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Tickets, formal or informal? - Page 2
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Tickets, formal or informal?

2

Comments

  • HalfEatenPieHalfEatenPie Veteran
    edited April 2013

    @jarland said: You can be personal, friendly, casual, and yet professional. The key is to focus on the client and what they need, but making it impersonal is not necessarily adding professionalism. In fact, people appreciate it more when they are treated as human beings. The "personal response" above is designed to let you know that I am not some kind of corporate robot, I am just a person like you.

    SO TRUE. Although @jarland and @ryanarp can attest to this, I seem to take the more "Formal" approach to my tickets while @jarland and @ryanarp's approaches are more personal. Although personally its just the way I think, and how I react even in normal environments. Honestly, I kinda wish I did it more personal than formal haha.

  • Lol. I hate it when that happen. Oh, You forgot: Do not print this email (some environmental crap).

  • How do you sign your own emails then? There seems to be so much variation, from support techs who will write their full name to just 'hostingcompany Support Team'

  • LeeLee Veteran

    @jarland said: The problem.

    The expectation.
    What you've done.

    This, it's what I do when submitting a ticket, I prefer to send one ticket that gives the provider all they need to deal with my request instead of messing about in ticket ping pong.

    What really pisses me off though and I have this from a few LET providers is when for example you say something like I re-installed mysql and they come back with "have you tried re-installing mysql?"

    Or even worse, once I installed cPanel and then asked them to setup 2nd level quotas and after a couple of exchanges I actually had to give them instructions on how to do it on the command line.

  • Human beings are usually decently good at filtering what's the important part (ticket answer) and signature (see above), so I don't mind the sig if it's not too big. When it looks like @Zen's example, though, my brain revolts at having to work so hard to filter it out. My finger, too, if I have to scroll past it. But I haven't had that problem much.

  • DamienSBDamienSB Member
    edited April 2013

    @HalfEatenPie said: This one time, I responded to a support ticket with one word.

    Fishsticks.

    It was a glorious day.

    Love it.

    With other providers, sometimes i will send memes and talk informal, but that is only after the formal first emails/tickets.

    With clients of our own, it depends how they’re speaking to us. Sometimes we will joke back with them to have a personal touch to the cust.serv other times if they’re stuck up and annoying we will stay formal.

  • mikhomikho Member, Host Rep

    I only open tickets when I have problems I couldn't solve by myself, so the first "post" in a ticket is usually formal with what I need, what I've done, often a explanation why I need to contact support.

    Since I consider myself somewhat technical knowledgable I expect some sort of explanation on what the support did to solve the problem. I don't appriciate when I get the response "it's fixed now, please try again". I would like to know what was dome to fix the issue so I can learn from my mistakes.

  • @superpilesos said: How do you sign your own emails then? There seems to be so much variation, from support techs who will write their full name to just 'hostingcompany Support Team'

    We don't do emails, too hard to track.

  • @Connorl said: We don't do emails, too hard to track.

    Tickets, emails, I mean the same. they go to the customers email inbox anyway

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    @Connorl said: We don't do emails

    I only accept support requests via hand written letter.

  • @jarland said: I only accept support requests via hand written letter.

    You should do the same with abuse notices, you would get many more customers

  • JacobJacob Member

    If only... :D

    @jarland said: I only accept support requests via hand written letter.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    @superpilesos said: You should do the same with abuse notices,

    :P

    Actually all the abuse notices I've gotten recently have been extremely legit, and only angered me that it took the notice for me to terminate them ;)

  • mikhomikho Member, Host Rep

    Forgot to add that I prefer tickets, gives a nice timeline when both provider and customer replies to the issue.

    If it's not an issue and the provider allows it, ask on IRC or pm or whatever. But one should never expect an answer (or get angry) if the provider refuses to answer but instead asks for a ticket.

    On the other hand when the provider or person representing the provider begins name calling, it's a whole other story. :)

  • @jarland I think there might be some misunderstanding in this thread as to whether or not casual is unprofessional. Casual and professional can coexist.

    +1 Casual, friendly and professional.

  • LukeTLukeT Member

    Suppose a mix works best then, not to formal/professional yet not too casual/personal.

  • My signature too long?

    Jonathan Martin
    MPServ LLC Founder & COO
    jonathan--mpserv--net
    Phone (Toll Free):
    - US: 855-9MPSERV (967-7378), Ext: 101
    - UK: 0800 048 8146 Ext: 101

  • lbftlbft Member
    edited April 2013

    As a customer, I tend to be pretty formal - maybe a little too formal sometimes, which can come off as grumpy or cold. I know some companies prefer formality, others prefer informality, but it's harder to offend anybody if you go formal.

    I couldn't care less if you're formal or informal in your replies to me as long as you're not a dick. If we've had some sort of contact outside the ticket (e.g. the LEB IRC channel) then feel free to be a dick, as long as it's funny :)

  • The most important thing is, if you outsource your support team, be sure they are proficient in the language they give support with and if they are not native speakers, be sure they know the culture of the language they are representing. :)

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran
    edited April 2013

    @lbft said: others prefer informality, but it's harder to offend anybody if you go formal.

    insert BFJ ticket containing full page ASCII penis here.

    Francisco

  • TheLinuxBugTheLinuxBug Member
    edited April 2013

    Regardless of the tone put forth by the customer, they can always expect me to reply in a formal manor. It shows that your respect and value the customer and allows you to better develop a working relationship.

    Anyone providing support in a b2b atmosphere, or working directly with other businesses should always provide a professional tone, as you never know who will be reading your responses on the other side, it could be escalated to a manger on their side and informal responses could end up seeming rude and could end up costing you business going forward. Now, if it is a customer who I have developed a business relationship with directly and know they will not mind blunt and quick replies, I may entertain being a bit more informal as it may help the flow of the ticket.

    Being also a customer of many services, I can tell you that I have always found it a lot easier to develop a working relationship with the provider if I start off in a professional tone, presenting as much information as necessary to resolve the issue. Including the standard information mentioned before in this thread: The issue I am facing, what I have tried to resolve the issue, my expectations for the outcome of the ticket and a polite thank you at the end of the ticket for the persons time. Spending the time to let the person on the other side know you actually appreciate their time and assistance in the matter usually provides for a much friendlier, quicker and timely resolution in my experience.

    my 2 cents.

    Cheers!

  • BK_BK_ Member
    edited April 2013

    I always start off my tickets to a provider with an informal greeting. Generally:

    informal greeting> (Hey there!)

    issue> (Detailed description)
    my attempts> (What I can/can't try)
    expectation> (Priority, notification of when its been resolved or if any further action is required on my part, etc.)

    formal closing> (Thanks, Regards, ...)

    Now, to a client, it depends :) I don't like sounding like a robot.

  • I usually write my tickets to providers like this:

    Hello,
    The problem,
    What I have done to rectify said problem (if it is indeed something I could do myself),
    Could you please look into this further for me when you get the chance,

    Thank You
    My First Name

    I do not write many tickets but when I do they are all done in this format. I wonder how many providers now know that they have me as a customer lol.

  • trewqtrewq Administrator, Patron Provider

    In a reply to customers and creating a ticket with other hosts I am always formal for at least the first message. If the problem has been resolved and we are just chatting about the service or something else then it just goes straight to casual mode.

    Although I am always formal and try and keep my messages simpler when the client obviously struggles with English.

    I hate it when hosts reply "This has now been fixed." and not explain what the problem was. I find myself doing a write up about the problem and how it was fixed. I'm probably wasting my time but I hate it when other hosts don't keep me informed.

  • @trewq said: I find myself doing a write up about the problem and how it was fixed.

    That sort of thing is fine by me, just so long as it's clear right up front that the problem is fixed. If I don't need to know the details, I can just read the first bit that says "fixed". If I want the nitty-gritty, that's there too.

  • @TheLinuxBug That's a very formal and good recommendation.

  • I tend to keep it brief when logging a ticket on the assumption the providers people are busy.

    But as @halfeatenpie already wrote, important to give enough tech. detail to help them help you.

    I strongly prefer getting at least the first name of the person responding - seems strange when they sign off as "XX provider support team". Maybe next time I'll sign off as "Customer representative of the aforementioned contractual partner, hereby known as C". Yeah, total bollocks.

  • @craigb said: I strongly prefer getting at least the first name of the person responding - seems strange when they sign off as "XX provider support team".

    I do have to say I agree with this, it is very impersonal to not at least include your own name. It also signifies a lack of confidence in your support staff, as you feel it necessary have all replies sound like they are coming from a robot. It is also nice, that if there is an similar issue down the road and I know the name of the person who was able to resolve my previous issue,to be able say, "I talked to xyz last time and they were able to find the issue quickly for me and may know this issue as they worked on it before." It is part of building the customer relationship I was talking about before.

    my 2 cents.

    Cheers!

  • yoyoyo hey im just here to tell ya dat i was raisd on da hoooooooooood so can u plz fix my mysql cuz its broken else i demand a refund or me n muy boys will beat the carp out of thau

  • @skirtTight said: yoyoyo hey im just here to tell ya dat i was raisd on da hoooooooooood so can u plz fix my mysql cuz its broken else i demand a refund or me n muy boys will beat the carp out of thau

    I do not even... ummm nvm... ehhhh.... okay....... I am out......

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