Don't mark a topic as "Solution" when it's not yet "Solved"

[Chris Anderson]

 

In the post:

This kind of forum posting doesn't merit marking as a solution as it won't be SOLVED until you roll out a bugfix in an upcoming maintenance release or via an ACP hotfix.  If someone is scanning the forums and sees that it has been solved, they might assume the problem has already been fixed in a prior release or is related to just one site.

There should be some other way of acknowledging that an issue has been properly identified and a request to the developers has been made to create a bugfix. 

Maybe you could mark this kind of post with a bugfix pending tag: "bugfix-4.6.7", "bugfix-4.6.x" (Just a conceptual idea to illustrate my point)

if it might end up being fixed a little farther down the line. If it will be fixed via an APC hotfix then you could create a tag: acp-hotfix which would alert folks that it will arrive sometime before the next dot release.

This would help manage customer expectations for those reporting the issue and others that may be impacted by the bug and search the forums to determine if it has been reported and what the resolution might be. If a customer searched for these various tags, they could readily determine which issues were fixed in a prior release or will be released via an ACP hotfix or next set of dot releases.

This would help uncover potential problems a particular release might be experiencing and when to expect their resolution with less back and forth between members and the support team. Often times we setup a certain functionality like PayPal and assume everything is working as expected.  We might not become aware of a problem until we get reports from angry members wondering why their transactions are wonky.  The sooner we have a heads up of the potential for such an occurrence the sooner we could scramble to see if there might be work arounds we could put into place while waiting on a fix to be rolled out.

If members here were to add an +1 to a posting if they are experiencing the same thing then it would give IPS and others a heads up that the reported problem isn't occurring on just one site.

[Afrodude]

Perhaps since IPS will use the support forum to submit tickets you guys IPS dev team might come with a new setting mark as processing with yellow highlight, and whenever the issue is fixed you can mark the new reply from IPS support team as solution. Moreover, whenever it's marked as solution it will remove the mark as processing automatically because the solution is finally here.

[Marc]

I've moved this over to our suggestions area, but I just wanted to comment here to say your feedback is appreciated and welcomed. As this is a new way of working, we will indeed find better ways of working with people to ensure we provide you with the best possible service. 

[Marc]

Just wanted to follow up on this one. We have been working to find better ways to provide information to you regarding items which may not yet be solves, but are awaiting being solved. When there are items such as this, you will now see prefixes are added to the topic to state they are known issues, or they are fixed in a future release.

You can see an example of this here, as we have now started using them

This is in addition to other items we have for use internally to follow up on items. So we can internally add to our own records to follow up on an issue, and come back to keep you guys updated when we can. 🙂 

 

[Chris Anderson]

You might consider creating a document that shows a visual step-by-step process of how your support process will change once you fully migrate to a "forums-only" model.

In order to ensure the changeover will happen in the least disruptive fashion, I would recommend adopting a consistent method of reporting issues and ways for your customers to track their progress. 

 

 

 

[Charles]

34 minutes ago, Chris Anderson said:

You might consider creating a document that shows a visual step-by-step process of how your support process will change once you fully migrate to a "forums-only" model.

In order to ensure the changeover will happen in the least disruptive fashion, I would recommend adopting a consistent method of reporting issues and ways for your customers to track their progress. 

 

 

 

A document is not really necessary. Our team will update everyone - just like Marc did here - as needed.

[Chris Anderson]

17 minutes ago, Charles said:

A document is not really necessary. Our team will update everyone - just like Marc did here - as needed.

Not everyone reads these kinds of posts as such they might not be in the know.  Like this person below:

 

 

[Marc]

In the instance there, the user could not find the support button as they were looking in the wrong place. Simply as they were used to looking for it elsewhere. Not sure how creating a document on our support process would resolve that issue. Of course I can ensure the guide is updated on obtaining support, as that would indeed resolve that issue

[Chris Anderson]

Maybe you could change the Client area to better help guide customers to the right places for support and guidance.

Right now, it looks like this:

The "Community Support" links to a view of all of the forums not the "Help and Support" forum.  Instead of "Community Support" it should have a more targeted label like "Support Forum".  You could create my suggested support process document in the "Community Guides" and link it to the "Guidelines to how to use our support forum".  For the "Community Guides" you could link to the "Getting Support" section as a starting point.

Once email support is deprecated you can then remove that option from the mix.  Instead of "Your email support expires in X amount of days, you might change it to the date you intend to stop that kind of support with a hyperlink to an explanation of the change of support after that date.