Wouldn’t it make more sense to offer the option to subscribers to use either reguar email or the HelpDesk? Surely a request to “reference previous correspondence” in the body of the email would be honoured by most people, for they too would want to be able to maintain the ‘trail’ of correspondence. If someone didn’t comply with that request when emailing, then the reply could be something along the lines of “As you haven’t supplied the original theme of your request I cannot refer back to it, so would you be so kind as to submit a HelpDesk ticket so that your request can be tracked and the situation resolved as quickly as possible – here is the link for the HelpDesk – I look forward to resolving this issue for you”.

Just a thought!

Elaine

PS: I too have submitted a ‘HelpDesk’ ticket and received what was obviously an automated replay saying my ticket had been received and I would hear back shortly – but never heard back!

If the administrator has selected to approve new accounts you should recieve the outcome of your registration shortly

It sounds like the admin can pick and choose which customers to reply to! I have never seen that in a ticket system before, approving accounts before giving support.

The phone support can be annoying, although I’ve had problems with UK based phone support as well, it isn’t just the indian call centres. Last year when i called BT I was on hold for almost 30 mins waiting for an operator to pick up. Last week I needed to call BT and Sky phone support and both picked up after a few rings (after going through all of the push 1 for….etc) so it looks like standards are being raised.

Barney – It sounds like you have a lot of experience with help desk systems. Thanks for sharing them with everyone.

Sinita – I 100% agree with you. Nothing more to say

Cons:
more likely to be ignored than email;
another place to go look, to log in;
most don’t key off email to provide other particulars;
most don’t provide instant (e.g., email) record of problem;
perceived ‘remoteness’.

Those were the things we came up with when discussing help desk software at a department in MCI about a decade ago, after three months of research. The phone help desk was being overwhelmed with calls, and this was thought to be a way to alleviate the traffic. Idea was that all non-emergency items would be ticketed.

I ended up writing a web-based system with ASP & SQL Server … the field guys used it, but they didn’t like it, and that last con was the reason. They felt as though no one was dealing with their issues. Wasn’t the case, but that was the way they _felt_, ya know?

First change I had to make was to provide an instant email back to them *with their original text*, not just a ticket number. 2nd change was to key their personal data out of a personnel database, tied to their email. After that it worked, kinda, sorta, but nobody ever really liked it.

Phone or email contact was felt to be much more personal; the ticketing system, to be remote, uncaring, insensitive. Perceptual difference only, but that was what broke the back of that system within a year. The ticketing system worked fine … management loved it … but they ended up expanding the phone desk in order to avoid a revolt of the field folk .

Worth thinknin’ ’bout.

Make a good day …
… barn

I wonder what that last sentence means…drives me crazy. I always thought that “Contact US” meant that you contacted someone, not some invisible robot…still cranky…Pat

I’ve filled out help tickets for many products and services that
are promoted as “top quality” and are actually well known. A
good number of them require opening an account, which
always irritates me. If I buy a product, regardless of what it is,
I feel discounted when there is an invisible layer between me
and the person who sold it to me.

I’ve run into circle-jerks with the ticket syster…having to open
an account, send that request and have to do the circle again and again. I won’t even go into the help processes that have email
addresses that do not exist.

Another thing that sets my hair on fire is talking to a “techie”
in India or someplace who has to put me on hold after every
comment and then breathlessly come back on like he had to
run across the room to get a look at the error solution book
and run back to pick up the phone. I also cannot stand the
endless apologies for putting me on hold and more than
endless apologies for putting me on hold when he picked up
the phone again…makes the call last hours.

So, to end this rant…I prefer email contact, but wouldn’t mind
ticket systems that actually worked. I’ve found few that do.
Yes, I woke up cranky this morning.

Pat

I have actually worked on one of those VIP Helpdesks before, they are surprisingly user friendly and as you said you don’t need to log in to post a ticket!

I have been looking at this:

http://www.kayako.com/esupport.php

But the price is putting me off!

I also looked at Perl Desk but I don’t like the fact they make you log in before you are able to submit a ticket.

I recently moved from e-mail support to helpdesk support as I have the same ‘spam’ problems as you.

I asked my subscribers after a month if they had noticed the change and the responses I got were very positive as they have the same support as they had before, only now, as Sinita said, there is a log of all the ‘toing and froing’ without it clogging up your e-mail client.

I also chose one that didn’t ask people to log in as I found having to create yet another account scared people off when they had genuine problems.

I have a script for it if you are interested, you can contact my via my Helpdesk, located at http://helpdesk.kellyifrah.com. (lol)

Sinitta – I agree with you about the desks that require you to log in. I am not a fan but for some reason a lot of the one’s I have looked at have this feature as standard

Mieke – Can I ask which helpdesk system you wqent for?

Leroy – That sounds like a problem a lot of people were having in that warrior forum thread. It sounds like the person you were dealing with had some bad custromer service issues that need to be resolved -a business is nothing without the customers!