Overview

Using Efecte Self-Service Portal (ESS) and Efecte Service Management Tool (ESM) it is possible to efficiently gather, analyze and report the performance of support personnel as perceived by the customers of the organization through feedback management functionality.

Using the functionality, data related to single ticket and the performance of support personnel in serving the customer can be collected, reported and acted upon. 

This guide will provide the reader with basic instructions on how to make use of the feature, and how to make reporting and defining the process. In addition, some practical suggestions and examples are provided.

This article describes the behavior of feedback management in ESS version 2022.3 or newer.

Feedback management in Efecte Self-Service

Efecte Self-Service handles majority of the user interaction in presenting the user with the feedback form to collect user views, handling possible error situations and eventually sending the form to Efecte Service Management for handling, reporting and analysis. 

In this chapter, steps to create a feedback form and to make the necessary customizations are explained. Any of the changes you make in Efecte Self-Service impact data handling in Efecte Service Management, but no changes are required to the email messages sent.

Creating a form

To create a form, select the Feedback tab. By default, no form exists. In the picture below a view on a clean environment is provided. 

To create a new form, clicking on the elements in the “Add” box adds items to the form. Each element can have up to 4 characteristics:

• Type. The available types for an element are: header, text area, checkbox and rating
• Mandatory. Some elements can be marked mandatory, requiring the user for input.
• Label. The text shown to user. Can be translated in Languages tab.
• Code. The attribute code in Efecte Service Management to which user input or selection is sent.

Once you have all the desired elements in place, the form can be made available through “Enable” button.

Note, you only have one available at a time.

Main form controls

For creation is possible through a specific tab in the administration view. By default, there is no form, and one needs to be created. In the picture below a view on a clean environment. 

• Enable. After the form is complete and you want to make it available for testing purpose, clicking on Enable will publish it. Anyone with access to the URL to give feedback is having access to the form. 
• Note! If you want the user feedback be gathered solely on selecting the level satisfaction from the mail, you can click on “Enable” without a form created to activate the feature. 
• Publish changes. Whenever changes are made to an enabled form, the changes to the form are published through selecting “Publish changes”. This concerns changes to code mappings as well as any other changes to form contents.
• Discard changes. Whenever changes are made to an enabled form, the changes to the form can be discarded through selecting “Discard changes”. This concerns changes to code mappings as well as any other changes to form contents and all changes since previous “Publish changes” are ignored.
• Disable. The visibility of the form can be terminated through selecting “Disable”. 

Form elements

The form may contain four different element types, many of which are familiar from service and incident definitions. You have three elements for feedback collecting and one for helping with the design. 

In Multilanguage environments, all form elements can be translated through the Languages tab either using the file export/import or the on-screen translation facility.

Configuring the Efecte Service Management connector 

Feedback management is always enabled in the Efecte connector, and ready to use out of the box. The default configuration values are as follows:

<bean id="defaultConnectorEfecte" class="com.efecte.integration.connector.efecte.EfecteConnector">
  <property name="connectionConfiguration" ref="connectionConfiguration" />
  <property name="feedbackFormConnector">
  <bean class="com.efecte.integration.connector.efecte.EfecteFeedbackFormConnector">
   <property name="feedbackAttributes">
    <bean class="com.efecte.integration.connector.configuration.FeedbackAttributes">
     <property name="templateCode" value="feedback_management" />
     <property name="folderCode" value="feedback" />
     <property name="efecteIdAttribute" value="ticket_id" />
     <property name="customerAttribute" value="customer" />
         <property name="ratingAttribute" value="ticket_rating" />
     </bean>
   </property>
  </bean>
 </property>
</bean>

To change these, insert the above to the connector with the new, correct values, save the file, and then reload the tenant configuration on the hub by issuing the command:

integration-hub-tenant reload [tenant name]

Defaults in Efecte Self-Service

For the cloud environments the default URL to use in emails to call the feedback form is:

https://tenantURL/ssc/feedback/[TICKET_ID]?rating=1|2|3|4

The key elements in the email are the changing ticket-ID (e.g. service request identifier or incident identifier depending on the use case). This data is also included to the request sent to Efecte Service Management along with customer identifier (email).

Ticket rating

The overall satisfaction with service is collected through asking the user for rating a request they have been served

The smileys and corresponding numeric values in Efecte Self-Service are as follows.

The value is sent to ESM attribute “ticket_rating”, and the ticket rating numeric value and icon correlation is fixed. 

Changing default labels

The default labels shown on the form can be changed through manipulating language file through settings tab. This includes error messages, as well as some of the elements related to giving actual feedback.

A few examples of the texts related to feedback management. Note, all form related translations are handled in the Languages tab.

Form experience

Feedback elements defined in administrator view are experienced in the following fashion in the end-user view.

To give feedback requires the use to authenticate herself. After successful log in, the feedback form is presented to her in its entirety.

Feedback form errors and checks

When landing to the actual form, Efecte Self-Service performs a few simple checks.

First, the ticket on which the user is trying to give feedback on, needs to belong to the user. A user can only give feedback on tickets that belong to her. If a user tries to give feedback on ticket not belonging to her, an error is produced.

Second, the user can only give feedback for a ticket once. If she, by accident or deliberately, tries to give feedback again, an error is produced, and user is taken to Efecte Self-Service home page.

Mandatory fields are checked upon clicking “Submit”.

Configuring Efecte Service Management

Efecte Service Management is responsible for sending out the invitations to users when it is time to ask for feedback. Once the feedback is given and sent from Efecte Self-Service to Efecte Service Management the data sent can be presented multiple different ways. In this chapter instructions and hints are provided to set the necessary items up.

Inviting users to give feedback

The key in ensuring users provide the feedback on the service they provide is to make the invitation to give feedback as appealing as possible and make the actual feedback form short enough to keep users’ focus on task.

Setting up the feedback email

To trigger feedback invitation email being generated, you can define an email to be sent out using Visual Workflow Automation. When the criteria for sending feedback email are met, you can automatically have an email sent to the person having submitted the request or incident report. Simply insert the images and assign each of them a link providing ticket id as a variable. For example, https://tenant.efectecloud.com/ssc/feedback/$efecte_id$?rating=1 for the happiest face. Or, you can simply use textual expressions for the same purpose. 

Feedback template

The Efecte Self-Service sends the feedback to a separate template. By default, the template code is feedback_management which can be changed in Efecte Self-Service.

Handling checkbox fields

For the attributes that are linked with checkbox selection on Efecte Self-Service end, the field only gets values when users tick the box. In those cases, value 1 is sent to Efecte Service Management as an indication of selection. To ensure proper data being available for reporting, it is recommended to use a default value (0) for the attribute.

As the numeric values provide less value in terms of reporting, it is recommended that each numeric value will be given a human readable meaning. For that purpose, you need a corresponding attribute with handler expression to be added.

The outcome of enough answers can then be interpreted easily through graphical reports. In the example, 52% of people agree with the statement made.

Configuration for rating fields

The rating field from is Efecte Self-Service can have four different values (1-4) for the overall ticket rating as well as possible additional fields that have been defined. If the input has not been marked mandatory in feedback form, it is advisable to set the default value for these attributes as well (set it to 0) like with checkbox fields. 

Again, to give practical meaning to the numeric values in reporting it is recommended to have an attribute in place where the translation to more user-friendly presentation of data is made. In the example below, the Promoter Score attribute translates score of 1 (sent from Efecte Self-Service to attribute code ticket_rating) to “Very satisfied”. 

The label can then be easily used in reporting instead of leaving users of the reports wonder what each figure would be translating into.

Text areas

The text fields sent from Efecte Self-Service require no special handling. Obviously, the open feedback provided in the responses requires handling, and can potentially invoke additional thoughts and ideas on service improvements.