You have become accustomed to using social channels like online forums to get answers and solve problems, especially since people like you, who are active in the community, can provide a unique and experienced view into how to solve the problem. Community members can usually help you more quickly find answers since they likely have "been there, done that." With Telligent Connect for Salesforce, you can now leverage online forums to find answers, but at the same time rely on the support team to be there when the community cannot help. You can easily monitor your open cases and interact with service agents all from within the online community.
Track open support cases
All the support cases you have opened with support are available for your review. You can sort to find the case you want to review in detail, including reviewing any closed cases. If your case was opened via an escalation of your question within the community, you can click to view the question in the forum; see if anyone within the community has responded; review any communication exchange you have already had with the support agent, or add a comment to the case that only your support agent can see.
If your case was opened via another channel, like phone, email, or a form on a Web site, you can click to view the case details and the private exchange that has already occurred between you and the support agent (if any). You can add additional comments to make progress toward closing the case.
Ask a question
The online community is open 24/7 to help you find answers. Be sure to search the community first to see if your question has already been asked and answered within the support forums or maybe there is community documentation that tells you exactly what you need to know.
However, if you have searched for an answer and cannot find one, you need more help. Simply post a new question within a forum that most closely matches the subject of your question. The community immediately sees your question; likely, you'll hear back quickly from other community participants with suggestions on how to answer your question. Typically you will also receive notifications in your email inbox as people provide input and suggested answers. You can interact directly from email by replying and typing in your response before sending.
Escalate your question to Support
Depending on which organization you belong to and your previous involvement within the community, you may see an option next to your question to escalate your question to the support team.
Simply click Escalate to Support Case and the support team is instantly notified that you need help.
If you do not see this option to manually escalate to a support case, your question (if unanswered) might be automatically escalated to a case. You will be notified if this happens.
If your question is escalated manually or automatically, you will be able to interact with the customer support agent assigned to your case either privately via comments and email, or publicly via responses directly within the forum thread. (Private comments are available for all Salesforce cases.)
Track your support cases
You can keep up with the cases you've submitted to customer support by clicking on your profile page. A widget called "Salesforce cases" displays all of your cases. You can sort this list on case number, priority, status, creation date, owner (support agent), and subject.
See the details of a support case
Once your question has been escalated to a case, you can see the details of the case next to the forum question in the right sidebar. This detail provides insight into the status of the case, the customer support agent assigned to answer it, and the severity of the case for SLA purposes.
You, members of your organization, and the support team can view these case details, but no other community participant can see them. Those participants only see the forum and have the option to reply in the public conversation.
Share private information with your support representative
While you are working with a customer support agent to troubleshoot an issue, we recommend that you only share private information (that is, details that the public does not need to know) via private comments or email.
- Private comments - If your customer support agent needs to ask you for information that he/she feels needs to remain private between you, you will see the private comment at the bottom of your forum thread. You simply need to reply to the comment and he/she will be notified that you responded.
Private comments are available in all Salesforce cases - whether the case is originated in Salesforce or from an escalated forum thread.
- Email - You or your customer support agent can send an attachment via email using Private Comments. To send an attachment, click the Include attachments via email link on the private message. Your local email client is opened to display an email containing the correct email address and case number on the subject line. Simply include an attachment description or message in the body of the email and attach the desired file(s) to aid in troubleshooting the issue.
Share public information
You can contribute additional information to your question publicly at any time by replying to the forum thread itself. Remember that a forum reply is public and visible to all members of the community, while a private message is visible only to you, support personnel, and any other designated parties.
Other community participants may ask you clarifying questions that you will want to provide answers to. Your customer support agent may also want to ask clarifying questions or share potential solutions with the broader community by replying to the forum thread as well. These responses will appear as normal replies and, if you are email-subscribed to the thread, you will receive notifications each time anyone replies to the forum thread.
Verify the answer
Once your customer support agent has presented you with a resolution, he/she will create a Suggested Answer for the question. To ensure that others understand that this actually answers your question, be sure to verify the answer by clicking Yes on Did this answer your question?
Other Telligent Community Forum features
Telligent Community forums have other features you can use to indicate or find out the quality of a post/question or reply. These features include:
- Liking a post or reply using the Like button.
- Rating a post or reply using stars.
- Flagging a post or reply as abuse.
For information about using these features in a forum, see the above-linked documentation. Please note that these features are part of Telligent Community and are not related to Salesforce.