Procedures for Phone Support

Version: AbleCommerce (all versions)

Applies to: Level-One Technicians

Last Update: 6/02/10

Phone Support (Level-one technicians)

You will answer phone and help caller find the appropriate support channel.  You are not to provide technical support.  This is the responsibility of a level-two technician.  Your job is to find the caller's account, determine level of support, and send the appropriate response using a system FAQ.

Step #1 - Identify the Caller
Step #2 - Determine the level of support
Step #3 - Use appropriate instructions

New Support Cases (Level-one technicians)

Review new support cases.  A customer (or eval user) must login to an existing account in order to open a support case.  The customer should select his/her order and provide a good description of the issue.  With this information, you can lookup the account, determine the level of support and respond with an appropriate system message.

Step #1 - Identify the User
Step #2 - Determine the level of support
Step #3 - Assign case as needed, or respond with canned message.

There are three types of support cases that are transferred to a level-two technician:

• Customer's who pay for priority support

• Eligible support requests (which includes evaluation users and new customers)

• Bug reports

1. IDENTIFY CALLER:  Ask the caller for the licensed website name this issue is regarding.  "Thank you for calling AbleCommerce.  I'll need to lookup your account, can you tell me the name of the licensed website that you are calling about today?  (pause for answer) I can also lookup your account by order number, name, company, email...(pause)"

   1. If known, proceed to step II and find the Account.

   2. If caller is evaluating, ask for name of person who downloaded, and proceed to step II and find the Account.

   3. If caller is unable to provide contact information for an account, there's nothing we can do to help.  Instruct caller to have the person who purchased AbleCommerce contact us for support.

2. FIND ACCOUNT:  Use the Order Search page to find a customer's order.  It can be a person evaluating, a single purchase, or multiple purchases.  Using the field, type in a partial or full website name using the "Order Notes" selection.  You can also search by name or company.  The User management area gives additional fields to search on.
   
   (We'll need the License Key search form working again.  It will be too difficult to lookup license keys this way)

3. VIEW ORDER(s):  Find an order in the search results, and click on the "details" link to view the order summary.  
   (Hint:  Go to Customer Profile > Purchase History to see all customer's purchases and active subscriptions)

   1. Did they order within the last 30 days?  Then proceed to step IV.  This customer has an active support plan.

   2. Are they evaluating?  Then proceed to step IV.  This caller has an active support plan.  (You may need to look for users who have been evaluating for several months.  These calls should be sent to sales instead. )

   3. Are they using our hosting services?  Then proceed to step IV.  This caller has an active support plan.

   4. Did they order AbleCommerce more than 30+ days ago?  Then proceed to step V.  This caller has no active support plan.

   5. Are they using an older, unsupported version.  This caller will need to pay for any support.  Proceed to step VI.

4. LIVE SUPPORT AVAILABLE.  Ask about the issue they are having and respond accordingly.

   1. Ask the caller to briefly describe the issue.

      1. Is it a License Key problem?  Use system email "FAQ-How to request a key" (customer's only)

      2. Installation help, or ANY AbleCommerce support issue.  Use "FAQ-How to open a support case"

      3. Customization request.  Use "FAQ-Development resources"

      4. Is this a hosting or website issue?  Use "FAQ-How to open a hosting ticket"

      5. Other. (Anything that doesn't fit into the first 4 options)  Use "FAQ-How to open a support case"

   2. Assure the customer that the instructions you've just sent should explain how to get help.

   3. Ask if there is anything else they need help with, and if not, hang up.

   4. If caller would like more assistance, you can stay on the phone to make sure they receive the email and/or verbally walk them through the steps necessary to open a case or make a key request.

5. NO ACTIVE SUPPORT PLAN.  Ask about the issue they are having and respond accordingly.

   1. Ask the caller to briefly describe the issue.

      1. Is it a License Key problem?  Use system email "FAQ-How to request a key" (customer's only)

      2. Do they want to report a bug?  Use system email "FAQ-How to report a bug"

      3. Installation help, or general AbleCommerce support issue.  Use "FAQ-available support resources"

      4. Customization request.  Use "FAQ-Development resources"

   2. Assure the customer that the instructions you've just sent should explain how to get help.

   3. Ask if there is anything else they need help with, and if not, hang up.

   4. If caller would like more assistance, you will need to explain that they have no active support plan.  If they are persistent for help, send the system email "FAQ-what are my priority support options" and let caller know there is nothing more you can do at this time.

6. UNSUPPORTED SOFTWARE VERSIONS 5.x and OLDER.  

   1. Let caller know you are sending an email with their support options.  Use "FAQ-Support for versions 5x and older.