Fix the Support ticketing System

[aaron37SWJ]

Hey Autodesk,

I want to use the image below as an example. This image is the email response I received from your excellent support team regarding one of my open tickets. Can you help me identify the subject of my support ticket by looking at this image? It looks quite difficult at first glance, and without the ticket number visible, it seems almost impossible to figure out.

I use this example because navigating through emails to determine which ticket the team is addressing can be a significant time drain when working with your ticketing system, especially if multiple tickets are open. This becomes even more challenging when tickets need to be shared with teams for training purposes to prevent recurring issues. Instead of linking all replies and responses, which can be a cumbersome task, we often opt not to do so, leading to your support team receiving repeated inquiries. Why disrupt a system that already works well? Maintaining the entire email thread from start to finish allows for easy scrolling to access all relevant information related to the ticket, enabling us to self-educate our teams and reserve Autodesk support for genuine issues. Is there a valid reason why this approach isn't implemented?

Thanks 

Aaron

[Richard.Rankin]

Hi @aaron37SWJ,

Thank you so much for this feedback.

I am wondering why we don't have this problem reported by other customers. (not that I have seen anyway)

Could you possibly give me more information? I am not sure we are talking about a problem with Autodesks ticketing system, or a problem with how the email client is being used.

What email client are you using? The case Number and Title are automatically embedded into the support email Header. It is not embedded into the email Body. So it should be possible to set up a rule to send all customersupport@autodesk.com emails to an Inbox subfolder. Then you can group those emails by email Header.

Autodesk standardises on using Outlook as its email reading client. It is commonly in use but I suspect there are other email clients exist (😊). In Outlook there is the option to group by Subject. This option is called "Show as Conversations". When you choose this option, all emails with the same Header are automatically grouped together.

I am sure that other email client software would have similar options as they are pretty mature solutions these days. 

Curious to understand your situation. 🙂

Kind regards

Richard

[aaron37SWJ]

Hey Richard,

I do believe it is with the Autodesk ticketing system as when we used Upchain prior to the Autodesk take over they had the most simplistic ticketing system that was super user friendly and took a mere few seconds to work. I could get a ticket raised and started within 2 clicks of my mouse and a little text. Now you have to open the web browser, login to Autodesk, go to the help section, click on what help you require, fill in the few text boxes (some of which don't work), then when it doesn't prompt a suggestion, you have to click create a case, then you have to fill in your issue and send - its quite the process with a lot of waste don't you think?  In regard to never hearing this before my last response from a support manager seemed to differ (see below).

Can you answer why the CRM system you use deletes the thread? Surely if it just kept this all would be fine and the customer doesn't need to modify their email reading clients rules etc. to find all the multiple emails relating to each ticket. 

Do you have a help section document that highlights how to modify Outlook as you have described above so I can share that help page with my team, this work around will be a good starting point.

Thanks

Aaron

[Simon_Weel]

Not sure what's the problem? Case numbers are in the subject line of the mail. What you show in your screenshot is the body of the mail - where's the header? Here's a screenshot of Outlook on my side:

As for the other thing - creating a service request - you indeed have to take some hurdles. I agree some steps should be optional, but I guess Autodesk has reasons for this approach. Like maybe to discourage people to just ask things they can find in a manual as well. 

[Richard.Rankin]

Hi Aaron,

After speaking to some folks internally, I can confirm that other customers do report this. I just was not aware of it when I wrote my initial response. Resolving it, will not be a quick fix because it is an issue with a third-party CRM that we use.

So in the meantime:- 

Because Outlook is not an Autodesk product, Autodesk would not publish an article on how to use other vendors' products. However, in addition to the screenshot I posted above, have a look at this article from Microsoft.

Working with message folders in Outlook.com

What I am proposing is that you create a Subfolder in Outlook, and then create a rule that places all emails from customer.support@autodesk.com into that folder. You can then select that folder and tick the "show as Conversations" option. It is not perfect, it won't gather all emails with the same Header together, but that is how I do it.

I hope that helps

Richard

[aaron37SWJ]

@Simon_Weel Thank you for responding and I appreciate your comments. I believe the root of the issue stems from transitioning from a simpler, customer-centric system to the current complex one. While the complexity does deter misuse due to the time it takes, the lack of working day support coverage, due to geographical limitations, makes it a last resort for us.

To provide context, our ticketing process involves delays due to time zone disparities. Tickets raised on Mondays are addressed in the evening, with our responses occurring on Tuesdays, and subsequent replies received on Wednesdays upon our return to work. It's quite time-consuming.

Furthermore, the Autodesk software we use is tailored to each company's specific needs, which complicates matters. While the generic manuals offer some assistance, expecting Autodesk to cater to every user's setup is impractical. Hence, we've established an internal help library based on resolved issues to streamline our processes. Ultimately, our goal is to minimise waste and expenses. So having our support tickets as one thread makes these libraries quick and easy to create with no time searching and collating. 

@Richard.Rankin Thank you for your response. I understand the challenges posed by third-party systems, and I agree that a partial solution is preferable to none. Your advice is appreciated.