TABLE OF CONTENTS
- 1.1. Example 1: Not Having Enough Information
- 1.2. Example 2: Asking for a Ticket Update
- 1.3. Example 3: One Issue Spread Across Multiple Tickets/Chats
- 1.4. Example 4: Asking Multiple Questions
- 1.5. Example 5: Maintenance
- 1.6. Example 6: System Down - Asking for a Cause
- 1.7. Example 7: Requesting an Update/Upgrade of System(s)
- 2.1. Example 1: System Down or No Calls
- 2.2. Example 2: Odd Behavior
- 2.3. Example 3: Providing More Explanation
- 2.4 Example 4: Joining live chat for the purpose of system upgrade
Abstract
This document addressed the best practices regarding support tickets and live chats. Its purpose is to provide information to Partners and guide them through the process of using their support contract effectively. This document combines examples of creating a support ticket and/or using live chat sessions so that the issue in question is resolved in a timely manner.
The Bicom Systems’ support team aims to decrease the number of live chat sessions, especially in the US time zone to ensure quality time dedicated to providing Partners with the best service through tickets. Please note that only several examples are mentioned in this document, which should serve as a guide for deciding which type of issues should be reported via support tickets or live chats.
The first section of the document lists several example situations in which it is better to use the support ticketing system to contact us. The second section provides examples of when to use live chats as a communication tool.
Using Tickets
This section lists the number of examples in which it is better to use the ticketing system. Users can find seven examples of various situations and refer to the explanation of why it is more beneficial to use the support ticketing system in these cases.
1.1. Example 1: Not Having Enough Information
The first example refers to the situation in which you receive a ticket from an end user. You try proposing a certain solution to them but with no success. You even try replicating the issue but come across some difficulties. After the discussion with the end user, you realize that you have not received all the necessary information regarding the issue or that it was not explained to you sufficiently.
Even though some crucial information may be missing, you decide to contact the Bicom Systems’ support team via live chat as you know that a live chat session would lead to a potential solution.
When contacting the support team via live chat, please be aware that engineers may ask you various questions, such as “How to replicate this issue?”, “How did the issue manifest?”, “What are the steps that led to this?”, “What is the version of the application?”, “What about phone firmware?”, and so on.
If you did not collect all the information from the end user prior to contacting support via live chat, it is a great chance that it will not lead to the solution that you or the end user needed.
Why a Ticket instead of Live Chat?
If you do not have all the necessary information, it is most likely that you will be asked to provide it. You will need to contact the end user and ask them to share the necessary details.
After collecting all the information and sending it to us via ticket, our engineers will have a chance to devote some quality time to testing and replicating the issue, after which you will receive a reply with a detailed explanation and a list of suggested steps.
1.2. Example 2: Asking for a Ticket Update
The second example refers to the situation in which you have opened a ticket, but you have not been given any feedback on the issue in question. In this case, we highly recommend that you reply to that ticket and ask for an update.
This is the only way to ensure that your email will be received by an engineer who is familiar with the issue and the original ticket.
Why a Ticket instead of Live Chat?
If you decide to contact us via live chat and ask for a ticket update regarding the same issue, there is a possibility that you will get in contact with an engineer who is not familiar with your issue.
In that case, the engineer will ask you to reply to the original ticket, which will not speed up the process.
1.3. Example 3: One Issue Spread Across Multiple Tickets/Chats
The third example refers to a situation in which the issue is not resolved after a completed live chat session. Therefore, you decide to provide some additional information that will be of great benefit to us.
Please make sure that you respond to the original live chat session and keep a collection of conversations there. This will ensure that all your comments and information provided reached the right person.
Our Support team encourages a one-issue-per-ticket approach to streamline and enhance the efficiency of the resolution process.
Why a Ticket instead of Live Chat?
Although the initial conversation with our engineer was via live chat, it is not a recommended practice to use the live chat session as a way to communicate with the same engineer.
Additionally, if you join the live chat to provide some additional information to an engineer who is handling your reported issue or request, there is no guarantee that you will get in contact with that specific engineer. We have several engineers managing live chat sessions, therefore, this attempt may result in you spending more time trying to resolve the issue. Initiating a new chat will generate a new ticket and information about one issue will be spreaded on multiple tickets.
Please use a ticket (reply to the chat transcript) in this type of situation. This practice ensures that a dedicated engineer can focus on the reported issue, possessing all the necessary information within the relevant ticket.
NOTE: We encourage you to join the live chat session only if invited by our support engineers on the initial ticket.
1.4. Example 4: Asking Multiple Questions
The fourth example refers to the situation in which you have just recently started using the PBXware system and after completing the training, you still have some questions.
Or you have concerns on how a certain feature works, need a more detailed explanation. You also have a support contract that enables you to submit a ticket or join a live chat session.
In this case, we strongly recommend using a ticketing system and opening ticket for each issue you have.
Why a Ticket instead of Live Chat?
The main reason behind this recommendation is the high-quality service that you will receive. If you submit a ticket, you will give additional time to our engineers to test reported problems, and if needed, consult the DEV team. It is important to note that submitting questions related to a specific topic within a single ticket is important for Support team and its’ engineers. This practice ensures that a dedicated engineer can focus on the reported issue, with having all the necessary information within the relevant ticket.
Furthermore, it is advised not to use a single ticket for unrelated questions and issues. Our Support team encourages a one-issue-per-ticket approach to streamline and enhance the efficiency of the resolution process.
As a result, you will receive an email with a detailed explanation or a list of steps on how to resolve the problem, which is, in some cases, not possible when using live chat sessions. This could be due to emergency issues that our engineers may be dealing with at the moment, so your issues may not be looked into as they would if the ticket was sent.
1.5. Example 5: Maintenance
At Bicom Systems, the majority of our valued Partners hold support contracts rather than maintenance contracts. While our dedicated support team diligently addresses various issues beyond the scope of standard support contracts to assist our customers, challenges arise when certain inquiries are requested to be resolved via live chat sessions.
To clarify the disparity between these contractual arrangements, please review the following breakdown:
Support:
Inquiry: Pose your question or issue.
Guidance: Receive tailored instructions and guidance on how to address it.
Execution: Independently perform the recommended steps.
Maintenance:
Inquiry: Present your question or concern.
Action: We promptly undertake the necessary steps to resolve it on your behalf.
Example Scenario:
You require assistance with configuring the ClickHouse database on your system. In this case, you reach out to our support team seeking guidance and support for the setup process.
Why a Ticket instead of Live Chat?
While live chat remains available for all inquiries, including requests for ClickHouse database configuration, we recommend utilizing our ticket system for such technical setups or configurations. Here's why:
Consultation Opportunity: With a support contract, you gain access to our team's expertise for setup or troubleshooting purposes. Utilizing a ticket ensures a thorough consultation process tailored to your specific requirements.
Efficiency and Planning: Configuration tasks, such as setting up ClickHouse databases, often involve detailed steps and may require system downtime. By submitting a ticket, you enable us to allocate resources efficiently and plan any necessary system maintenance in advance.
Non-Urgent Nature: While all requests are important to us, configurations and maintenance tasks that are not time-sensitive can be adequately addressed through our ticketing system. This approach allows us to prioritize urgent matters while ensuring comprehensive support for your setup needs.
In summary, while live chat remains an available channel for communication, submitting a support ticket for inquiries such as ClickHouse database configuration requests allows for a more structured and efficient resolution process, tailored to your specific requirements and minimizing disruption to your system's operation.
1.6. Example 6: System Down - Asking for a Cause
Having a system down even for a couple of minutes can be very stressful. In such cases, we advise you to join our live chat sessions at times when you do not have services, for instance, your system is currently down or the system cannot process calls.
However, upon service restoration and system functionality, we encourage you to submit a standard ticket, particularly if you seek to determine the cause of the outage.
Why a Ticket instead of Live Chat?
Looking for the cause of downtime can sometimes be a long process, and it can require involving our DEV team. Consequently, we cannot assure that the team can immediately provide comprehensive information via live chat.
Alternatively, you can open an Emergency ticket to alert the team that urgent assistance or inspection is required, ensuring prompt access to information regarding the cause of the issue.
When opening a ticket, whether standard or emergency, it is crucial to inform our support team of the impact on your system during the outage.
Provide details such as whether only a specific service was affected (e.g., all gloCOM users unable to log in/process calls) or if there was a complete loss of service (all phones/applications unregistered or could not make/receive calls).
Additionally, indicate if your system was accessible during this time and how you restored services.
As a support team, we understand that our Partners utilize the PBXware system in diverse ways, with varying feature usage and subjective perceptions of system downtime. Therefore, providing comprehensive information about the outage assists us in determining where to focus our efforts. Please include the timeframe of the service loss, as this greatly aids us in inspecting logs, calls, and related data.
While this situation is service-disruptive and stressful, dedicating sufficient time to thorough inspection and proposing solutions is quite important. We can then share more details with you on how to prevent it in the future.
1.7. Example 7: Requesting an Update/Upgrade of System(s)
Please note that we do not recommend joining the live chat session if you want to request the system’s update or upgrade.
Why a Ticket instead of Live Chat?
The update and inspection procedure cannot be performed without being scheduled. Such a procedure requires dedicated time both for a production system and for a test system. Also, additional troubleshooting might be required after the upgrade/update, especially if you are moving from an older version of the product.
Please note that every update/upgrade regardless of its size requires an engineer to properly inspect and prepare the system for the procedure. It is not possible to perform and update or upgrade of any type without proper planning and scheduling the process it self.
More information on the upgrade request process can be found on the below links,
How to request PBXware update or upgrade
How to request Serverware upgrade
Using Live Chat Sessions
This section lists the number of examples in which it is better to use live chat sessions. Users can find four examples of various situations and refer to the explanation of why it is more beneficial to use live chat sessions in these cases.
NOTE: In general, live chat sessions should be used only for urgent situations and emergencies, or in case support engineers ask you to join the chat for additional troubleshooting or for the purpose of the system upgrade.
Only a handful of scenarios mentioned below can be considered issues that should be shared and resolved in a live chat session.
2.1. Example 1: System Down or No Calls
The first example refers to the situation in which your system is down or there are no calls. This is considered an emergency and you are welcome to join our live chat session.
There are a couple of ways to create an Emergency ticket:
By sending an email to “emergency@bicomsystems.com” and typing “URGENT” or “EMERGENCY” in the Subject field
By going to Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal and submitting a ticket with “URGENT” or “EMERGENCY” in the ticket's Subject field
If instead of emergency a regular ticket is opened by mistake, the same ticket can be converted to EMERGENCY by changing the ticket priority from "ANY" to "URGENT" or changing ticket type from "ANY" to "EMERGENCY" through Bicom Systems Technical Support Portal
Both methods will ensure that you have our immediate attention. You can choose the preferred option to contact us.
2.2. Example 2: Odd Behavior
The second example refers to a situation in which you witness some odd behavior on one of your servers. Maybe you have already experienced a similar issue and opened a ticket, but strangely, the issue resolved by itself before anyone from the Bicom Systems’ support team had a chance to look at it closely.
Such an issue may appear again and get resolved in a similar way. To avoid this, we recommend joining our live chat session so that we can catch or see situations that caused this odd behavior.
Why Live Chat instead of a Ticket?
This is a problem that happens occasionally and it gets resolved by itself. It could be the system's glitch that happens when certain conditions are met, so our team has only a few opportunities to find its cause.
Finding the cause of such an odd behavior is nearly impossible, especially after it is resolved, so we recommend real-time troubleshooting.
2.3. Example 3: Providing More Explanation
Depending on what type of business your end users are having, you can sometimes encounter odd call scenarios that are complicated to be explained or replicated without step-by-step guidance.
Writing tickets in these cases can be time-consuming and you can miss some crucial information that will help our team replicate a problem or resolve it.
Why Live Chat instead of a Ticket?
We recommend using live chat sessions in these cases for two reasons. You will have a session with an engineer who will ask you various questions, and you will be able to share more details with them. This is also an opportunity to recheck the steps used for replicating an issue, especially if wrong steps were used.
Another reason to join live chat sessions is time. In case, you did not provide all the necessary steps in your original email, there will certainly be some delay in resolving the problem, especially if the engineer needs you to provide and send additional information.
2.4 Example 4: Joining live chat for the purpose of system upgrade
We have recently launched a new and enhanced version of the PBXware system, incorporating numerous changes and additional features. While we take pride in our successful track record of completed upgrades, it is highly advisable to remain 'up to date' with the current status of the upgrade and conduct necessary tests.
Why Live Chat instead of a Ticket?
Engaging in a live chat during the system upgrade, where an engineer is at work, offers several significant benefits:
- Real-time Updates: Live chat provides instant communication, allowing you to receive real-time updates on the progress of the upgrade. This ensures that you are continuously informed about the status of the process.
- Immediate Issue Resolution: If any unexpected issues arise during the upgrade, a live chat enables prompt communication with the engineer. This facilitates quick troubleshooting and resolution of any challenges, minimizing downtime.
- Efficient Communication: Live chat eliminates delays associated with email or other asynchronous communication methods. It enables efficient back-and-forth exchanges, optimizing the flow of information between you and the engineer.
- Peace of Mind: Being able to communicate with the engineer in real-time can offer peace of mind during the upgrade process. You have the opportunity to ask questions, seek clarifications, and stay informed, reducing uncertainties.Also, all the testings are conducted by you so you are sure that your clients will have no issues with new versions of the system
ADDITIONAL NOTE
For any license-related questions or issues, please join our sales live chat or send an email to your Account Manager. You can also send an email to: sales@bicomsystems.com.
For adding gloCOM licenses, CRM, meeting, or others, please refer to this link: Package Subscription
For adding Extensions to your PBXware system, or making some additional changes to your PBXware license, please refer to this video: Update Rented & Hosted Subscription Package
Thank you.
Technical Support
Bicom Systems