🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug14.133438.36@dymaxion.ns.ca>, bg@dymaxion.ns.ca writes:
> We are attempting to erect an infrastructure for supporting some of our clients
> via E-Mail.  The support structure should work in parallel with phone and fax
> support, and as such, most things we can do with phone and fax we should now be
> able to do with E-Mail as well.  Some of the issues are as follows:

An interesting way of handling this it to set up an account that automatically
gets fed into ANU-NEWS.  You then have all the advantages of a news reader to
do your handling.

> 1. Archiving all E-Mail to/from the outside world
>    - we do this with faxes, we should also be able to do it with mail

ANU-NEWS could handle this automatically.

> 2. How to handle staff away (vacation/sick/business trip)
>    - making sure that messages from client to staff don't get missed
>      when they are away
>    - use an auto-responder?
>      - we are well aware of the limitations/liabilities of such creatures
>        with regards to mailing list loops

If they go to a newsgroup, everyone with the appropriate access to the group
could handle them.  The customer won't know the difference.  You can do stuff
like followup/reply which will follow up for the people within your
organization looking at the problems yet give the customer the answer.

> 3. Central support address vs. individual addresses to support staff
>    - individual contacts must be supported and are the mainstay of
>      our phone support, but what is the best way to handle general inquiries
>      - by head of department or other designated person?
>      - by receptionist?

You could have people specify a return address when they respond to the note so
that any mail coming back from the customer in response to the note will come
back to the group instead of the person who may actually be working the call.

> Anything which relates to the above points would be helpful to us in making
> decisions about how the infrastructure should take place:
> - literature
> - your own experience with setting up E-Mail support

I haven't actually done it but I do have a customer service background so I
understand what goes on in the background.

ANU-NEWS is available via ftp from sao.aarnet.edu.au.  The 6.1 beta release
implements the followup/reply feature.

-- 

Ed Wilts, BC Systems Corp., 4000 Seymour Place, Victoria, B.C., Canada, V8X 4S8
EWilts@Galaxy.Gov.BC.CA   |   Ed.Wilts@BCSystems.Gov.BC.CA   |   (604) 389-3430