Service Management - Email requests changed to Customer Portal

Vanessa Becker June 22, 2021

Hi Admins!

So we have changed our Service Management request logging from emailing to a customer portal. 

We have added the customers to the project.

QUESTION: What is the best approach to notify your customers they must now log requests via the portal and no longer via the email route? Do you draft an email with the portal link and send to all?

Thank you

 

 

 

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4 votes
Dirk Ronsmans
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June 22, 2021

Hi @Vanessa Becker ,

That sounds like a good approach to me.

You can draft a communication announcing that they now have the ability to log issues directly using a Portal and follow up their issues through it.

By packaging the portal as a feature and enchancement to them it might give the customers a better acceptance experience.

"Providing them with an always on/always open portal where they selfservice their requests and get real time insights in to the status of their inquiries" ;-)

Perhaps adding a small onepager with how they are supposed to log an issue/follow up on an issue could also be considered helpfull :)

And ofcourse don't forget to add an auto reply on your mailbox (and not just close it so the mail bounces)

1 vote
Joshua Mathews June 22, 2021

Yup - email announcement, short & simple. Everyone knows the process and there's scarcely a helpdesk in the wild that doesn't have you submit your request via a form.  

Am doing the same thing right now. I'm starting with just 2 very basic forms with Summary and Description - basically just like Subject and Body in email. Not much to complain about, lol. I'm adding optional Requested By date field and that's about it. KISS.

Then after a couple of weeks, we'll add another field to the existing form and then we'll add a new form for 'access requests' that has approval workflow. 

Jack Brickey
Community Leader
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June 22, 2021

The one downside of portal vs email is another login. Too, most people still live in an email world. The only real negative issue I have with email is the lack of form control with required and optional fields. 

1 vote
Jack Brickey
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June 22, 2021

I would also use the old email and have it is an auto reply notifying the customer to use the portal. Include a link to the portal for ease of access

1 vote
Angela Stephens June 22, 2021

All great suggestions. I would also suggest setting up an auto-reply with the link to the portal redirecting customers there.

1 vote
Wendy McCurdy June 22, 2021

I agree with @Dirk Ronsmans. Is this for internal/company users or external? If it's internal, I would also look to what communication avenues you have within your organization. We have a weekly newsletter, intranet and yammer and for internal communications I like to use a variety to ensure that the message is received. If its for external users, then think about who you will be sending this message to. Are you only thinking of emailing those who opened a ticket previously or your entire user base of your company/product? 

Vanessa Becker June 22, 2021

Hi there

Thank you.

It is for external users who has logged issues via the email route.

Many thanks

0 votes
Patrick Haley June 22, 2021

@Vanessa Becker yea we communicated via  email that all requests must for through Jira and even created a nifty Confluence article on how to raise a good support request. When we receive emails/SMS/phone calls we direct them back to Jira, unless it's an emergency. Here's what we used. 

Good Morning,

We are happy to announce that we have piloted Jira Service Desk Management, this is software that allows you to log systems issues online.  The issue is then allocated to one of our systems team to resolve and gives you the ability to check on the progress of that issue.

What do you need to do?

  1. Navigate to the Atlassian URL: <insert project link>  
  2.  Sign Up for a user account using your company email address and follow the login process. Note: "sign up" is a hyperlink to the signup link.
  3. Lodge all your system requests and issues using the Jira Service Desk onlyThat way, we can manage your request more efficiently and enable 1:1 or group discussions to communicate and collaborate within your team or across other teams on issues, projects, and ideas right from within the platform.

If you have any issues signing on to the Jira Service Desk you can email <insert support email>. However, all other requests should now be lodged through the Jira Service desk.

Many thanks for your assistance with this,

<insert your name>

0 votes
Mitesh Shah June 22, 2021

Hi @Vanessa Becker I went through the same change last year, and I used emails, Slack and SharePoint to broadcast the news, and highlight the benefits of Portal and sale the change as huge positive to increase the uptake, similar to @Jack Brickey 

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