Description of CRM : Client Relationship Management System

Ticket System vs. email

The use of email has become so generalized that it is not useful for managing work requests. Email is very useful for the general dissemination of information; however, work requests made by email can be easily forgotten. The Ticket System allows for better tracking of work keeps a better permanent record of progress made on projects. 

Each email is associated with the sender and the receiver, and is tracked and stored permanently within the system. Users can see a timestamp of when the message was sent, opened and closed, and comments that have been added to the ticket.

When User A creates a ticket for User B, the existence of that ticket is noted via an email to User B. The email is a replica of the ticket, and contains the unique ticket number.

Status of Tickets:

Tickets are either pending or closed. Users can view pending tickets assigned to them in order to manage them, as well as tickets created by them in order to monitor progress.  Each time a comment is added to a ticket, there is an option to email individuals to notify them one assignee may respond to, reassign or close the Ticket when the task has been completed.

TYPES OF USERS

Each Digital Media Ticket System has two types of users.

A Standard User (employee or client) has the ability to create and respond to tickets, and to view the history of all tickets in the system. A standard user may be an employee or a client. Tickets should not contain sensitive information, as clients will have access to their tickets.

An Administrator has the ability to do everything Standard Users can do, but also has the ability to add and delete Users, update User information, and create categories of tickets. Each ticket system has an Administrator who controls important features of the system. The Administrator can Add, Edit and Delete people and/or groups.  The sections of this document that pertain to Administrators only are noted via a RED heading.

Usually there are one or two accounts designated as Administrator accounts and the remainder are Standard Users.

How Tickets Work:

A ticket is created and assigned to a person or group and that person or group is notified via email of the pending ticket.
The assignee may respond to, reassign or close the Ticket when the task has been completed.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USERS

Welcome

The Welcome Section is accessible by all users.

Summary Page

When you first log on, you are taken to the Summary Page. You can go back to this page at any time by choosing Welcome Menu à Summary page. The Summary Page shows the following information:

• Five most recent tickets assigned to me
• Five oldest tickets assigned to me
• Five most recent tickets I assigned to others
• Five oldest tickets I assigned to others

Also note that at the bottom of the Summary Page is a Search box. If you enter text into this search box, you can find all tickets that match the Search criteria you enter.

The tickets also are viewable by category, subject and submission date.

By clicking on a Ticket ID number, you can see the details of the ticket, Send a Response, Send a Response and Close the ticket or Close the ticket.

• Send Response will send a response to the ticket creator.
• Send and Close will send a response to the ticket creator.
• Close will close the ticket without sending a  response.

Each ticket contains the following information:

• Assigned to: the person or group that the ticket is assigned to
• Subject: the subject of the email
• Requested by: the ticket creator’s name
• Email: the ticket creator’s email address
• URL: the URL that is associated with the ticket
• Date Submitted: the date the ticket was submitted
• Due Date: the date that the ticket request is due
• Details: the details of the ticket, including responses that are sent via the ticket system.

Logout

To end a session, either choose Logout under the Welcome menu and you will be able to login as a different user; or simply close the browser window to end all sessions.

The Team Members section is available only to the Administrator of the System to add, view, edit or delete individuals.  Each record contains the following information: username, password, name, email and department.

Ticket Category (Administrators only)

The Ticket Category section is available only to the Administrator of the System and allows Add, View, Delete and Edit privileges. The ticket category is associated with the email address of the manager of that category, and may be set as viewable or non-viewable to clients via a checkbox. Tickets should not contain sensitive information.

My Tickets

Allows you to view tickets assigned to me (pending & closed), tickets I created (pending and closed). You will also be allowed to reassign tickets you have created or that are assigned to you.

All tickets

Allows you to view all pending and all resolved tickets, as well as search for tickets by company name, client name, URL, email, subject, category or date submitted.

Add tickets

When you choose Create Tickets à Add Tickets, you are taken to the Open Ticket screen. To open a new ticket, fill out the fields in the form as follows:

Your Name and Your Email Address: These fields are automatically filled in with your default information as entered by the Administrator. You can change this for an individual ticket. Responses to this ticket will be sent to whatever address you enter here.

Subject: The subject of your ticket (this is similar to the subject line of an email)

Category: You must choose a category from the drop down menu. This determines who will receive the ticket. The email address associated with each category is defined by the Administrator. 

Description: A description of the work request (this is similar to the body of an email)

Due Date: If you check the Due Date box, you can use the drop down menu to create a due date, and that Due Date will be associated with a ticket. If a ticket is not completed by the due date, an email will be sent to the ticket creator and the person who was assigned the ticket, reminding them of the past due ticket.

Send confirm email: This box is checked by default. If you leave it checked, an email is sent to the person you assign the ticket to notifying them of a new ticket. If you uncheck it, no email is sent - the ticket can only be found when the user logs back into he ticket system.

Carbon Copy For: If you want to notify other users on your system about the ticket, select the appropriate email addresses below (to include multiply carbon copies, keep the Ctrl key or Shift key on your keyboard pressed while selecting name). Users who are selected here are not assigned the ticket and do not respond to it - they are just kept informed that the ticket was created.  If you choose no users here, then only the user who was assigned the ticket will receive it.

Upload Files:  Use this feature to include any files with this ticket (similar to an attachment on an email). Click the Browse button to find the file you wish to upload and click Open, then click the Upload button. If you decide not to upload the file once you have clicked Upload, simply click the link that says “don’t want to upload”. Your information will not be saved until you click Submit at the bottom of the screen.

The customer account section allows you to view client statements and bill clients.

View Statement – Click view statement, then on the applicable client name to view the statement.

Edit Details – allows you to edit the details regarding a client, i.e. phone number, address, etc.

Notes – You may Add a note to a client record or View a note that exists on a client record

Bill Client – The following information is submitted in order to bill a client:

• Transaction Category
• Amount
• Description
• Client
• Invoice Date
• Due Date
• Send Bill to Client checkbox

Change Exp Date

Allows you to change the expiry date 

Set Password

Allows you to choose a client and reset their password if they forgot the password.

Payments Log

This view shows the following information:

• Client Name
• Date of Payment
• Invoice Number
• Confirmation Number
• Amount

You may view a report and sort by criteria.