Trouble Ticket Management

• your customers' questions sent from their control panel support center;
• system error reports;
• customer questions sent to support e-mail set in your TT Administration Panel Configuration

These are delivered to POP3 support mailbox (e.g. support@example.com) specified in your TT Administration Panel Configuration and submited then to your
TT administration panel.

 
Viewing TTs
 
To view any TT, click its title. The page you will be taken to includes:

• TT info or properties:

  
  

  More on TT properties.
  
   
• the list of the latest TTs from this customer/email address:

  
  

  The number of the latest TTs is set in Support Center Configuration.
  
   
• TT thread or history
• the Answer section (for assigned TTs only):

  
  

• the Attachments section (for assigned TTs only):

  
  

  More on Attachments.
• the Notes section:

  
  

 
Assigning TTs

• To assign a TT to a specifici support technician:
  1. Click TT's title.
  2. Choose the correct variant and click Assign To drop down box.
  3. Click the Change button.
  4. Change the priority and the state of the ticket before re-assigning it, if necessary.
  5. Select the Sticky option if you want the ticket to remain assigned to the same tech support admin in case of client's reply. If Sticky is not set, the ticket with customer's reply appears as "not assigned".
  6. Click Change.
  Important: If you click Change to reassign the ticket, having an answer or a note entered, they will be lost.
   
• To assign yourself a TT, click the Pick Up link on the right to the TT's title.

Assigned/picked up TT moves to the Highest Priority Assigned Tickets section on TT Administration homepage.
 
Creating TTs
You as an administrator or your support technicians may need to create your own TTs. For instance, if a customer TT contains several different questions and should be assigned to different support technicians, you can divide it and make each question go to a separate TT. From the administrative side TTs are created the same way as from the user's.
 
Sorting TTs
You can sort TTs only in the Newest Unassigned Tickets section. TTs in this section can be sorted by their ID Title, Priority, Type, State or by time they were created or last modified. Click on the corresponding column headers to sort tickets in ascending/descending order.
 
Releasing TTs
Releasing TTs in H-Sphere terms is removing your TT ownership. Released TTs return to the Newest Unassigned Tickets section and can be picked up again. To release an assigned ticket back to a main queue:

1. Click the title of a trouble ticket.
2. Click the Release button in the upper right corner of the ticket. (See the image above).

 
Answering TTs
- spellcheck
- adding attachments
- pgp encription
 
Requirements

• TT must be assigned.
• TT Admin Info must be entered.

TT Notation
In the Highest Priority Assigned Tickets list, unanswered TTs are in bold, the answered are in normal font.
 
Procedure

1. View the TT.
2. Go to the Answer section at the bottom of the page that opens.
3. In the E-mail CC field enter the email address for the CC of your answer if necessary.
4. In the the Answer section (for field enter an answer to a TT or describe the solution of a problem.   Important: when posting an answer to a trouble ticket, do not enter text in HTML. Support system will not transform it into the plain text, but post it as it is. E.g: entering <i>problem</i> will show up in a trouble ticket only as <i>problem</i> which will make it difficult to read. Use it only when HTML tags are important.
5. Spellcheck your message.
6. Enter comments for yourself and other support staff in the Notes field. This message won't show to the customer neither in the email nor in the control panel. If you submit a note without answering, the ticket isn't sent to a client and does not get answered status.
7. Add attachment if necessary.
8. Select the Sticky option if you want the ticket to remain assigned to the same tech support admin in case of client's reply. If Sticky is not set, the ticket with customer's reply appears as "not assigned".
9. Once the ticket is completed, click Submit.

 
PGP Encryption in Trouble Tickets
Starting from v.2.4, it comes possible to include secure PGP encrypted information to trouble tickets. This information would be seen decrypted only in the TT panel.
To be able to decode customers' encrypted inclusions, set PGP Private Key and PGP Code Phrase in the Settings/Tech Support menu in the admin panel, and make PGP public key available to customers to encrypt their messages.
A customer inserts an encrypted text to a trouble ticket:

TT admin would see this message as follows:

To read the encrypted text, click on the Click here to access encrypted information link. The decrypted text would appear in a pop-up window:

Please note that the decrypted text won't appear in your reply to the ticket. The customer would get a reply like this:
This is a reply to the encrypted ticket.

user@example.com wrote:
> The information is | secured information | beyond the invisible
 
Adding Attachments
Starting with H-Sphere 2.4.3, the Attachments section was improved. You can add attachment by doing the following:

1. Click the Attachments icon in the corresponding section. The popup window will appear:
2. Click Browse and select necessary file.
3. Click Upload and the filename will show in the Attachments section:

 
Trouble Tickets Spellcheck
TechSupport system allows checking answers to trouble tickets for spelling. To do spellcheck:

1. Click the spellcheck link under the message field. Pop-up window shows with misspelled words, if any, being underlined:
2. Point your mouse to a misspelled word and a number of suggestions shows.
3. Choose the correct variant and click Done.

 
Closing Trouble Tickets
Once you've answered a ticket and don't need it any further, you can close it. There are two options:

1. Open a trouble ticket and once you answer it, click the Close button in the right upper corner.
2. Go to Tickets Center page and in the list of Open or Answered Tickets, click the Close link on the right.

Closed trouble tickets are regarded as deleted and are not available for your viewing, but remain in the TT database and remain open in the user's interface until the user closes it (available in version 2.09 and higher, for more information see the Support Centerchapter of the User Guide). In case the user decides to post a follow-up message on the same issue, the TT will show up on the interface in the Open Tickets list again. You may access closed TTs through the Search option.
 
 
Closing Trouble Tickets Automatically
You can have your trouble tickets closed automatically after they have been answered. You can choose whether you want them to:

• close immediately after they are answered (the default H-Sphere option);
• close after a certain number of days after they are answered:
  1. In TechSupport Admin CP, select Tech Support in the Settings menu.
  2. Enter the number of days when your tickets are to be closed.
• remain in open status. If you want all answered tickets to remain open in the system, enter -1 in the field, as shown on the image below:

 
Changing Trouble Tickets Properties
You can change main and additional details of a trouble ticket. By default, main info shows in your trouble ticket.
To change the main ticket info, click the name of the trouble ticket and go to the top of page:

• Assigned to: change Tech Support Assistant the ticket is assigned to.
  Note: If a ticket is assigned to "nobody", it means it's not picked up by any of tech support admins.
• The State of resolving the ticket. Setting "Resolved" or "Closed" states will remove the ticket from the list.
• The Priority of resoving this ticket from '0' to 100% by entering new priority level.
• The Change icon allows to change the ticket owner: the account this ticket is tied to.
  1. Click the Change icon near the account ID.
  2. In the Search Account window that appears, enter your search parameters and click Submit.
  3. On the search result page click the Choose link against the necessary account.

Note: If you click Back from the search result page, you will be brought back to the Ticket Info page without changing the account this ticket was tied to.
To change additional trouble ticket info:

1. Click the Additional Info link.
2. Edit or enter new trouble ticket title.
3. Edit or enter new email address.
4. Click Change.

 
Searching Trouble Tickets
Among all trouble tickets received from users, you can select those that match your specified criteria.
Trouble Ticket system allows searching tickets via Search Tickets (advanced search) and Quick Search (directly from the TTAP) .
Searching Trouble Tickets
To perfom advanced search:

1. Select Search Tickets in the toolbar. The following page will show:
2. Enter or choose the search criteria.
3. Click Submit.

 
Searching Trouble Tickets Via Quick Search
To search tickets directly from the main screen, use the Quick Search feature under the toolbar, above the tickets.
 

To quick search tickets, just enter its ID, title or email address and click Search.
 
Mass Action
You may apply a specific command to a selected range of TTs:

1. Launch the Search utility.
2. Once you get tickets that match your criteria, click the Mass Action link at the bottom of the page. Search Results page. You can close, delete, or assign the selected TTs:
   

 
Version 2.3 and higher also allows mass closing and assigning tickets directly from the main queue. To mass close/assign/delete selected tickets, do the following:

1. Select Tickets Center in the Support Center menu.
2. In the Newest Unassigned Tickets section, check the necessary tickets.
3. On the bottom of the page, select Assign, Close or Delete option.
4. Click Apply.

 
Deleting Trouble Tickets
When you close trouble tickets, they still remain in the database, and you can always retrieve them with the Search Tickets utility.
To remove TTs permanently:

1. Search the necessary tickets with Search Tickets option.
2. Click Mass Action link at the bottom of the page.
3. In the Action field, select Delete from the drop-down box.
4. Click Submit and tickets will be removed permanently.

Alternatively, use Mass Action directly in the main queue of the tickets described above.
 
Edit TechSupport Info
Trouble tickets contain TechSupport information that shows in emails together with your answers to customers' trouble tickets. If you want to change this info:

1. Select Admin Info in the Support Center menu.
2. Enter the following info:
   • Full name of the TechSupport assistant shows in Assigned to line at the beginning of the email, e.g: Assigned to: John Woods.
   • Description shows in brackets next to the full name. It may contain the position or status of the support person, e.g: John Woods (senior programmer)
   • E-Mail of Tech Support assistant.
   • Signature is available in version 2.3 and higher.
     It shows at the bottom of the e-mail and may contain the name of support person, company's name and website, for example:
     John Woods
     Professional Hosting
     www.prohost.net
3. Click Submit to confirm changes.

 
Ticket Queues
If you have different support departments, for instance billing, sales, and technical support, each with its own email address, you will probably want each deparment to receive only relevant tickets, but still have all tickets centralized in one support center. To ensure this, create a ticket queue for each department:
- the Sales queue for tickets sent to sales@your_company.com;
- the Billing queue for tickets sent to billing@your_company.com;
- the Support queue for tickets sent to support@your_company.com.
A support admin can see and answer tickets:
- tickets in the queue he is entitled to;
- tickets in the default queue (it is seen by all support admins);
- tickets that are assigned to him regardless of the queue.
 
Important: Messages sent to one of these queue email addresses will appear and be processed in your Trouble Ticket system only if these messages are redirected to the main support e-mail address configured in the Settings -> Tech Support menu. Thus, queue e-mail addresses should be configured mail aliases/redirects to the main support address.
To create a ticket queue:

1. Select Queue Configuration in the ticket administration toolbar:
    

   
   

2. Click Create New Queue on the page that appears:
    

   
   

3. Fill in the form on the next page:
    

   
   - Name - the name of the queue
   - E-Mail - the mailbox to be polled for this queue
   - New ticket auto response and Resolved/closed ticket auto response - autoresponse messages that will be sent to customers.
   

   Queues may serve one of search ticket criteria in the Search Tickets form.
   When you delete a queue, you will be prompted either to delete all its tickets, or move them to another queue:
   

   
   

   You can't delete the last queue remaining in the TT system.