Here are some best practices when it comes to interacting with our help desk and managing your tickets, tracking their progress, etc.
We've compiled these suggestions from copious experience working with our customers.
They're designed to make your life easier, and make ticket resolution a quicker, smoother process. :)
# Keeping tickets separate #
One of the rock bands that was popular when I was in high school, The Offspring, said it best:
"You gotta keep 'em separated!"
You see, it's generally not a good idea to "mix" different tickets as it fractures the flow of information for both you and our team.
For example, let's say you have 2 open tickets:
TICKET A is about a WordPress plugin problem you're having and would like us to fix.
TICKET B is about a design update you'd like us to make to your theme.
Asking for updates or adding a comment about your "WordPress plugin problem" (TICKET A) ticket on the "Please update my design" ticket (TICKET B), will lead to confusion and missed requests.
It might seem superficially that following up as much as possible will lead to improved results but our experience has shown that just the opposite is true.
We assign tickets to our team members based on their specific skillsets, so our designer might be confused as to why there's a comment about a WordPress plugin issue on his / her design ticket.
Further, there's been a lot of research done into a phenomenon called the Cognitive Switching Penalty, which in this case results in reduced efficacy and muddled priorities of our work for you.
From https://personalmba.com:
What Is The ‘Cognitive Switching Penalty’?
Every time you switch your attention from one subject to another, you incur the Cognitive Switching Penalty. Your brain spends time and energy thrashing, loading and reloading contexts.
Neurologically, multitasking is impossible. You are not really doing two things, you’re switching your attention from one thing to the other. Productive multitasking is a myth.
To avoid unproductive switching, it’s best to group similar tasks together. That way your brain needs to load the context into working memory only once. You’ll get more done with less effort."
Does that make sense?
In other words, this kind of random follow up strategy is simply shooting yourself in the foot.
Therefore, we suggest you make any updates or comments to a ticket on that ticket only.
If you'd like to leave a comment or reply about another topic, it's best to do it on the ticket that you have open which is dedicated to that specific topic.
If no such ticket exists, please simply open one. :)
# Use "urgent" and "emergency" verbiage judiciously #
Whenever you have an emergency situation our team drops what we're doing and springs into action to save the day.
It's our deepest pleasure to be able to help our customers in their times of greatest need; it's what we're here for! :)
However, over the years we've seen a few cases of folks submitting non-urgent tickets with titles such as "URGENT", "EMERGENCY", "SOS!!" and so forth.
This is of course NOT our customers' fault as it is always OUR responsibility to make our terms and procedures clear.
In fact, it proved to be a blessing in disguise because we had to figure out what constitutes a legitimately urgent request, how to submit it, and then make that information available to you. :)
In this spirit we've written a short article that explains which requests we accept as urgent, here:
https://memberfix.freshdesk.com/solution/articles/8000060526-how-do-i-submit-an-urgent-request-
If you're uncertain whether a given request can be considered truly urgent or not please refer to this doc.
Otherwise, if it's a high priority item but not an emergency, simply indicate that priority when you submit the ticket and we'll make the necessary adjustments in your ticket queue. :)
# Provide all information we need to service your request #
One thing that can cause frustration for a customer is the "set up" time it can take to get a request going.
To help reduce this time and get our team crackin' on your tickets as soon as possible, please always provide any and all information which we'll need to perform the task.
We use LastPass to safely share and manage passwords.
So if you submit a request to our team, please share the logins to the applications you'd like us to work with via LastPass to ALL of the following team members:
Vic Dorfman
victor.dorfman@gmail.com
Lesly Garreau
lesly.garreau@gmail.com
Klevin Kona
kona.klevin@gmail.com
Maksym S.
maks@techakcent.pro
Cristian R.
wpfixes@gmail.com
Also please share any URLs, Files, attachments, details, reference sites, etc. that the task might require.
This will reduce back-and-forth communication and allow us to service more requests for you, more quickly.
# Use a bullet point or numbering system in your request #
Within our company we've found that structuring emails to customers (and to each other) using a numbered list format has made our communications much clearer.
In fact, we've even documented the protocol for emails and made it a company policy in the way we reply!
If you'd like to ensure that we understand and service your request as clearly and quickly as possible, we recommend you adopt this format as well.
Here's an example:
Hi MemberFix team!
Could you please:
1. Install the ThriveLeads plugin on my WordPress site (includes URL, zip file of ThriveLeads, and shared logins via LastPass).
2. Set up a Lightbox popup using the following design (includes mockup of design).
3. Please connect it with my ActiveCampaign account, to the list named awesome stuff and add a tag called lightbox optin.
The optin should be a CONFIRMED optin (double optin).
(Shared login credentials to ActiveCampaign with our team via LastPass).
Thanks!
Freddy Mercury
We might reply as follows:
Hi Freddy!
1. "Install the ThriveLeads plugin on my WordPress site"
Installed, and configured.
2. "Set up a Lightbox popup using the following design"
Done.
Here's the design, please let me know if it looks good:
(screenshot of design).
Which pages would you like the popup to appear (and not appear) on?
3. "Please connect it with my ActiveCampaign account, to the list named awesome stuff and add a tag called lightbox optin.
The optin should be a CONFIRMED optin (double optin)."
Done, and tested.
Works like a charm! :)
Best,
Vic
Then at this point we'd set the ticket status to WAITING ON CUSTOMER since we're soliciting some feedback on the design and the ticket isn't really resolved until the customer has approved the changes.
If you'd like to see our internal document on how we reply to each other, and to customers, here it is!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FX1804YAnv4fCy-Je9FuY3RAyAJsiuR7kbhMb65E4wo/edit?usp=sharing
In fact, feel free to steal this SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for your own biz ops. :)
# Let sleeping tickets lie #
*Note: every reply you make to a ticket changes the status of the ticket from whatever it currently is to OPEN.
Thus, if we've completed a task for you, and we've already marked it as RESOLVED or CLOSED, and you're happy with the result, then no further reply is necessary.
You're free to reply and say "thank you!" of course, but the point is that you don't have to if you don't want to. :)
On the flip side, if a ticket is set to RESOLVED or CLOSED and you'd like to open it back up, have us clarify something, add something to it, etc., please DO reply.
That'll open the ticket back up and we'll know that we've got some more work to do on that ticket.
#####
Article by Vic Dorfman
Founder - MemberFix, SpeedKills.io
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