Since you traded in your old spreadsheet system for Atlassian Jira Service Desk , your workflow has really improved. All your queries are centralized. You've got logs for support agent work, more harmonized processes, and key metrics and SLAs in place and monitored.
The roll-out of Service Desk has been a huge win for your company. Work is now more efficient, which means your support agents are less stressed and your customers are happier. It seems like the pieces of the puzzle code-named the "Service Desk Challenge" are falling into place...
There's just one problem. The emails.
Send Me an Email?
"Jack, I forgot my login, can you just send me an email?" It's Susan in sales again. You've been working together since requests were tracked on sticky notes, but the new sales push keeps her on the move so she'd rather check messages from her phone. You're realizing there's one big piece of the puzzle missing from your Service Desk implementation — a good system of email notifications.
You've heard it said that email is dead, but experience tells you that most customers using SD just want to see a status update from the convenience of their inbox. Many of your customers don't want to navigate to the Service Desk portal itself, log in, and search for their issue just to download your screenshot explaining the solution — when they could just get it from their work email on their phone.
You can already tell this notification issue is going to affect customer satisfaction when you hear a voice...
Where's Our Logo?
"Hey Jack, can we get our logo on the new Service Desk notifications?" It's Bill from management. He's thrilled about the switch to Service Desk, and hopes it will help boost numbers before his big meeting with corporate next month. But Bill's already stumbled upon another weakness of SD's customer notifications.
Your Service Desk inbound notifications are doing the job for your support agents, but outbound notifications leave a lot to be desired. You've discovered that Service Desk's out-of-the-box notifications have serious limitations.
There's no option to add in that logo for Bill, much less match the look and feel of the layout to the rest of your company's branding. If you ever want to send a file mentioned in the agent's comment as an email attachment, add custom fields to the email subject or message, or notify external email addresses via CC/BCC copies, then the standard notifications won't be enough.
What to Do About These Emails?
There's no doubt that Service Desk is a huge improvement over your old spreadsheet system, but these standard Jira email notifications aren't working for your company. You know that you've got to do something to make up for SD's limitations and realize you have two choices:
- You implement a custom solution based on Jira and Service Desk.
- You use a specialized App that will do it for you.
Already, you know you've got a big project ahead if you choose Option A. You'll need to:
- Get the requirements right (from the beginning).
- Find (and pay for) a Jira consultant experienced in customization.
- Implement the solution on the Java platform.
- Maintain it to be compatible with future releases of Jira Service Desk.
- And if Susan or Bill request any more changes to your custom notifications? Then it's back to Step 1 and repeat...
Going with Option A means you'll end up with a small Java project and another piece of software that needs attention and maintenance. What a pain. You think, "There's got to be a better way to get these emails right..."
What About Raley Notifications?
"And there is a better way," you think. "What about Option B?" You remember that one of Jira Service Desk's top features is plug-and-play compatibility with over 800 apps on the official Atlassian Marketplace.
Right away, you discover Raley Email Notifications for Jira , and it's exactly what you need for a fraction of the cost of Option A. Raley is an easy-to-use battle-tested solution that supports all the features you were looking for — fully customizable outbound notification emails that Susan can check from her phone, plus full control over your brand's look-n-feel that make adding in Bill's logo a snap.
Setup is so easy you end up telling Bill and Susan all about it over lunch. "I had it up and running and sending the first emails in less than an hour. Without any programming, we can now fully control the content of emails, send attachments, show and customize any field, and send email notifications to ANY address, even to customers outside our company. We've added some HTML to match the company brand standards and make our customers feel more engaged. Plus, if we decide to move from the Cloud to Server version of JSD we can keep using Raley since it works on both." Susan and Bill are impressed.
Susan loves that Raley Email Notifications tailors what information is sent in notifications based on the type of support request. Bill thinks the fully customizable design and message content will wow customers and increase brand loyalty. He leans in and tells you he wants to talk to you about a promotion after lunch...
When you first started the move from spreadsheets to Jira Service Desk, you knew it was going to be a huge win for your support agents, your company, and your customers. But you also knew there would probably be a few bumps along road for the "Service Desk Challenge." Fortunately, you found and implemented Raley Email Notifications and it's been smooth sailing ever since. Now all the important information is available from the convenience of the customer's inbox!
Give Raley Email Notifications for Jira a try at your helpdesk and get your customers more engaged with your service team! Free for first 30 days!