Site Questions & Tech Support: Evaluating User Satisfaction

[SCS 7,537]

As a member of the tech support team - the team that manages the Site Questions & Tech Support forum section - my greatest goal is to help the community and ensure its satisfaction. This is one of the first steps we will be taking to evaluate community satisfaction and provide abundant opportunity for community feedback - more will come in the future. 

 

The purpose of the Site Questions & Tech Support forum section is to serve as a medium through which users can find swift and accurate responses to site questions that do not require the input of an administrator. This assists both the users and the staff by allowing users to receive answers more quickly to many of their questions, and by allowing the administrative staff to focus on the more complicated or private concerns. Every post is read by a member of the staff before it is displayed in that forum section in order to ensure the accuracy of responses. The entire staff assists in the management of that forum section, so that even when the tech team are not online, users can still receive answers to their questions. 

 

Since the tech team is small, we greatly depend on - and greatly appreciate - users who take the time to answer other people's questions. In these situations, even if we do not post in a thread ourselves, we have still reviewed it and ensured that it had received a satisfactory and accurate answer. 

 

I would like to reach out to the community on a regular basis to ask you how you think we are doing. Do you feel that people's questions are being answered in an accurate and timely manner? Do you feel that the staff participate enough in that section? 

 

In addition, I am curious as to which the community prefers - just using the support ticket system, just using the site questions forum section, or having both the site questions forum section and the support ticket system available for use. I assume that people would prefer to have both features available to them, but I do want to make sure.

 

Please share in this thread what you like or dislike about the site questions section, as well as any suggestions for how we can improve either the section itself or how we manage it. For example, do you think we should post in every thread, even if another user has already provided a satisfactory answer? Do you think we should be responding to threads more quickly than we currently do? I encourage everyone to share their opinions in a fully honest manner.

 

I will personally read every single post - I guarantee that all of your thoughts and suggestions that you wish to share will most certainly be listened to.

 

Thank you.

[SBaby 660]

Honestly, I think the Support Ticket system is pointless.  Nobody but the member who posted it and the staff can see answers to the Support Ticket questions, so it's just not practical when it is an issue that multiple people are facing.

 

For example, I just posted a tech issue in the TECHNICAL SUPPORT FORUM, you know, the place where you're meant to post tech support issues (it's the whole point of that forum's existence).  And they just said to open a Support Ticket, closed the thread and ignored the issue.  It's really off-putting when you post in a Tech Support section, only to have the topic closed without the issue even being addressed (no answer was given), especially when multiple people are having the same problems, as mentioned in the topic. That is frustrating.

Edited November 25, 2013 by SBaby

[SCS 7,537]

Honestly, I think the Support Ticket system is pointless.  Nobody but the member who posted it and the staff can see answers to the Support Ticket questions, so it's just not practical when it is an issue that multiple people are facing.

 

For example, I just posted a tech issue in the TECHNICAL SUPPORT FORUM, you know, the place where you're meant to post tech support issues (it's the whole point of that forum's existence).  And they just said to open a Support Ticket, closed the thread and ignored the issue.  It's really off-putting when you post in a Tech Support section, only to have the topic closed without the issue even being addressed (no answer was given), especially when multiple people are having the same problems, as mentioned in the topic. That is frustrating.

 

That occurred because, in the past, our policy has been to refer complex technical issues that required an administrator to deal with to the support ticket system. The purpose of the Site Questions & Tech Support section is to provide members a quicker way to receive answers to questions that do not require ACP access - these kinds of questions, which are general site questions as well as some minor technical issues are questions that the non-administrative technical support staff can deal with. Issues involving moderation, moderation disputes, questions regarding what may or may not be appropriate for the site, advertising queries, and complicated technical issues that only a technical administrator can deal with were referred to support tickets, since only administrators handle and respond to those. 

 

However, a recent change in policy has occurred. Questions concerning moderation, moderation disputes, what may or may not be appropriate for the site, and advertising queries should still only be sent in through the support ticket system. However, technical issues with the site should now be posted predominantly in the site questions forum section - a technical issue should only be sent in using the support ticket system if it requires an administrator to look into a user's account. For example, if you are unable to access your account, you should send in a support ticket about it (or email tech@mlpforums.com). If you are experiencing an issue that could affect multiple people, such as an issue with the site search feature, you should post it in the site questions section.

 

Your thread was locked due to a miscommunication error between the technical support staff - unless I am mistaken, not everyone in the team was aware of the policy change. From now on, we will be leaving technical issue threads open, aside from threads that require an administrator to look into a user's account, until the issue they have reported has been fixed instead of referring them to the support ticket system. 

 

I understand why people would be confused when their threads asking about technical issues were locked, so I feel that this new change in policy will improve our ability to help people through that section.

 

I apologize for any inconvenience that was caused. I have unlocked your thread, and I am sure that a technical administrator will review the situation as soon as possible.

Edited November 27, 2013 by SCS

[Emperor Posh 360]

I like both systems, the support ticket for my sensitive and private issues, and the public support forum for more public and practical/wide spread issues. Though I would make it so in the support forum people can see their own posts before they are approved so they can edit it if they need to.

 

Overall I think you should keep both, they seem to work fine as is and I wouldn't worry to much about it, unless someone has a major issue with it.

[SCS 7,537]

I like both systems, the support ticket for my sensitive and private issues, and the public support forum for more public and practical/wide spread issues. Though I would make it so in the support forum people can see their own posts before they are approved so they can edit it if they need to.

 

Overall I think you should keep both, they seem to work fine as is and I wouldn't worry to much about it, unless someone has a major issue with it.

 

I am glad that you have had a positive experience with both systems. I do not know whether or not it is possible for users to view and edit their own posts before they are approved by staff, but if it is, I will talk to the rest of the staff about the possibility of it being implemented. I agree that that would be a useful feature.

[Emperor Posh 360]

 

I am glad that you have had a positive experience with both systems. I do not know whether or not it is possible for users to view and edit their own posts before they are approved by staff, but if it is, I will talk to the rest of the staff about the possibility of it being implemented. I agree that that would be a useful feature.

I don't see why it would not be able to, IP.Board is a pretty popular forum software, and alot of smaller forum software's like XenForo and phpBB can do it.

Edited November 27, 2013 by Emperor Posh

[SBaby 660]

Thanks for unlocking the thread.  I didn't know if it was just happening to me or not, which is why I made that topic.  But the fact that there's been so few posts being quoted in the last few days when there normally are way more, was my first indication that something might be messed up.

Edited November 27, 2013 by SBaby

[Nohbdy 4,108]

I like both systems, the support ticket for my sensitive and private issues, and the public support forum for more public and practical/wide spread issues. Though I would make it so in the support forum people can see their own posts before they are approved so they can edit it if they need to.

 

Overall I think you should keep both, they seem to work fine as is and I wouldn't worry to much about it, unless someone has a major issue with it.

I'm fairly certain it can be implemented, especially since users with sufficient privileges can see and edit unapproved posts. This was brought up a few months ago, but nothing seems to have come of it. Feel free to offer your thoughts in that thread. Perhaps you can renew the discussion. 

 

Keep in mind, though, that we do have a lot on our plate at the moment, so any changes will likely be at least a few months away. 

[Emperor Posh 360]

I'm fairly certain it can be implemented, especially since users with sufficient privileges can see and edit unapproved posts. This was brought up a few months ago, but nothing seems to have come of it. Feel free to offer your thoughts in that thread. Perhaps you can renew the discussion. 

 

Keep in mind, though, that we do have a lot on our plate at the moment, so any changes will likely be at least a few months away. 

Oh, I know you guys are busy and that changes will take time. It's something I hope to see in the future, but it's not something that needs to be done right now.

 

Anyways thanks for showing me that .

Edited November 27, 2013 by Emperor Posh

[SCS 7,537]

This thread has been unpinned, but I will leave it open until I have implemented the user satisfaction survey that I plan to have fully completed and ready for public use within the near future. That survey will generally replace the need for threads such as these by staff.

[Captain Brony (MG11) 218]

Lets just say my experience was one where nobody wins

(Spoiler: bewteen me and the mods I was the only one that got screwed over)

The problem couldn't be solved, i felt like my concerns weren't addressed, and the alternatives suggested by the mods didn't provide the alternative result that they believed it would.

In the end nothing could be done so I've decided to give up on reviews..

 

I also want to know if the Support ticket system is presented on the "new to the site" page because I don't recall ever seeing that when I first joined a few months ago. Which is why it didn't occur to me that that's what I was supposed to do when I decided to give feedback about a mod's decision.

[SCS 7,537]

Lets just say my experience was one where nobody wins

(Spoiler: bewteen me and the mods I was the only one that got screwed over)

The problem couldn't be solved, i felt like my concerns weren't addressed, and the alternatives suggested by the mods didn't provide the alternative result that they believed it would.

In the end nothing could be done so I've decided to give up on reviews..

 

I also want to know if the Support ticket system is presented on the "new to the site" page because I don't recall ever seeing that when I first joined a few months ago. Which is why it didn't occur to me that that's what I was supposed to do when I decided to give feedback about a mod's decision.

 

I'm sorry that you've had a negative experience with the Site Questions & Tech Support forum section. I tried to find your thread, but was unable to do so - could you give me the link to it, please? Thanks.

 

 

What do you mean by the "new to the site" page? I'm not sure what that would be. If you are referring to the Resource Map, it does contain a section talking about the support ticket system. If you are referring to the PM that new members receive, there was mention of the support ticket system in the welcoming PM I received. That was almost a year ago, though, so I don't know whether or not the current welcoming PM still mentions the support ticket system.

 

You can access the support ticket system by clicking your username in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, clicking Client Area, clicking the Support tab, and then clicking the New Request button. 

 

Here is a direct link to the page on which you can file a new support ticket, but for future reference, here is a video tutorial showing how to access that page:

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nva6rDQQgGA

 

 

[Captain Brony (MG11) 218]

I'm sorry that you've had a negative experience with the Site Questions & Tech Support forum section. I tried to find your thread, but was unable to do so - could you give me the link to it, please? Thanks.

 

 

What do you mean by the "new to the site" page? I'm not sure what that would be. If you are referring to the Resource Map, it does contain a section talking about the support ticket system. If you are referring to the PM that new members receive, there was mention of the support ticket system in the welcoming PM I received. That was almost a year ago, though, so I don't know whether or not the current welcoming PM still mentions the support ticket system.

 

You can access the support ticket system by clicking your username in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, clicking Client Area, clicking the Support tab, and then clicking the New Request button. 

 

Here is a direct link to the page on which you can file a new support ticket, but for future reference, here is a video tutorial showing how to access that page:

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nva6rDQQgGA

 

Thank you for directing me.

The resource map looks different than I remembered.

 

And here's this (I do have to apologize I was angry here):

http://mlpforums.com/topic/79302-moving-my-review-feedback/