Using a different term than closing for closing a discussion
Hi,
The only way we can keep track of things with the support volumes we get is by closing a discussion after each reply we make the user. This way the tickets will be removed from the queues and inbox and it's clear what went unanswered yet. Then when the user answers the ticket will be re-opened and appears again in the inbox and relevant queues.
This system works brilliantly but every now and then we have some users who take offense out of the fact that we "close" their discussion while their problem hasn't been solved yet ( for example http://support.mekentosj.com/discussions/questions/27875-why-close-... ). I agree with the person in the above link and would like to suggest the option to use a different term than closed to be displayed to the user, for instance 'answered' or 'replied', this makes much more sense in the context of how we (very effectively) use Tender.
Many thanks for your consideration,
Alex
Discussions are closed to public comments.
If you need help with Tender please
start a new discussion.
Keyboard shortcuts
Generic
| ? | Show this help |
|---|---|
| ESC | Blurs the current field |
Comment Form
| r | Focus the comment reply box |
|---|---|
| ^ + ↩ | Submit the comment |
You can use Command ⌘ instead of Control ^ on Mac
1 Posted by Tim on 08 Mar, 2012 07:07 PM
Hi Alex,
We've done a great deal of research on word usage which we apply to our development of Tender as an application -- even such a subtle thing as "issue" versus "discussion" can help frame the emotional tenor of your interactions with your customers.
Among the things we consider important is to use positive terms in order to keep that framing as positive as possible -- that's not always perfect, but our choice of "discussion" versus "issue" is a good example of our thinking. When it comes to how we chose to use the word "closed" for discussions is that it conveys completion without loading the term with an expectation of how the item was closed -- for example, had we chosen "Resolved" as our word for this, it would often set user's expectations even higher that their issue was dealt with in a specific manner. "Closed" is carefully neutral about this.
Some users do still expect that there is a positive resolution when something is closed -- even if their particular request or problem might not have been fully "resolved."
Changing the word to "answered" or "replied" sets a different expectation to the user -- "replied" does not convey finality (and could construe a continuing open discussion), "answered" can be both misconstrued as remaining open and also implies a "resolution" in favor of the user (i.e. a question has been answered), and furthermore neither term addresses the use case of where the user closes the discussion themselves.
That said, we are always happy to listen to new ideas and recommendations -- so we won't simply discard your request. We'll discuss this internally and consider if there might be a better choice of words, but suffice to say that we did choose the word carefully with an eye toward keeping the term as neutral as possible and minimize unnecessary expectations based on it.
Thanks!
Tim
2 Posted by mekentosj on 09 Mar, 2012 09:42 AM
Hi Tim,
Well, that's exactly the point. In the way we use tender the problem is exactly this finality conveyed by the word "closed" that IS the problem. We "close" the topic as a marker for having answered, not for having closed the discussion. With the amount of incoming emails it's simply undoable to keep track of all non-closed discussions. Given that only rarely the user self-closes a discussion, should we now go in after x amount of time of lack of response to manually close a discussion? And after what time, 3 days, a week, a month? We can hardly deal with the support load, let alone chase all open discussions up.
Therefore a much more sane model for us is to "answer" and wait for a reply, assuming that as long as a reply is not coming back we consider the discussion handled for now. In practice that's also how it works right? We do our thing and answer the user, now it's basically waiting for the other end to respond. If does, fine a next cycle continues and the discussion is pending again, if not that's the end of the story basically.
The above is not to say that there would be a useful case for really explicitly "closing" the discussion, for instance the user doing this from his/her end. Indeed stating that the discussion is closed makes a lot of sense in that respect.
But all I'm trying to say is that from the support staff perspective it would make a lot of sense to be able to discriminate between having "answered" and having "closed", however in both cases the result should be the same as what closing does right now (we want to see the discussion gone from all queues until the user answers). Only the user sees a different term being used that fits to what really is our intention and doesn't lead to misconceptions at our user's end.
Best wishes,
Alex
Amanda closed this discussion on 13 Mar, 2012 06:36 PM.