Monthly Archives: December 2008

Using Filters to Create A Group Inbox Reply

by • Feature Focus • Tags: , , ,

Sometimes companies have a need for multiple Inboxes to efficiently manage their requests.  This is especially useful for a company with multiple departments using one installation of HelpSpot.

Adding Categories

Adding Categories

Let’s take a closer look at this scenario.

International Consulting Group’s Sales and IT department use the same installation of HelpSpot to manage their daily requests.  Each department would like to have their own Inbox so that they do not have to share the one global Inbox and see each others requests.

Solution:

This can easily be achieved by using categories and filters to create a customized group Inbox.

1. Here’s what they will want to do:

  • Go to Admin -> Categories.
  • From within the “Add A New Category” dialog box,  assign the new category name of  “Sales”
  • Assigned staff members that are associated with the Sales department. Optional: Auto assignments of request can be setup so that request are assigned based on the default staff member, a random staffer, a member with the least number of request or a “round robin” (even distribution) approach.
  • Click the “Add Category” button.
  • Now repeat this process for the second category “IT”

2. Create Filter Conditions  for the Sales Department.

Conditions

Conditions

  • Go To  Workspace -> Filter Request:
  • Set the conditions:
    • Open/Closed is Open
    • Category  is “Sales“
    • Assigned to is Unassigned
  • From the Save Filter Box,
    • Give the filter a name: ex. Sales Inbox
    • Place the filter in the Global Filters folder – This will ensure that the filter is accessible to all staffers on a global basis.
    • Click on the “Select a Column to Add” drop down list and select the “take it“.   This will add the “Take It” button column, give the staffers the ability to take request.Optional: There are many ways you can have the requests grouped and ordered within the request grid.  Additionally, you can choose to have the request count displayed to the right of the Inbox link or not.  Try playing with these settings.grp_filter_opt

3. Create the Filter for the IT Department

Create Filter Conditions  for the Sales Department.

  • Go To  Workspace -> Filter Request:
  • Set the conditions:
    • Open/Closed is Open
    • Category  is “IT “
    • Status is Unassigned,
  • From the Save Filter Box,
    • Give the filter a name: ex. IT Inbox
    • Place the filter in the Global Filters folder
    • Click on the “Select a Column to Add” drop down list and select the “take it“.

Creating category based inbox has resulted in two customized inboxes listed in the Workspace Navigation:

grouped_ws

Customized Inboxes

One specifically for the Sales Department and the other for IT.
Now both groups can work through their own designated inboxes without viewing the other’s request.

HelpSpot in the Wild: activeCollab Reply

by • HelpSpot in the Wild • Tags: , ,

The fine folks over at the project management tool activeCollab have a really great HelpSpot portal installation. They’ve obviously put some thought and time into their portal and have fully integrated it into the rest of their site.

The design is clean and the heavy emphasis they’ve added to submitting and checking on requests makes it easy to know where you need to go. If you’re looking for some inspiration for your HelpSpot portal check it out: https://www.activecollab.com/support/

activeCollab Support Home

activeCollab Support Home

activeCollab Knowledge Book

activeCollab Knowledge Book

Subscribing to A Request Reply

by • Did You Know?, Feature Focus • Tags: , ,

Did you know?

You can subscribe to a request in order to stay informed of any updates that occur between the assigned Staff Member and the customer.

Subscribing is simple!

  1. Go to the request that you want to subscribe too.
    Note:     The request must be assigned to someone other than yourself, otherwise this link will not be visible within the options menu.
  2. Click on the Subscribe Link, located to the left in the Options Menu.

    Options Menu

    Options Menu

To view or unsubscribe your request:

  1. Click on the subscription link located within the Workspace Navigation.

    Workspace Menu

    Workspace Menu

  2. A list of subscribed request will be displayed.
  3. To unsubscribe from a request, click on the red X icon located to the right of the request ID.

subscription_list1

Creating a Help Desk Priority Structure 1

by • Help Desk Theory • Tags: ,

A common need of many help desks is to create a priority structure for incoming requests. While this is common, it is very often done wrong. Unfortunately technology is often to blame. Most help desk software defaults to having a 1-5 list of priorities with 1 being High and 5 being low priority.

A generic list like this can cause confusion and often makes the help desk less efficient. The reason is that there’s no clear definietion of which type of requests are high and which are low. This is especially true when trying to figure out if a request is a 2 or a 3, a 3 or a 4.

HelpSpot by default takes a simpler approach. Requests are either urgent or not urgent. For many help desks this is all you truly need. It also has the side benefit of being extremely simple to determine for help desk staff. It’s usually very easy to tell if something is urgent or not. It’s much harder to determine the proper place on a 5 point scale.

That said, in larger or more structured help desks having a priority system can be very effective. The key is to properly construct the priorities. In HelpSpot, it’s easy to do the technical aspect of this using custom fields. What takes proper planning and consideration is the priority scale, what it is and why it is.

A generic 1-5 scale with no reasoning behind it and no clear definition of what each point on the scale means is a recipe for chaos as each staffer makes their own determination as to what a 3 is.

The key to defining priorities is in understanding the business impact of a request. To do this you need to know how important the technology/product/person (a component) is and how severe an event is occurring. Some people are more important to a business than others, some technology is more important than others.

For example, in a small business where the president (component) handles most sales meetings, their email being offline (severity) is a top priority issue. A large company where an Accountant II (component) has occasional (severity) browser crash issues would be a lower priority issue.

There’s no universal formula here though, it’s very dependent on the organization that’s being supported. Is the support for internal IT or external customers and so on. The key thing is to analyze the type of systems that can be affected and what severity types those systems can go through.

If you’re unsure where to begin I recommend starting with a big list. List all the components you support, with each component list the severity levels that component can go through. Here’s a partial sample list:

  • Email Server
    • Down, no email in or out
    • Intermittent connection error for all users
    • Individual user having connection issues
  • VOIP Phone System
    • Down, no phone calls in our out
    • Inbound calls only, all users affected
    • One workstation has no phone connectivity
  • Intranet
    • Down, unable to access
    • One module is unavailable to all users
    • One user is unable to login
  • …

Once you have this information you can start to sort and prioritize into common and more manageable groups. It’s also good to keep this list available and updated so that it can be reviewed and priorities re-aligned quickly as needed.

Once analyzed create a scale. I personally think refining down to the minimum number you can is always best. 3 is much easier for staff to choose from than 5 so use the least possible while still capture the data you need. Here’s some examples of priority scales with useful definitions.

A standard 5 point scale.

Priority Definition Example
1 A critial component is affected with direct business impact Sales registers are offline, online store is down, key people have no email accesss
2 A component is degraded Slow response times on back office systems, intermittent errors
3 Non-critical component is down with some business impact Back office reports are non-functional, spam filtering is offline
4 Non-critical component is down with no direct business impact A user cannot print, A staffer needs a software update
5 Little or no impact or need for immediate attention, cosmetic issues Out of place icons, constructive user feedback

3 Level scale based on severity and breadth of issue

Priority Definition
1 – Severe Component is critical and multiple users are affected
2 – Important Component is important and multiple users are affected
3 – Low Component is not critical; few users are affected

These are just a couple of examples, coming up with your own based on your organization is the key. In addition, the logic and thought that went into each priority level should be documented (perhaps in a HelpSpot knowledge book) and available to staff as well as part of the training regiment for new staff. This helps ensure that all staff prioritize requests based on the same set of conditions and ideals.

Version 2.6 Sneak Peek 13

by • Sneak-Peek • Tags: , ,

We’ve started testing HelpSpot version 2.6 so I thought this would be a good time to showcase some of the changes in the upcoming release. There’s been a lot of subtle under the hood changes, and of course bug fixes, but I picked out some of the more prominent updates in the interface and functionality to showcase here.

Workspace Quick Popup Menu

Workspace Quick Popup Menu

Workspace Quick Popup Menu

The popup menu is part of the request ID link (and “take it” button) and appears after just under a second of hovering over the link. It allows access to the initial request, latest public note, the full history (all notes/logs) and just the request details like customer information and custom field values. This is always available, so even if you don’t have the Initial request column as part of your filter you can still get to the full note and history.

An added benefit is that this functionality is available everywhere request ID’s are shown. For example, when you’re testing a filter or testing an automation rule the menu is available.

Sub Grouping Filter Conditions

Sub Grouping Filter Conditions

Sub Grouping Filter Conditions

An often requested feature is the ability to have sub grouping of filter conditions. This allows you to use and/or logic to pull out the exact requests you want to see. In the screenshot above we’re looking for requests which are open and in the Account or Technical Issue categories.

Set Column Widths

Set Column Widths

Set Column Widths

By default HelpSpot uses a combination of best guess estimates and the browsers own logic to determine the column widths of each column in a filter. Often though, an installations particular type of data requires a larger/smaller width to be allocated. Now, the defaults can be overridden to a custom value on a per-filter basis.

Live Request Access Status

Live Request Access Check

Live Request Access Check

On installations with many filters or those using separate filters as group inbox’s, it’s common for two staffers to enter a request at the same time. This sometimes leads to one person’s changes overwriting another’s or a customer receiving two updates from two different staffers. This feature prevents such by alerting the second, and subsequent, staffers entering a request that’s currently being worked on by another.

Requests Currently Open

Requests Currently Open

Requests Currently Open

Customers occasionally submit multiple requests, either for the same or different issue. Commonly, different staff members take each of these and aren’t always aware other requests for the customer are being worked on. This new feature removes the uncertainty by, with a quick count at the top, shows how many requests the customer currently has open (if more than 1).

Customer Will be Emailed Notice

Customer Will be Emailed Notice

Customer Will be Emailed Notice

At times it can be unclear if an update to a request will result in an email to the customer. This new notice clarifies exactly what will happen when the update request button is pushed.

Request History Views

Request History Views

Request History Views

Currently, HelpSpot displays all the request notes and log items in the request history. In 2.6 you now have an option to see all the notes, just the public ones, or just the files in a request. Your request history viewing preference is remembered across all requests.

History Item Menu

History Item Menu

History Item Menu

The options which can be performed on a request history note have been expanded in 2.6. Specifically, it’s now possible to create a new request from the history note of another request and to directly link to one individual history note.