Creating Tickets - Online

General Support Tickets (not related to a project)

• Navigate to the Tickets page
• Click the link 'Create new Ticket'
• Add a title
• Fill in the description/body area
• File atachments - upload an image if required e.g. screenshot
• Save

Project Tickets (if related to a development project)

• Navigate to Projects, select your project
• Select an appropriate task under which your ticket best fits
• Click the link 'Create Ticket'

You will receive an email to which you can reply, or click the link to view and reply to the ticket Online

Creating Tickets - By Email

Replying to Existing Tickets

• Simply click reply, add your text and send
• The system will automatically  join the reply to the parent ticket
• NOTE:  attachments do not get imported - they can only be added online - see above

New Tickets

• Send a NEW or FORWARDED email to support@audienceware.com and a team member will respond
• NOTE - you cannot send a REPLY to another email - the system will try to match it to a ticket and of course it will fail

Updating a Ticket

• Go to the ticket - click the Ticket link from the main list, or scroll to the top if viewing a Comment
• To change Category, Status or Priority
  • click edit
  • select the required value
  • save
• To 'close' a ticket - update status to 'completed'

Subscribing to a Ticket

• Click the 'Subscribed' tab
• Locate the 'Subscribe Form' field and type a few letters of your name or another name in your Organisation
• The database will display results of matching names, click the result you want
• Click 'Click here!'
• The new subscriber/s will receive notifications of all comments on this ticket 

Prioritising Tickets

• Go to the main Tickets page
• Change order by drag and drop - using your mouse, hover over the cross-hairs on the left, hold down the letf mouse button, move and release
• Click Save
• NOTE - you can only drag and drop within a Priority level - to change levels, see Updating a Ticket above
• TIP - if there are many tickets, change the "Items per page" selection on the filters at the top
• TIP - if you are on page 2, 3 etc and you want to quickly move a ticket to the top of the order
  • click "Show Row Weights" - see the Weight* column now appears
  • change the Ticket's weight to -100 (or -99 to appear 2nd in the list etc)
  • save

* Weight:  this is really how the prioritisation works - the lower the weight, the higher up in the order.  Drag and drop is really just a visual way of changing the row weights, which range from -100 to 100

NOTE - new tickets are assigned default weight -100, as based on feedback most of the time new tickets are 'current' and require attention first, and if uinweighted (0) will appear low down the list.  As that's not always the case, it's a good idea to prioritise regularly.

Tips for communicating well through tickets

Working with support tickets is like placing an order from a store - you specify the requirement, we fulfil the order and you confirm the delivery.  Being specific, brief and remaining in scope of our services as defined in your MSA/SOW will help us to achieve a swift resolution.  Even if something is broken, bear in mind that any staff member should be able to help you, and all staff do not store all spec for all clients in our heads, so help us to help you faster by following these tips:

What to include:

• New features:  Express your requirements as a positive request for action e.g. "please add a new field x to content type 'page'"
• Faults:  try to refer to previous work that you know was done - If something in production is broken or not working, please state what should be there or how it should be working (rather than simply something what is not)
• Provide references: URL's to illustrate the issue wherever possible, otherwise screenshots
• Completing your ticket:  confirm that the work has been done as specified in the request

What not to include:

• Avoid negatives 'inferring' a request e.g. "This does not have a field x" - we cannot 'second guess' a requirement, and it will take more communication to get you to state your request
• Avoid referring to 'missing' features because they exist elsewhere - if never specified, the work would not have been done
• Avoid expanding your request beyond scope of Audienceware services as defined in your MSA or SOW

This will help us to quickly identify and confirm the production item as developed, in order to troubleshoot without delay.

Tickets FAQ

When should I create/not create a ticket?

• Every time you need technical support for your production system - if in doubt, create a ticket!
• Tickets work best when specifications are known - when clients are unsure about the specifications, and/or some discovery is required, your Project Manager may advise that a disalogue outside of the system is more suitable e.g. a Project Management session, or collaborative document
• If your enquiry is not directly related to the work, e.g. an Account Management query, budget review or quote, then please contact your Account Manager via business email

How are new tickets processed?

• Tickets are added to a central quueue, being both timestamped and allocated an ID
• Be default tickets are prioritised 'Normal' and are given a weighting of -100 which 'floats' to the top

When will by ticket be addressed?

• Each client manages their own sub-queue which they can re-order as a 'short cut' to telling us in what sequence they would like them addressed
• For first response we aim to address tickets according to priority and SLA (see Service Level)
• For 'contract' clients with reserve resource allocation, we also spread out the number of hours across the month so they we keep to budget 

Any tips for raising a new ticket?

• Best to use the online Support system, as while email is there for convenience, new tickets will go to the top and you don't see it in the context of the queue
• If you do want to use email, remember to only use a fresh email, never a reply, as it will try but fail to match the reply to an existing ticket
• Attachments are OK for new tickets by email, but not comments - only the online system enables comment attachments

Can there be too many tickets?

• Yes, if there are many instances of the same issue, but we can merge them if required

Can there be too few tickets?

• Actually yes, when a ticket starts getting complex, or the scope expands into multiple issues
• Often that means there's different work required, in which case we'll usually recommend on the ticket that we split the scope across another ticket 

When is it time to escalate to a call?

• As per the Terms of Service, with the exception of scheduled Project Management or Account Management calls, Telephone/Video calls are regarded as a billable escalations
• However an Audienceware escalation is billable at 'normal' rates - as a guideline, we will escalate if the complexity is consuming excess resources impacting your billing e.g. if we think we can save billable time via a call