As a company that strives to provide good support I find it frustrating when we receive requests for support that make it hard for us to give it. What do I mean? Well here’s an example. The other day I received an email that had no subject line but a short message. The sender had also embedded an image in the email. The image didn’t get through because it wasn’t a proper attachment. I replied and asked them to resend the image as an attachment. Later that day I got another email, not a reply – a new email, again with no subject and this time with just an attachment of an image. Now because it wasn’t a particularly busy day for support and because I was the one who replied to this person’s previous email and recognised the email address I was able to mentally piece the two emails together. So I was able to reply to the second email.
Later that day we received yet another email – again, not a reply – containing new information, with no reference to the original problem. It took me a while to figure out what the email was about, which I only did because I vaguely recognised the sender as being the one that had emailed us earlier. Had someone else answered it they wouldn’t have had a clue what the problem was and the whole process would have been restarted. All this occurred despite the fact that our autoresponders and replies clearly ask for follow up information to be sent as a reply with the original message intact.
Each time a new email comes in it is assigned a ticket number. By replying to an email and leaving the message intact it stays on the same ticket and we can see the history of messages, so we can see the support history and know what the new information is referring to. But if a new email is sent each time we don’t know what it is about. If it were a busy day with lots of emails coming in we’d have no idea what the new email is about, especially if the original problem is not even mentioned in it. Furthermore if a different support rep reads the email, then as far as he is concerned it’s a new problem with no helpful information. The long shot is it takes longer for the customer to get a useful response.
So, here are my tips for sending a support request by email and ensuring you get a quick and helpful response. This list is valid whoever you are contacting, not just for us.
- Provide a clear subject line.
- State the product name and version you are using.
- Describe the problem clearly.
- Provide follow up information by replying to the original response/autoresponder – that way your reply is tagged on to the original ticket.
- Send images as attachments and use jpg, or zip them up to keep them small. Don’t paste images into the body of emails because not all email systems support that.
- Don’t send duplicate messages – it actually slows down the response time, not speed it up.
- Remember that the support staff are dealing with other emails and other issues, not just you.
- Oh, and, please be nice …
I hope this helps you help us help you 🙂
