Is it just me, or do those small support request boxes bother anyone else? It seems like most of the control panel software uses small request boxes. I hate writing support requests into those small areas. Give me a full horizontal screen with at least 30 vertical lines, or a separate full page would be even better! :)

Yeah, I know most hosts also allow you to email; but they don't prefer that and say that emails aren't tracked as well.

Its true, emails arent tracked as well unless they too write to a support system of some sort. Say 10 guys shared the support email, about 6 out of 10 times clients don't leave the correspondace on an email and think that everyone remembers exactly who they are and what the problem is. While we do wish this was true its simply not when you support thousands of clients. A good support system does many things:

-provides a central place for techs and clients to communicate

-provides a means for both the client and entire staff to track a problem and progress

-provides a good way for management to review support and replies.... watch over the staff to make sure its being done properly.

-provides a way for both clients and staff to look up old tickets/problems and see how they were handled. This is good for problems that might keep showing their ugly head, it tells us if there is a larger problem.

Theres more but you get the picture ;)

Its true, emails arent tracked as well unless they too write to a support system of some sort. We'd be dead in the water if clients couldn't email their requests via regular email. I'm stunned by how many ticketing systems do not equally track regular email -- it's like "Support Software 101" and yet many (most?) don't :eek:

The cost of what software we chose went up up up with one of the reasons being that we wouldn't use software that didn't track both web based and normal email equally.

Hopefully more software options will become available with time and I would like to _assume_ anyone offering support software realizes the importance of accepting both types...

Im not sure of any right off hand that do it, but our system works both ways, you can email in a ticket if you like, respond to it via our support system, then respond later via email if you like or visa versa... it just kinda flows freely between the two. It uses a pretty cool tracking system but I dont think its anything way out there so it definatly could be done by a motivated php programmer with 10 or so hours to kill.

-Brendan

We'd be dead in the water if clients couldn't email their requests via regular email.

Hey Deb. Just out of curiosity, why do you say this? We find e-mail support to be a pain. I see more and more companies moving away from e-mail too.

Hey Deb. Just out of curiosity, why do you say this? We find e-mail support to be a pain. I see more and more companies moving away from e-mail too. I'm not sure I understand your question. Email support is spectacular, especially in this industry...

Originally posted by Deb
I'm not sure I understand your question. Email support is spectacular, especially in this industry...

I have always looked at your company as an example in the realm of support. I have even opened an account for testing long ago. It was great and always friendly. :)

I was surprised you also still offer e-mail options for support considering your large customer base. I always hated those "My web site is not working. Help. Joe." e-mails from people.

Which Joe - we have hundreds? What account number? etc....

Trouble ticketing reduces these. It also reduces the "I never got a response from you" becuase the e-mail was lost.

You said you would be "dead in the water" without e-mail support options? I was wondering why - that was the question. It seems like more and more people are moving from e-mail to ticketing systems. The other reason for the question is that we are close to dropping all e-mail support and forcing tickets. I would rather see why you do not like this approach.

You said you would be "dead in the water" without e-mail support options? I was wondering why - that was the question. It seems like more and more people are moving from e-mail to ticketing systems. The other reason for the question is that we are close to dropping all e-mail support and forcing tickets. I would rather see why you do not like this approach. Ahhh, a misunderstanding for sure. We DO have a ticketing system and ALL of the emails get an autoresponse immediately with their ticket numbers etc. ALL emails are directed to our support software and handled accordingly. What I was saying is that we would be dead in the water if this system required the clients to use the web based interface to send us an email.

Our clients can send email using whatever email client they prefer and/or they can use the web based interface. Our clients would be hostile if we REQUIRED them to use the web based interface and I would NEVER want to require such a thing.

For this reason, we were sure to obtain software that would accept both web based submissions as well as regular email.

Whether you send us a regular email or visit our web based interface you will receive the autoresponse with your ticket number and your email will be directed to the right people automatically.

My 'complaint' is with all of the ticketing software out there that REQUIRES the end user to use the web based interface for it to work...that's just silly in my opinion and I believe it should be EXPECTED that support software accepts both web based and non-web based emails. It's not hard to implement and I'm shocked at how many do not have this OBVIOUS feature since it is needed. Our support software options were narrowed down to a small handful just because we REQUIRED this feature. I just can't imagine requiring current or potential clients to use the web based interface. What's the use of posting your email address if they can't use it directly like they would any other address.

My rant for the day -- "How can anyone use, or expect us to use, support software that doesn't include this obviously needed feature?

-- P.S. Thanks for the Kudos ;)

Our support software options were narrowed down to a small handful just because we REQUIRED this feature.

So who do you use? :)

We provide email based ticket responses as well however I hardly feel its a necessity for hosts to do so... people manage to fill out web based forms to place their order, they probably could do it to get support as well. Its not like you're going to have a customer who can't get to a form to handle such a task... and there are alot of ticket response systems that email the client and say 'your ticket got a response, here it is, click here to respond' which IMHO is perfectly adequate, especially for alot of hosts starting out that don't have the $$ to write one themselves or buy a higher end ticket system.

-Brendan

==>> http://www.rightnow.com/ <<==

My opinion of them is -- WAY TOO EXPENSIVE ... but the cheapest software we could find that meets all of our demands. I search for something cheaper, yet better, every renewal term.

Thanks for all of that info, Deb. You may be onto something there. It surprises me too that more hosts don't track email equally. I'd prefer that; but don't mind web-based tickets as long as they give me plenty of room which most don't.

BTW, I came upon the FutureQuest website for the first time about a year ago, and thought it was one of the best host sites I'd even seen, and still think so. You seem to have a lot of skills and knowledge.

We use PerlDesk. It was $70, and it supports email, phone, and web based tickets quite nicely. It's definately not as intelligent as RightNow.com's solution, but it's probably cheaper by a factor of about 100 and gets the job done nicely for us.

www.perldesk.com

Originally posted by Deb
==>> http://www.rightnow.com/ <<==

My opinion of them is -- WAY TOO EXPENSIVE ... but the cheapest software we could find that meets all of our demands. I search for something cheaper, yet better, every renewal term.

Somehow I had a feeling it would be these guys. The funny thing is I know them. I went to college at Bozeman, MT where they started and have corporate. They wouldn't even give me an illumni discount when I asked last year. :)

Valueweb is big on these guys too.