticket and a related task at the same time you will want to change the ticket status to “Promoted to Task” so that the support ticket status is not “Open” and will not display in the “Open Tickets” list.

Once you have entered all the information to create a ticket you can click the “Ok” button in the lower right corner to create the ticket. Once the ticket is created your screen will be updated to display the “Edit Ticket” form.

Editing a Ticket

The form for editing or updating a support ticket is very similar to the “Create Ticket” form and the fields function in a similar manner and allow for partial matches and single-key updates on the “Reported Via”, “Request Type”, and “Ticket Status” fields.

When editing or updating a support ticket if a ticket field changes values then the change will be automatically added to the Ticket Notes (ex: Assigned To changed from Angela Holden to Jeremy Johnson).

If you change the “Assigned To” field and assign a ticket to staff member other than yourself then you should click the “Notify” button so that the user is notified via Email/IM of the ticket being assigned to them. If you created a ticket and are chatting with a staff member about a ticket and decide to assign it to them, you might want to just click the “Copy URL” button.

If you try to close a “Edit Ticket” tab and supportConnection detects that changes have been made to the ticket, then you will be prompted to save your changes with Yes / No / Cancel options.

Note: Every time the “Notify User” button is clicked an email is generated and an IM message is sent, so please do not repeatedly click the button.

Closing a Ticket

Once a customer issue has been resolved or you have identified the issue and are ready to create a Task to complete the work, you will want to change the “Ticket Status” field to either “Resolved” or “Promoted To Task”. Once a ticket status has changed from “Open” the ticket will no longer appear in the “Open Tickets” list.

If you want to close a ticket and create a related task you should change the Ticket status to “Promote To Task”, enter any additional information in the “Ticket Notes” field and click the “Ok” button in the lower right hand corner. Next you will see the “Promote Ticket” form which lists off all open tasks and allows you to create a new related task, or select an existing task. To create a new task you will need to enter the task information (title, type, assigned to, status, notes) and click the OK button to create the task. If a relevant task already exists then you can locate the task in the grid below and double-click the task to jump to the “Edit Task” form and enter any additional information relevant to the task.

Searching Tickets

All support tickets entered into supportConnection™ are searchable to allow for easy lookup of support requests by customers, status, keywords, date range, etc.

The “Search Tickets” form is very similar to the “Create Ticket” form and the fields function in a similar manner and allow for partial matches and single-key updates on the “Reported Via”, “Request Type”, and “Ticket Status” fields.

In addition to the standard fields you can also search tickets by a specific date range or by entering keywords. If you search by a date range then only projects that were created within that date range will be returned. If you enter any “Keywords” then any tickets that have notes that match the keywords will be returned

After you have entered at least 1 search criteria you can click the “Ok” button in the lower right corner to submit your search. Once the search completes the grid below the search form will be updated to display a list of all tasks that match your criteria. To view/edit a task simply double-click on the task in the grid and a new “Edit Ticket” tab will be launched for you to view or edit the ticket.

Optionally above the grid you will see “Excel” and “Email” buttons that will allow you to export the search results either to a .xls file that will immediately begin downloading, or to an email which has the .xls file attached to it.

Tasks

Tasks are meant to track work which takes more than a few minutes to complete and typically are used to track things as Server Upgrades, server/GUI updates, Customer Training, etc. Where support tickets are used to track customer support requests and can always be tied directly to a customer, a task is used to track work which needs to be completed at some point in the future and is not always directly tied to a customer request. Tasks and tickets can be related to one another and any relations will be displayed to the right of the “Edit Task” form.

Below are a few examples of when it is appropriate to create tasks

Example A – Customer Support Request to Task

Customer calls in complaining of repeated errors and Angela answers the phone
Angela creates support ticket and enters details on issue
Angela IM’s around asking a programmer for some help
Dennis says he can help
Angela assigns the ticket to Dennis and clicks the “Notify” button
Dennis looks into issue and determines fix will take 2 days
Dennis enters notes into ticket and changes status to ‘Promote to Task’
On “Promote To Task” screen Dennis creates a new task and enters details of what work will need to be completed.

Example B – Training New Customer

CI gets a new client and they get server setup
Diane creates a new task and enters notes on what the customer needs training in, and assigns the task to Cheryl
Cheryl schedules training with the customer and updates the task
Cheryl completes training with the customer and changes task status to “Resolved”

Creating a Task

When creating a task you will need to enter information on the task including task title, type, status, who the task is assigned to and any notes on the work that needs to be completed.

When entering a task title you should try to choose a short title of 3 to 8 words and choose a title which will allow you to easily recognize what work needs to be completed when viewing the task title in a list with other tasks.

The “Task Type” field also allows for a single character to jump to a specific option. The keys you can press are :

E = Error / Bugfix
H = Hardware
M = Miscellaneous
F = New Feature
T = Training

The “Assigned To” is a field to track who this task gets assigned to before it gets closed. When first creating a task you should almost always assign the ticket to yourself and enter the basic information about what the issue or request is and click Ok so that the ticket is created. Once a ticket is created if additional support is needed you can assign the task to anyone you would like and simply click the “Notify” button to notify the user via Email and IM that a task has been assigned to them.

The “Task Status” field also allows for a single character to jump to a specific option. The keys you can press are :

O = Open (default)
R = Resolved
C = Cancelled

If you have additional information related to the task like a screenshot or a video, then you can attach the file to the task by clicking the “Attach File” button and selecting the file you would like to upload.

Finally in order to create a task you will need to enter some basic information about the work to be completed in the “Task Notes” field. Enter as much information about the request as possible and be as descriptive as possible about the work to be completed.

Once you have entered all the information to create a task you can click the “Ok” button in the lower right corner to create the ticket. Once the task is created your screen will be updated to display the “Edit Task” form.

Editing a Task

The form for editing or updating a task is very similar to the “Create Task” form and the fields function in a similar manner and allow for partial matches and single-key updates on the “Task Type” and “Task Status” fields.

When editing or updating a task if a task field changes values then the change will be automatically added to the Task Notes (ex: Assigned To changed from Angela Holden to Jeremy Johnson).

If you change the “Assigned To” field and assign a task to staff member other than yourself then you should click the “Notify” button so that the user is notified via Email/IM of the task being assigned to them.

If you try to close a “Edit Task” tab and supportConnection detects that changes have been made to the task, then you will be prompted to save your changes with Yes / No / Cancel options.

Note: Every time the “Notify User” button is clicked an email is generated and an IM message is sent, so please do not repeatedly click the button.

Closing a Task

Once the work associated with a task has been completed you will want to change the “Task Status” field to either “Resolved” and enter as much information on the work completed as possible and then click the “Ok” button. Once a task status has changed from “Open” the task will no longer appear in the “My Tasks” list.

Searching Tasks

All tasks entered into supportConnection™ are searchable to allow for easy lookup of support requests by title, status, keywords, date range, etc.

The “Search Tasks” form is very similar to the “Create Task” form and the fields function in a similar manner and allow for partial matches and single-key updates on the “Task Type”, and “Task Status” fields.

In addition to the standard fields you can also search tasks by a specific date range or by entering keywords. If you search by a date range then only tasks that were created within that date range will be returned. If you enter any “Keywords” then any tasks that have notes that match the keywords will be returned.

After you have entered at least 1 search criteria you can click the “Ok” button in the lower right corner to submit your search. Once the search completes the grid below the search form will be updated to display a list of all tasks that match your criteria. To view/edit a task simply double-click on the task in the grid and a new “Edit Task” tab will be launched for you to view or edit the task.