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Technology is there to make our lives easier, until it doesn’t. We have so much technology supporting our day to day lives and business operations, something is bound to go wrong from time to time. More often than not it’s when we can least afford the inconvenience or downtime!

Be, it a global software outage or bug – a system ‘going down’, a local issue contained your file or business and sometimes (dare we say it) user error! No matter what the issue, it never happens at a convenient time and the outcome we all want is to identify and find a solution quickly.  The faster it’s done, the faster you can get back to your business at hand. Here’s some of our top tips getting your problem solved swiftly through a support ticket.

Don’t forget if you need us, at all, email us at support@cloudsolve.com.au or send us a live chat via the website.

Don’t panic, and remember to breathe. By staying calm, as difficult as this might be, you can organise your thoughts and communicate with clarity on the issue at hand.

The key is to be as clear as possible, with as much detail as possible. Submitting a clear and accurate support ticket assists any team in pinpointing the issues you have encountered, which can drastically reduce the time to resolution.

2. Write a concise subject line.

The subject line is an important part of your support ticket. Why? Because it immediately tells us what your concern is and the urgency of it.  They us help us address your issue swiftly, so keep them clear and concise.  Simply saying “I need help urgently” doesn’t give us any information. A great subject line might look more like this:

“Help Please, I can’t post any sales in my XX system”

It shows a sense of urgency, reveals the context (can’t post sales entries), the software (XX) with the problem and the area the problem sits in (sales function).  It also allows us to prioritise your request….posting sales is a time critical and urgent matter, we get that!

3. Give a full description of your problem.

The more details in your support ticket, the better and faster we can help.

Here’s what a detailed description would optimally include. Bullet points are fine, we don’t need an essay, keep it topical and descriptive if you can.

• Brief introduction of yourself – It really helps to know who we’re dealing with and if we need to follow up with you, we’ll need your contact details.
• Your end goal – What did you want to accomplish before the issue happened? An example would be, “I was about to [end goal] when [problem]…arose”
• Technical details – Basic details include the software or product name, a web address or URL where the error occurred, the device you used, and your operating system and/or browser version.
• Time and frequency of the issue – Your issue may have happened in the morning, evening, and it may have happened more than once. So be sure to specify the time it first occurred and if the issue persisted.
• Whether you tried to self resolve –  If you took the initiative to troubleshoot the problem, what steps did you take? Did you try the app on a different computer to see if it works? What was the result?

4. Add a screenshot or screen recording.

To back-up your description, a screenshot or screen recording showing the issue can be really useful. As the old saying goes… A picture tells a thousand words.

It’s very simple to take a screenshot or screen recording. If you want a screen recorder that works for both Mac and Windows, we recommend using Loom. It’s reliable, simple-to-use, and comes with internal audio so you can explain your issue while recording your screen and there’s a free version!

5. Don’t reply to an old ticket for a new issue

It can be confusing if you’re adding a new issue to an old ticket, it might get missed or fall through the cracks. Nobody wants that, so start a new ticket for a new issue.

6. Don’t create multiple tickets for the same problem

Creating duplicate tickets for the same issue doesn’t get anythings solved any faster.  Duplicates will only delay the process of getting answers,  Instead, check your ticket status or follow up the existing ticket. Some issues can take some time to resolve and are dependent on third parties, which means we have to wait for them too! We’ll always do our best to support you as swiftly as possible and keep the communication lines open.

7. Your Support person is the solution, not the problem.

Look at it as team work, working together to solve a problem. We understand that you’re stressed and time is of the essence, but please remember to be kind to your support person. Abusing them won’t move you up the queue or help them find the answer any faster.