2. How InBoxHQ Helpdesk Works

Step 1: Customer Sends an E-mail

The e-mail support process in InBoxHQ Helpdesk begins with an existing or potential customer sending an e-mail message to one of your company's contact addresses. The content of this e-mail would be redirected from your company mail server to the InBoxHQ Helpdesk parser.

Step 2: A Ticket is Created

The parser scans and compares components of the e-mail to the database to determine the proper course of action. Once the destination of an e-mail message is determined by pre-defined rules, the e-mail message is split into several parts and is stored in the database. At this time the message is considered "queued".

If this is a new ticket, the customer is sent an auto-response that their message has been received and they are assigned a ticket number for referencing the issue later. Ticket numbers allow you to bring up all previous notes and correspondence regarding an open issue, while saving your customer from the hassle of repeatedly having to explain their problem (or question) to multiple members of your support department. As well, this system allows for "escalation" when one of your support staff members needs to "pass" a ticket to another member with more experience in subjects the ticket may involve.

After a ticket is queued and the customer has been informed their ticket has been created, InBoxHQ Helpdesk will notify your customer support staff of the new ticket. This is done using the notification methods selected in the configuration of the product.

Step 3: Staff Reviews Ticket & Replies to Customer

Once an available staff member reviews the new ticket in the GUI, they have the option to "take" it. A staff member who has taken a ticket will communicate with the customer to attempt to solve their problem. A number of tools are provided by InBoxHQ Helpdesk for exactly this purpose. For example, the supporting staff member could browse the knowledgebase for previous occurrences of a similar problem; or look at the individual support history for the client to determine a possible pattern; or utilize other company procedures to troubleshoot a new incident.

When the staff member is ready to communicate their initial (or final) findings with the client, they can initiate a reply from inside the ticket, quoting the customers text to answer separate questions or issues. At this point, the customer may choose to reply with feedback regarding the proposed solution. The communication continues until the customer's problem is solved or a suitable "work around" is found. It would be a perfect world if all ticket's issues were answered completely with one response. Knowing this, most staff members choose to work on another ticket while awaiting customer feedback.

Step 4: Ticket Resolved

When the staff member is ready to close the ticket, they update the ticket and set the status to "resolved". They would then be prompted if they would like to enter a summary of the problem and its solution into the company knowledgebase for future use. If the knowledgebase is frequently updated in this fashion, customers browsing the public knowledgebase on your company's web site could potentially find answers to their questions without ever having to contact your support department.

After the ticket has been closed, the staff member moves on to the next unassigned ticket matching their skill set.