Important Information to include in a Support Ticket

When submitting a support ticket for technical support please make sure you have done the following first:

1. Search our Knowledge Base to see if the question has already been asked and answered.75% of questions are answered here.
2. Ask the question in your favourite Search Engine. Practically every question has already been asked and answered for you.
3. Search the forums relating to your product to see if someone else has asked the same question.
4. You should also check to see if you are using the latest version of the software as all software requires updates to operate correctly.

One of the grand hurdles with troubleshooting technical issues on the web is communicating the details effectively. This article explores a few tips for bridging the gap between unique perspectives of understanding the problem and then articulating it effectively so a technician or programmer can resolve the issue quickly.  It is critical to master a good process for communicating your technical support cases (tickets). The faster your tech can get to the source of your issue the faster a solution can be found.

The first and most common mistake people make is assuming aspects of what needs to be communicated and omitting it. For example it is easy to forget URL’s or steps required for replicating the issue. The first thing a tech support person needs to know is where to look for the problem and then they need to understand the problem completely before they can attempt to solve it.

If you still need to submit a support ticket then include the following information at a minimum:

1) Select the correct department to send your enquiry to -. Support, Accounts or Sales and Marketing are your options. This saves time redirecting your ticket and allows for a much quicker response time.

2) Advise exactly what login details you are using if access is required to a restricted area such as Client Area or cPanel etc

3) One Ticket per Issue - New Ticket for New Issues only.
 

1. Copy the URL of the page you are on when the error/issue arises. This also takes us directly to the area of concern.
2. Describe how to reproduce the problem. If we can reproduce the problem then it makes things much simpler.
3. If there are any error messages appearing then copy them and attach into the support ticket. This is very important. Without knowing what the error is, we cannot help.
4. If any error messages appear on screen, state what the error message was. Better still, provide a screenshot and attach to the support ticket.
5. If the problem is with an FTP server, then state which kind of FTP server you are using. Try using another FTP client program, with the same FTP settings to see if it’s a network or FTP server problem.
6. If the problem is with emailing, then state which kind of email server you are using. Try using another email client program with the same email settings to see if it’s a network or email server problem.
7. Please remember that we can only work with the information you provide. If you provide little information then there is little we can do to resolve the problem.

It may be difficult to believe, but we do get support tickets that just say “It doesn’t work, why not?”. It is impossible to answer those questions without being given more information. Providing that information in your initial support request will save time both for yourself and for us.

Remember that one of the first things a tech has to determine once they understand the issue is if this is a configuration issue or is it a programming issue. The clues or instructions you leave your technician are the key for them getting to the root of the problem faster.

Most of this is all common sense but too often the closer we are to the issue the more we can forget or is assumed and omitted in our case definitions and issue explanations. 

Failure to get this right will not only make the issue take longer to resolve but require more communication steps (back and forth) to get to the finish line and resolve your issues.