Alan Hirsch
Product Support Director, Claims Workstation, Policy STAR® and FAB Billing Systems
StoneRiver
As Director of the J Products Customer Support group I get involved with many issues reported by our customers. In most cases, our business analysts and technical staff work successfully with clients to analyze and resolve the issues reported. Typically, the Support staff will:
- Engage with clients to collect all appropriate information
- Attempt to create the issue in our environment
- Hold joint interactive review sessions
- Question our Product Management staff about the issue
- Discuss the issue with our technical team
In most cases we emerge with a clear path forward to address the issue. This may be correcting the application software, providing improved education on system usage, sharing suggestions about configuration, or some alternate instruction.
Sometimes none of this works. We simply cannot determine what, if anything has gone wrong. In these situations I hear our staff use a phrase, five words, that must cause dread to our customers. That is:
“We cannot recreate your issue.”
From a client’s perspective, as a software user, she/he has undoubtedly see the issue, have experienced it several times, perhaps more, and know that the issue exists. They want it fixed. Why would the Support group not see the same?
Our Support analysts try to recreate reported issues as one of their first steps. This allows us to understand the specific steps required to create the scenario, to see what the client sees, and identify where, when and how the issue surfaces. If we can achieve this understanding, we can then move forward to identify corrective action. Essentially, if we can see it, we can help fix it.
However, many items may come between the issue and our ability to recreate it. For example:
- The customer has configured the system in a way that, while allowed, causes the application to perform in an unpredicted way.
- Processing occurs prior to, or in parallel with the identified issue. The user may not have anticipated or be aware of cross-impacts. This processing throws an error in the application.
- The client has recently entered or converted data into the system. This data contains values not addressed by the application, resulting in an error.
- The customer has built an interface between systems. For some reason, that interface has changed. This change causes an unexpected result in the application.
- We’re testing in an environment that does not mirror the client’s.
- Simply, we did not fully understand the issue or need.
In all of these cases, the Support group will not see the underlying cause of the issue, and will not be able to recreate it.
And our team will use those five dreaded words!
To avoid these situations, our Support staff may ask many questions and request specific documentation. Though it may seem excessive, having this information ensures that we identify the correct issue, and address the issue correctly. All of this helps turn the five dreaded words into 10 positive words any client would want to hear: