This feature is in beta at this time.
Any Topic channel can be setup as a special "support channel". Its a formal means of communication through which users (network members / customers / partners etc) can receive assistance or support from the Network Operator staff.
- A Network can have any number of Support Channels, subject to the overall channel limit.
- The "support channel" designation works orthogonally to the channel access mechanism, ie one can have Support Channels that are Public, while others are Protected, Restricted etc - thus serving different audiences and keeping them separate as required.
A MainCross Support Channel is a combination of:
- Support Tickets: Every Issue reported by users gets an automatic unique tracking number. Network Operator staff can attach various tags to each issue to create a issue handling workflow. Responses flow back to the user via whichever notification mechanism the user can configured.
- Community Forums: Users can seek help from other users or the Network Operator staff.
Note that a support channel can only be set when creating the channel. This cannot be changed later.
See a live example on this Network.
Posting into the channel#
By default, all Post Types are automatically turned off when a channel is setup as a Support Channel, and only 2 Post Types are enabled - Question and Issue. Issue Post type is a special post type that is available only on Support Channels.
- Other Post Types can be enabled if the Network Operator so desires, but we recommend keeping only the default.
- The 2 default post types cannot be disabled.
Handling issues / providing support#
Currently a fixed simple issue tracking workflow is automatically enabled - this workflow is only controllable by Network Operator stall, not by users.
The workflow type and tags are not configurable at this time. In the future, it is intended to allow Network Operators to define a workflow that suits their purpose.
