How to Efficiently Manage Your Customer Support Desk

SMS (Support Management System) from Autoscribe is a comprehensive, fully configurable, out of the box software solution for capturing, managing and responding to customer support desk and bug enquiries.

SMS is suitable for deployment in a wide variety of industries, local authorities, government departments and other organisations.

With many companies adopting sophisticated total quality management systems and seeking ISO certification, the requirement to receive, record, track and respond to customer support desk calls in an efficient and timely manner is essential.

SMS is ideally suited for use in both highly regulated and unregulated industries and provides exactly the same user experience no matter how you access the application; rich client on your LAN, thin client on your WAN, or via the Web using your standard browser.

Using SMS, companies can log customer complaints into a relational database, e.g. Oracle® or Microsoft SQL Server. The customer support enquiry is then immediately available for authorized users to read and respond to, wherever they may be.

SMS is unique in its market sector as it can be fully and easily configured to precisely meet your business and user requirements, using the powerful suite of configuration tools. All screens and menus may be designed to suit requirements and even the terminology can be easily changed to that relevant to the business. All screen, menu and database items may also be translated into the language of your choice.

The unique OneTime Configuration™ tools automatically create a unified Customer Support Management configuration for both desktop and web use. Once a screen has been built using the unique OneTime Configuration™ Tools, it is immediately available on your network or via the Web.

Unlike other systems that have “bolt on” web pages, older legacy code and esoteric, proprietary scripting languages, SMS is built on Autoscribe’s Matrix Gemini™ technology and is developed using pure Microsoft® .NET tools. The new Matrix Gemini technology allows you to implement exactly the same interface for all users, reducing your deployment, training, validation and maintenance costs.

SMS is used at the operational heart of Autoscribe’s own Technical Software Support System and is used at Autoscribe for the logging and tracking all support calls and includes the following features:

• Call and response time is recorded
• Call allocation – who is responsible for the call
• Unlimited notes for detailing the issue and the response
• Multiple entries – many people can input responses for one call
• Effort tracking
• Flagging of expired support agreements User definable filtering – calls may be filtered by configurable search fields
• Monthly reports for review purposes
• Different call types – Enhancement requests, Bug Reports and Support calls
• Contact information is stored in the same database
• Old calls can be searched for solutions to previously encountered problems
• Where appropriate entries may be audited, version controlled and electronically signed off
• Reports may be configured or created using Business Objects Crystal Reports
• Customer contact details such as names, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers can all be stored in SMS. Upon receiving a call from a customer the company from which he/she is calling can be selected from SMS. The support technician can then enter the cause of the problem in a field that is not limited in length. The solution provided can be entered in another similar field.
• The amount of time taken to respond to the call and then to resolve the issue is recorded along with descriptions stored in the text fields.
• A record is made of who is responsible for the issue.
• Details of the customer’s support agreement are held in SMS and a notification is automatically given if this has lapsed.
• Reports include lists of support calls per selected time period and by selected problem type, for example. In addition, calls may be listed in a further report.

SMS has been regularly audited by major Corporations for regulatory compliance. SMS at Autoscribe is also regularly audited under Autoscribe’s own ISO9000:2001 certification requirements. It can therefore easily meet your audit / regulatory requirements.

SMS allows you to deploy modern software that delivers a sustainable product for the 21st century which is demonstrably:

• Better by Design
• Faster to Implement
• Easier to Use and Support
• Designed for Business Changes

As part of the implementation process Autoscribe will configure the system (including all screens, menus and security) according to your requirements. Subsequently, changes can be made by either Autoscribe or a designated user, as business needs change. This ensures that SMS remains in line with current business needs and customer / user requirements.

SMS is designed to track and trace the status of a customer support call from first notification through to resolution. The software also assists in managing the processes of tracking and reporting product fault enquiries.

The system can be automatically linked to Microsoft Office® to facilitate the production of standard acknowledgement letters and SOPs / OPs and can export data to Microsoft Excel® and other packages, such as image capturing software, which will allow a photograph of the faulty product to be linked to the relevant complaint. Other documents such as certificates, results of complaint investigations etc. may also be captured for future reference.

Where product issues might potentially lead to court action, adverse customer or government department image, the system assists in maintaining the full traceability and auditing of evidence, a factor which may prove vital in establishing and providing a defense. The system can also be fully integrated with Autoscribe’s Feedback Customer Complaints Management system.

Where relevant, examination / task / testing regimes and associated costs can be applied to the product or service that has resulted in a support desk enquiry. The testing regime can be assigned automatically or on an ad hoc basis. Results are easily compared against expected values and specifications. Once completed, these findings can be easily incorporated into reports. All emails, letters, reports, etc. may be automatically printed, emailed or faxed as the status of the support enquiry changes.

Business Objects™ Crystal Reports® is the recommended reporting tool for SMS although alternative tools provided with the chosen database can be used. In all cases no programming knowledge is required to create reports. Instead, SMS provides an easy user interface for selecting and positioning information that is to be included on reports. Any database or table field may be reported using any font supported by Microsoft® Windows.

Graphics may be incorporated into the SMS reports to ensure that all essential information is presented in a clear and concise format. In order to extract the correct data, The SMS reporting tools include a powerful query facility which allows users to extract data on the basis of any database field using a number of relational operators.

Statistical analysis including Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) can be applied to the results of several tests / examinations to identify trends in support desk enquiries, or steps that may need to be taken to prevent the recurrence of a specific problem and to improve customer service and happiness and product / service quality.