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creating a discussion in the name of a user

• Edit

Christophe

17 Jul, 2014 01:36 PM

Hello,

I think that it is quite frequent that some supporter have to create a new discussion in the name of a user. See for example:

• http://help.tenderapp.com/discussions/questions/1394-create-a-discu... (getting a question by phone)
• or http://help.tenderapp.com/discussions/questions/1982-how-do-you-cre... (which is related too).
• We have also another scenario: our users/customers use a form dedicated to sales question to ask technical question which should have been address to our support site. Our sales then receive an email generated by the form; as the mail is not directly send by the customer/user, the forward does not work. Then they have to create a new discussion in the name of the customer, (and add the originator as watcher);

One of the issue we then encounter is that the discussion, created by the sales, do not appear in the pending discussion; also I would like in this case that the discussion appears as "created" by the user/customer and not Bob our best salesman. Also we loose some other functions such as the capability to see later on the discussion as one created by the customer.... I guess they may be other impacts.

So my suggestion would be add the ability to create new discussion in the name of the users/customers (exactly the same way you do with email forward to tender). This type of discussion would be then also defaulted to private; I have the impression that it would useful in the support process and make it seamless, which is currently not the case.

christophe

1. 1 Posted by Julien on 17 Jul, 2014 01:56 PM

   

   Hi Christophe,

   One simple way to do this is to simply open an incognito/private window (every browser has this nowadays) and fill the "new discussion" form as the user. Even if the user already exists in the system, you can still "claim" the discussion afterwards. Another option is to use a form which then uses the API to post the discussion to Tender. Finally, when posting the discussion as staff and adding the user as a watcher, you can also click "move to pending" after creating the discussion.

   There is certainly room for improvements, but I'm not sure this would be a high priority item at the moment, so I'm trying to offer solutions that work right now.

   Let me know what you think.

   Cheers!

   • Edit

2. 2 Posted by Christophe on 17 Jul, 2014 02:32 PM

   

   Hi Julien,

   Thanks for the answer. My thoughts:

   - One simple way to do this is to simply open an incognito/private
   window (every browser has this nowadays) and fill the "new discussion" form
   as the user. Even if the user already exists in the system, you can still
   "claim" the discussion afterwards.

   ð I never thought about this… in our case only logged in user can post new
   discussions…. so it is not applicable, I think.

   - Another option is to use a form which then uses the API to post the
   discussion to Tender.

   ð This could be useful… I think we will try it.

   - Finally, when posting the discussion as a staff and adding the user
   as a watcher, you can also click "move to pending" after creating the
   discussion.

   ð Yes. That’s the way we currently proceed, but sometimes we forget some of
   the steps…

   Christophe

   From: Julien
   [mailto:[email blocked]]
   Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 3:57 PM
   To: [email blocked]
   Subject: Re: creating a discussion in the name of a user [Suggestions
   #37298]

   • Edit

3. 3 Posted by Julien on 17 Jul, 2014 02:44 PM

   

   I never thought about this… in our case only logged in user can post new discussions…. so it is not applicable, I think.

   Right. Your site is in private mode so this is not an option.

   This could be useful… I think we will try it.

   It should be fairly straightforward: collect user name, email, title and body, and then just post it to Tender a support staff API key:

   Support users can also send author_email and author_name to open a discussion on behalf of that user (this is probably the most common use case).
   

   You should also use trusted: true to bypass spam check.

   • Finally, when posting the discussion as a staff and adding the user as a watcher, you can also click "move to pending" after creating the discussion.

   Yes. That’s the way we currently proceed, but sometimes we forget some of the steps…

   Understood.

   The form seems to be the way to go. Let me know if you need any assistance with it.

   • Edit

4. 4 Posted by Julien on 29 Jul, 2014 05:11 PM

   

   Hey Christophe,

   Just checking up on this to see if you needed any help.

   thanks!

   • Edit

5. 5 Posted by Christophe on 04 Aug, 2014 01:41 PM

   

   Hi Julien,

   In fact, even if it is possible to create a dedicated form in-house for dealing such case, I estimated it too complicated for my users; They will
   only need this from time to time, and they will always forget about it / where to find the form.

   I really think it would be an interesting feature that you could propose to your customer… ;-)

   Christophe

   • Edit

6. 6 Posted by Julien on 04 Aug, 2014 02:09 PM

   

   Hi Christophe,

   Thanks for the update. As I mentioned earlier, we don't really have bandwidth for this right now, but we'll keep it in mind for the future.

   Cheers!

   • Edit

7. brandi closed this discussion on 05 Aug, 2014 10:01 PM.