NetResults Tracker

Following up on an earlier post with more best known methods for delivering extraordinary support via Tracker.

Choose an Assignment Option

Flexibility is one of the biggest strengths of Tracker's workflow engine. Here are a few of the many ways to assign tickets. Click on the link to see details for setting up the option:

• Assign to a Queue or Group
• Assign Based on Product, Project or Another Key Field
• Assign to a Dispatcher

The Workflows section of the Getting Started Guide discusses other options. You can also contact Technical Support if you need help configuring your workflow.

Capture Data for Metrics

Build in fields that will collect data you can analyze via the Metrics feature:

• Add a "Fixed By" field to save which engineer resolved each issue to run performance reports. This blog post explains how to set up a User Pulldown.
• Use a Time Spent field to track how much time was spent on each ticket.

Open Up Lines of Communication

Use the Discussion feature to allow engineers to have a conversation about a ticket for faster troubleshooting and sharing of best practices. Customers can also use this feature as a quick means of providing additional information needed to resolve an issue.

For more information, check out the Discussion section of the Online Help Guide.

Find out which pulldown has a special power.

The History Pulldown is unique because its value is tracked in the record history. This field is called "Product" in some of Tracker's templates. When configuring your system, make this field something important that applies to all or most of your records since it will be saved in the history.

Rename the History Pulldown and Change the Option Menu Items

You can rename the History Pulldown using the following steps:

1. Login as Admin and click on the Admin icon.
2. Click on the Fields link.
3. Click on the Edit button to the left of the History Pulldown.
4. Change the Label and make any other desired changes to the properties.
5. Click OK to save the changes.

To change the Option Menu Items:

1. Login as Admin and click on the Admin icon.
2. Click on the Fields link.
3. Click on the Items button to the left of the History Pulldown.
4. Click on the Add Item button to add a new item or click Edit to rename or make other changes to the item.

More information is available in the Customizing Menu Items section of the Online Help Guide.

Make it a Key Field

Selecting the History Pulldown as a key field will show the field when cross-referencing other records or forms. The sample below shows a customer's information with a list of all of the tickets they've reported. The ticket number, the title of the request and the product are displayed as key fields.

To select the History Pulldown as a key field:

1. Login as Admin and click on the Admin icon.
2. Click on the Forms link.
3. Click on the Edit button to the left of a form.
4. Select the History Pulldown as one of the Secondary Key Fields.
5. Click OK to save the change.

More information about cross-referencing records is available in this post.

Assign or Route Records Based on the Field's Value

You can assign records, route to different workflow steps or make use of different email rules depending on the value of the History Pulldown by using the Based On property available for Alerts, Assignment, Workflow States or Email Rules.

Take advantage of tried and true methods for providing excellent support via Tracker.

Let Users View and Track Their Requests 24/7

Providing a restricted user account is the easiest way to allow end users to view and track status of their requests at any time. All you need to do is set up the user account.

The system automatically limits the user to see only the records they've added to the system. You don't have to do a lot of configuration work to lock it down. The following video has more information about Restricted Users.

Provide Self-Service Information

A Knowledge Base allows your end users to find the information they need without contacting your Support or Help Desk organization.

Check out this blog post for more information about adding a KB to your system.

Let Tracker Maintain Deadlines

Customer A's service contract says you'll respond within 1 hour. Customer B's time frame is 2 hours. Plug these into the Alerts feature to help you meet these deadlines.

See more in the video below or get detailed steps in this Alerts Knowledge Base article.

Save field values to add another similar record.

If you need to add a group of similar records (e.g. you were testing a new product and are reporting multiple issues), the Add & Copy feature will save you from having to re-enter the same information over and over.

To configure a field to be saved when you click Add & Copy:

1. Login as Admin and click on the Admin icon.
2. Click on the Fields link.
3. Click on the Edit button to the left of a field you want to be copied for the next record.
4. Set the option Copy Field Value for Next Add to "Yes".
5. Click OK to save the change.
6. Repeat the above steps for each field to be copied on the Add form.

To use the Add & Copy feature:

1. Login to Tracker and click on the Add icon.
2. Fill out the fields on the form.
3. Click on the Add & Copy button to save the first record and copy the values for the next one.
4. Make adjustments to the fields on the form for the second record, then either click Add (if this is the last record you are adding) or Add & Copy (to save the values for another record you want to add now).

Configure users such that they can perform a different set of actions on each available form.

When you manage multiple forms in Tracker, users can be granted different privileges on each form. This is done via non-global privileges, which are all of the privileges below that do not have an asterisk. Non-global privileges are applied only to forms where the user group has access.

Example

A support organization has 2 forms:

• a Ticket form for reporting issues. Anyone in the organization can add a ticket (customers, QA, developers, managers, etc.).
• a Customer form for tracking information about each customer. Only Support can add a new customer.

This is done by:

Making the forms visible to the appropriate user groups.

The Add operation is disabled for the Users group.

The Add operation is enabled for the Developers group, but the Customer form is not visible to this group. Any user that is not a member of Admins or Support will only have the privileges enabled for the Users group when accessing the Customer form.

More information about global and non-global User Group Privileges can be found in the Online Help Guide.