Configuring Help Desk
Help Desk is a convenient way for your customers to reach you when they need your assistance. After you set it up and switch on, the Help Desk becomes accessible to all users who were granted access to control panel, including your resellers, domain owners, and e-mail users. Additionally, you can allow submission of problem reports by e-mail.
Your Help Desk shows all reports posted by your resellers and their customers. Your reseller's Help Desk shows only reports posted by himself or herself and his or her customers. The domain owner's Help Desk shows only reports posted by himself or herself and by e-mail users under his or her domain.
To configure Help Desk and allow your customers post problem reports through the control panel:
- Go to Help Desk > General Settings.
- Select the Allow customers to submit tickets check box.
- Select the trouble ticket queue, priority and category that will be offered to your customers as the default choice.
When users post a new ticket, they can specify the order in which they would prefer their problems to be resolved (queue), the priority of their requests (priority), and the category to which the problem is related (category). The queue, priority and category are abstract entities: they have no effect on the system, but they can help you decide what problems to resolve in the first place. There are three predefined queues and priority levels and nine predefined categories including Database, DNS, FTP, General, Hosting, Mail, Mailing Lists, Site Applications, and Tomcat Java. You can remove these items and add your own.
- Click Switch On in the Tools group, then click OK.
If you wish to allow users to submit problem reports by e-mail:
- Create a POP3 mailbox with an e-mail address like helpdesk@your-domain.com or anything you like.
- Configure the Help Desk to periodically retrieve problem reports from that mailbox and post them to your Help Desk.
- Inform your customers of the Help Desk's e-mail address.
To allow users to submit problem reports to Help Desk by e-mail:
- Go to Help Desk > Mail Gate Settings.
- Specify the following settings:
- Notification sender's name, and Notification sender's return address. Once a report has been retrieved by e-mail and posted to the Help Desk, the Help Desk sends a notice to the report sender. This allows the report sender to subsequently add comments to the report by replying to the message. Therefore, we recommend that you specify your Help Desk's e-mail address in the Notification sender's return address box, and type a phrase like "<company name> Help Desk" into the Notification sender's name box. Be sure to specify your organization name in place of <company name> and omit the quotation marks.
- POP3 server: POP3 server the mail should be fetched from.
- POP3 login: user name for authentication to the mail server.
- New POP3 password: password that will be used for authentication to the mail server and retrieving problem reports from the mailbox.
- Confirm POP3 password: retype password for confirmation.
- Query mail once in: specify how often Help Desk should check for new reports.
- Ticket subject must start with: specify the combination of symbols the subject line of e-mail messages (problem reports) must start with. This can help filter out spam. All e-mail messages that do not have the specified combination of symbols in the subject line will be deleted.
- Click Switch On in the Tools group and click OK.
To view, add, edit, or remove queues:
- Go to Help Desk > Queues. The queues will be presented in a list.
- To add a new queue, click Add New Queue, type the desired number into the Title box, leave the Switched on check box selected, and click OK.
- To edit a queue, click its title in the Title column. Edit it as required, and click OK.
- To temporarily disallow your users to select a queue when posting new reports, click its title in the Title column, clear the Switched on check box, and click OK.
- To delete a queue, select the respective check box and click
Remove Selected.
To view, add, edit, or remove priorities:
- Go to Help Desk > Priorities. The priorities will be presented in a list.
- To add a new priority, click Add New Priority, type the desired combination of symbols into the Title box, leave the Switched on check box selected, and click OK.
- To edit a priority, click its title in the Title column. Edit it as required, and click OK.
- To temporarily disallow your users to select a priority when posting new reports, click its title in the Title column, clear the Switched on check box, and click OK.
- To delete a priority, select the respective check box and click
Remove Selected.
To view, add, edit, or remove categories:
- Go to Help Desk > Categories. The categories will be presented in a list.
- To add a new category, click Add New Category, type the desired combination of symbols into the Title box, leave the Switched on check box selected, and click OK.
- To edit a category, click its title in the Title column. Edit it as required, and click OK.
- To temporarily disallow your users to select a category when posting new reports, click its title in the Title column, clear the Switched on check box, and click OK.
- To delete a category, select the respective check box and click
Remove Selected.
To disallow customers to send reports to Help Desk by e-mail:
- Go to Help Desk > Mail Gate Settings.
- Click Switch off in the Tools group.
To disallow use of Help Desk for all your customers and resellers:
- Go to Help Desk > General Settings.
- Click Switch off in the Tools group.
Also see the Using Help Desk for Resolving Your Customers' Issues section.