JSM issue view is TERRIBLE for email conversations - how can I configure it differently?

[Emily Wood]

Hi all!

TL;DR - trying to view incoming requests for customer support via Jira SM is giving me a headache!

• Emailed requests are formatted awfully; it's so difficult to read what would be a fairly basic email trail/conversation once it enters Jira.
• No option to CC others? We frequently get support requests forwarded to our support inbox, which filter through to Jira. I can always reply directly outside of Jira, but then I still have to go into the Jira issue anyway and end up taking twice as long due to double handling.

I'm an admin for our service project but not a global admin; thankfully we are small enough that I can make direct requests to the global admin and we can figure out what works, but he's currently on leave.

We used to just respond to emails directly, but it lacked visibility for the rest of the support team to know if something had been dealt with or not. Our Development team use Jira so we thought using JSM would be a great way to integrate support requests/bug reports, etc - but it's honestly causing me so much frustration because it's really not user friendly. I can use it fine for viewing and commenting on our trackers for the development team as it's all internal and fairly simple, but the issue view for service management is DOING MY HEAD IN 😭 it seems created for and by engineers/ developers, but with no UX research/design on other user types (eg myself - a neurodivergent customer support coordinator who needs to be able to locate or log the critical details FAST)

Feeling really disappointed and disheartened as we've spent a long time trying to get JSM up and running and I feel like it's making my job harder not easier.

[Alex Koxaras _Relational_]

Hi @Emily Wood and welcome to the community,

It is rather unfortunate that you feel that way about JSM. You are definitely having a bad experience with it. From what I understand by your question/complaint is that the people you have setup your JSM project didn't do a proper work, either due to inexperience, or due to lack of input by your side.

• In either case, all fields in a jira project are configurable and can be placed in 3 different locations within the issue view. Read more here https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-field-layout-in-the-issue-view/
• Emails to jira issue is a complicated thing, since engineers must work hard to include all email clients to be presented in a correct way. One of the last features they are working on, is the ability to hide email signatures. This will do things more easy.
• You can adjust your JSM project and handler to include people who are in the CC. This is done automatically in came of customers (CC people can be seen as request participants). My question is what are these people who are not included in the CC?

[Emily Wood]

Hi @Alex Koxaras _Relational_ thanks for your response 😊

I did post my question during a moment of particularly intense frustration - trying to sort out one request while more keep pouring in and piling up!

The team who set up the project use Jira & other Atlassian projects quite extensively and I'm sure are able to help sort out some more usable configuration with me; they just helpfully went on leave the same week our JSM project went live! 😅

• Thanks for linking that page - I can edit some of those settings. I guess my main frustration is not so much the entire Issue View but moreso the Description Field where the emails load. 
• Mmm, yes I'm sure it's complicated! If there's anything I've learnt from the Development team at my workplace, it's that all the things we want them to do that we think are simple are often very complicated!
  I guess it also feels incongruous as the Description field will load the email conversation view, but all subsequent replies appear in theActivity field/s, so it is hard to match up (sometimes we have not been emailed at the start of the conversation, so we are reading a back-and-forth in the email description and then add comments underneath all of that... it's confusing!)
• I assume there must be some global settings somewhere to add CC customers as request participants. Currently we are not inviting customers to join the portal, as one of their main reasons for reaching out can be due to issues logging in to our platform, we do not want to make them log into something ELSE just to place a request for support.

[Alex Koxaras _Relational_]

If you haven't invited any customers to your portal, then there is no wonder why you are receiving a huge email thread. One of the roles of having a customer portal, is for them to use it. And not using their email. But then again, people are used in email threads.

If you ask me, although I have an account to hundreds of service desks, whenever I receive a reply from an agent, I click to login, view my ticket and reply from there. I rarely reply from my email.

Finally, prior of launching your new JSM project, some testing ought to be made, with real-life scenarios. That would help you find any potentials problems, like the one you are mentioning as well as possible solutions to these.

Changing from email threads to jira is a huge forward step and it takes time to adjust to this new reality. I would give it some time and then I would decide if I preferred the old way to the new one.

Cheers,

Alex

[Emily Wood]

Thanks for another detailed response, @Alex Koxaras _Relational_ 😊

I think our original decision around the portal is because we didn't want to introduce another interface for our end users (one of our main user groups are tradespeople who work in remote areas and deal with a lot of complex machinery, but are not familiar with a lot of technology... many are only now using their very first smart phone!)

I do know that there's an option to have the portal available without logging in - I will explore this as well.