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Guidelines for non-technical for support

Submitted by hemant on Wed, 2009-04-01 17:04
  1. how to access client's servers
    • Login on darbari as user infra using your SSH key
    • Connect to the client's server using the root@clients-server-fqdn.com
    • Be careful while typing the command. you will be responsible for any disaster due to typo or invalid command
  2. how to use the problem ticketing system
    • You can login to the problem ticketing system by logging into OTRS
    • You must have your login name and password
    • you must know the client ID of each client --- do not invent client IDs at random. These IDs are pre-defined in the system.
    • You must know the difference between internal updates and external updates.
  3. Rules when visiting client sites
    • You must have clean and ironed formal dress.
    • You are allowed to wear Merce T-shirts and jeans. T-shirt must be tucked in. Jeans is allowed only with Merce T-shirt
    • Formal shoes only. No sandals, floaters, etc.
    • Shoes must be polished
    • You should always be well shaved
    • Always keep your cell phones on silent
    • Have a bath every morning. And use deo (don't laugh, we know that this is common sense which many among us are missing)
    • You must have clean socks and handkerchief. You should never be ashamed of taking your shoes off anywhere.
    • You must always have your visiting cards with you. When you are introduced to any officer of the client, or you introduce yourself to the officer, you must offer him your visiting card.
    • Always carry notebook (not notepad) and pen while going to client's meeting. By "notebook", we mean paper exercise book. Good notebooks are available with GenSvc --- please pick one up from there whenever your notebook is exhausted.
    • Always try to reach 15 minutes before the committed time to client. Keep client updated if you are going to be late. You should client if you are going to be late by even 10 minutes.
    • Don't commit client any thing other than the work you are expected to do in current visit. If client has any other requirement ask him to send mail, and tell him you'll discuss it with your seniors and revert to him later.
    • You are not authorized to open or configure any hardware unless you are asked so by your reporting officer. If absolutely necessary you must take permission from your reporting officer.
    • Ask the customer to write to netsupport@merceworld.com or _customer_.support@merceworld.com alias instead of your personal for any further communication, even though your visiting card will carry your individual email address.
    • Write "Minutes of Meeting" MoM after the meeting the client. This will include your complete discussion with the client
  4. How to file expense claims
  5. Interacting with clients
    • General rules for email
      • Always read the full mail before replying; including attachments and forwarded messages. Many times our support engineers just forward message to client which includes our internal discussion. This should never happen. You can be dismissed from service for this sort of screw-up.
      • Always put proper salutations for the recipient. You must be have idea about who you are writing to.
      • For salutation remember that whenever you write Mr. it is followed by last name not the first name of the person you are writing to. For example, suppose you are writing to "Rajesh Bawa" you should "Mr. Bawa" not "Mr. Rajesh".
      • Always mark a copy to respective alias for the client, e.g. when writing to someone at Zodiac, mark a cc to zodiac.support@merceworld.com
      • Date and time on your system must be correct otherwise receiver will be confused about the time at which the mail was sent.
      • Your mail client must be configured to attach the standard signature
      • Mail must always have a relevant subject
      • If you are sending some logs to client, it must be attached as a separate plain text file with the name client-reason-DDMMYYHHMM.txt. If required logs can be compressed using zip utility. Note we have to use zip, not tar, because tar is not supported on Windows, which is used by all our clients.
      • If you are sending images as an attachment it must be JPEG, GIF or PNG only. In particular, it should never be BMP.
      • If you are sending spreadsheet as attachment it must be in XLS format, not in the ODS formats that OpenOffice sometimes creates.
      • If a mail comes to you directly from client which does not have the corresponding alias in the Cc list, forward it to the support alias and reply client requesting a copy to support alias in future. For this forwarding, do not hit the "Forward" button on your mail client. If using Thunderbird, use the "Redirect" add-on and redirect or "bounce" the mail to the support alias. If you do not have the "Redirect" addon, please download it from here and install it.
    • General rules for interacting on the phone
      • Always note down the request/problem as well as the required details of request/problem and email your understanding to the client as well as respective alias
      • Start the work only after you get the confirmation about your understanding over mail from client
      • Never directly forward phone call to senior without giving them the complete idea about the request/problem and previous conversations you had with client related to the problem/request in hand. Always keep the client on hold for a bit while you brief your senior first, so that when the client talks to your senior, he knows the background.
      • Always email client after solving the problem. Confirmation over phone will not be considered as the completion of task
      • Create ticket before start working on the problem.
      • Use proper salutation for each person while talking to the person over phone. Some people can be addressed by their first names, others need to be addressed as "Mister So-and-so", still others need to be addressed as "Sir".
      • Never talk to end user directly, unless you have been asked to do so by PSG.
      • The full cycle of taking a customer complaint/request
        • Support team must have list of clients for which we are providing support and this list must be updated and sanctioned by Support Head every month.
        • Never solve the problem/requests which is not in the list of known problems or in the list of common operational tasks. Everything outside this list must be escalated to L2 Support, with the permission of Support Head.
        • Always create ticket for each problem/request and update the status of the ticket each time you work on it.
        • Ticket must be closed only after the confirmation by client over mail
        • If the confirmation is not received in 3 working days from the day you requested for confirmation you can close the ticket and inform this to client over mail.
      • Face to face interaction
    • Escalating a problem:
      • When to escalate
        • when there is a production crisis
        • when the problem is unknown, i.e. it falls outside the pre-specified list of problems/tasks
        • when the client is not behaving properly. And you think you cannot handle him/her anymore
        • when the client who is asking for support is not in list of supported clients
      • Who to escalate to
        • the Support Head, then PSG
      • How to escalate
        • Collect all necessary information
        • The information should be detailed enough so that PSG team will be able to understand the issue
        • You can escalate the problem over phone or personally. But after the phone call, you must move your ticket from the Support L1 queue to the Support L2 queue. If this ticket movement is not done then you would be responsible person for the unsolved problem.
      • What to do afterwords: keeping track of an escalated problem
        • Communicate to the client that his problem has been escalated to Level 2 Support
        • Check with PSG at least once in two days about the status of the problem. Do this by checking for updates to the ticket in the L2 Support queue.
        • Once the PSG confirms the problem is solved you must check it yourself. Remember that you are going to face customer not the PSG. Then update the ticket and inform client.
        • If you do not get any update about the escalated problem from PSG in 2 working days escalate it to Support Head.
      • Info to gather before escalating
        • Detailed problem description
        • Is this problem related to specific user or all users are facing the problem
        • The occurrence and pattern of the problem if you can see some pattern
        • For how long the problem is being faced
        • Get the current status of servers health (we assume that detailed setup info of the client's infra is already recorded)
    • Grading a problem complaint: assessing its criticality
      • If the problem is not in the pre-specified list of L1 Support problems, then it is critical and needs to be escalated.
    • Closing open tickets:
      • what to do when problem is not solved instantly
      • how to follow up on escalated problems
      • how to follow up with client about data needed
    • Interacting with third-party agencies (ISP) on behalf of the
      client: not your job
      • Discuss with the Support Head and take his help if such interaction is needed. This is usually handled by L2 Support.
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