Hello Bizzy Mamas!
It's rare that I share anything this personal but since this will directly impact your ticket, order, and support turn around time we felt it was a good time to make an announcement.
Throughout our 6 years of business (7 this September!) I have maintained the support ticket system, with periodic daytime support staffing, 24/7, 365 a year. Yes, even on Christmas and my birthday, before and after a handful of funerals and family vacations, and at 2am when I have had the flu. It's a commitment that I've been happy to make for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which being that I truly love what I do and appreciate each and every one of you and your continued business-and support of my own business. There has yet to be a time in all of our years of business so far that I've been fully unavailable, no matter the circumstances. However, I will be taking a short leave soon and felt the time was right to let you all in on our plans and what you can expect during this time.
After 9 years as a family of three, we are expecting a new addition to join us in the coming months. Our small (but Bizzy) family is growing and we couldn't be more excited!
We are well aware of the level and timeliness of support that you all have come to expect from us and so wanted to take a moment to review how my partial "maternity leave" will impact our support during this time.
The current plan, barring any sort of unforeseen circumstances, is that I will be available until and then completely unavailable during the actual labor/birth and only partially available for at least a week following, at which point we feel confident that we will be able to resume slightly lessened but somewhat normal support ticket hours. My full work load will be resumed after 3-4 weeks. I also intend to slow down my work load significantly in late May in anticipation of the transition and for our home and birth planning process. This means that delays should be expected on all non-emergency requests like software upgrades, adding in analytics code, premium template editing, over night (USA, CST) functionality/pre-sales support requests, etc.
If you have a task or question in mind that you would like to have addressed in a more timely manner, please plan to make your request before May 20, 2016.
Having said that it is important to note that:
* We will still have emergency support available around the clock and emergency tickets will be monitored and attended to in a timely manner. Please be sure that any emergency tickets are opened as "high priority". Please do not open non-emergency tickets as "high priority". A true emergency may include such things as a suspected website hack, server downtime (check: http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/ first!), or an influx of incoming email failure delivery reports indicating a possible email hack. Things that do not constitute an emergency, but will be handled in the order in which received and in a timely manner include: email connectivity issues through your chosen email client (try accessing your email through your webmail at yourdomain.com/webmail and open your regular priority ticket for support in a timely manner), an order that isn't displaying in your store admin, requests for domain EPP codes, etc., etc. Check our knowledgebase for answers to many common questions before submitting your ticket for quick answers at your fingertips! Sending non-emergency tickets through our emergency support areas will not quicken your reply times and may delay response on any true emergencies that do come through during this time.
It's rare that I share anything this personal but since this will directly impact your ticket, order, and support turn around time we felt it was a good time to make an announcement.
Throughout our 6 years of business (7 this September!) I have maintained the support ticket system, with periodic daytime support staffing, 24/7, 365 a year. Yes, even on Christmas and my birthday, before and after a handful of funerals and family vacations, and at 2am when I have had the flu. It's a commitment that I've been happy to make for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which being that I truly love what I do and appreciate each and every one of you and your continued business-and support of my own business. There has yet to be a time in all of our years of business so far that I've been fully unavailable, no matter the circumstances. However, I will be taking a short leave soon and felt the time was right to let you all in on our plans and what you can expect during this time.
After 9 years as a family of three, we are expecting a new addition to join us in the coming months. Our small (but Bizzy) family is growing and we couldn't be more excited!
We are well aware of the level and timeliness of support that you all have come to expect from us and so wanted to take a moment to review how my partial "maternity leave" will impact our support during this time.
The current plan, barring any sort of unforeseen circumstances, is that I will be available until and then completely unavailable during the actual labor/birth and only partially available for at least a week following, at which point we feel confident that we will be able to resume slightly lessened but somewhat normal support ticket hours. My full work load will be resumed after 3-4 weeks. I also intend to slow down my work load significantly in late May in anticipation of the transition and for our home and birth planning process. This means that delays should be expected on all non-emergency requests like software upgrades, adding in analytics code, premium template editing, over night (USA, CST) functionality/pre-sales support requests, etc.
If you have a task or question in mind that you would like to have addressed in a more timely manner, please plan to make your request before May 20, 2016.
Having said that it is important to note that:
* We will still have emergency support available around the clock and emergency tickets will be monitored and attended to in a timely manner. Please be sure that any emergency tickets are opened as "high priority". Please do not open non-emergency tickets as "high priority". A true emergency may include such things as a suspected website hack, server downtime (check: http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/ first!), or an influx of incoming email failure delivery reports indicating a possible email hack. Things that do not constitute an emergency, but will be handled in the order in which received and in a timely manner include: email connectivity issues through your chosen email client (try accessing your email through your webmail at yourdomain.com/webmail and open your regular priority ticket for support in a timely manner), an order that isn't displaying in your store admin, requests for domain EPP codes, etc., etc. Check our knowledgebase for answers to many common questions before submitting your ticket for quick answers at your fingertips! Sending non-emergency tickets through our emergency support areas will not quicken your reply times and may delay response on any true emergencies that do come through during this time.
For true emergencies, please open your high priority ticket and also take a moment to submit your request via ****this form**** to send a direct text message to our on-call emergency tech. In the unlikely event of website downtime, you should not expect to receive the quick ticket replies/announcements and hourly updates that you are used to during this stretch of time, but your ticket will be seen and our emergency staff will begin working behind the scenes as soon as a report is received (often times sooner) on a quick resolution. If your situation is resolved before you hear back, please assume that we were aware of the issue and took care of it and that someone will get back to you personally as soon as possible. The reason for this is because while we have our 24/7 emergency support team on hand, they are a hands on team that will resolve issues at the server level and will not always have access to reply to your inquiry through the ticket system. Again- this does not mean that your ticket has not been seen or is not being addressed, just that delays in reply should be expected during this time!
* Daytime support ticket staff will still be available to answer any presales and/or store builder support and functionality questions as usual. These team members are familiar with our software and its functionality and can assist with many common questions. However, we have been working very hard for many months on reformatting our complete knowledgebase with articles (many complete with screen shots and step-by-step instructions) that should answer many of your questions without the need to wait for ticket support. Please take a moment to search the KB to see if your question has already been answered for these quick answers at your fingertips!
* Please be sure to separate your individual inquiries into multiple tickets to make it easier for our support team to manage and delegate. This is always a good idea but even more so now. If you have multiple questions sent over in a single ticket, our daytime staff will do their best to answer what they can and then flag the ticket for further follow up by a higher level support team member. Not every team member is going to have full knowledge of every issue but everyone will do their best during this short time to provide the support you need.
* Along these lines, expect delays on any and all billing inquiries, account cancellation processing, new account setups/add on account inquiries, non-emergency technical or store builder functionality support after hours, and/or general questions that come in after 5p, CST during my leave time.
* New orders will be accepted during this time but no new accounts will be set up for at least a week during this period beginning on the day of my leave. This day has yet to be determined and will depend on when labor begins. This will be thoroughly explained on the website and on order forms during this time and a maternity sale coupon code will be provided to new clients who wish to sign up and wait anyway. Please be patient and understanding of this process as we welcome our new addition and transition into a family of 4. There will be no exceptions to this rule as I personally approve and set up all new orders myself and none should be expected.
* Lastly, I have been training my husband, Bizzy Daddy, on how to navigate our support ticket area and have provided him (and the rest of our staff) with over 500 prewritten articles that contain complete answers to many common questions. In the event that he is unable to find the answer to your question among these articles, he will transcribe a reply for me during this time. For this and the other reasons listed above, please expect minor delays in after hours reply times between May 20-June 20 (ish). We'll be working hard as a family to continue to meet your needs during this time. Your patience and understanding is very much appreciated.
We are anticipating baby to arrive sometime in early-mid June, 2016. When labor begins, my husband will post a prewritten announcement to your client area notifying that my leave has begun. We'll update that announcement (with pictures! :) ) when the baby has safely arrived and post another update when regular business hours are resumed. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.
If you have any questions that you have been collecting to ask, or tasks that you have been considering or putting off, it would be best to contact us in regard to these matters before May 20, 2016. If you would like to discuss this issue please feel free to contact us at any time.
Thank you!
Jenni (Bizzy Mama), Jose (Bizzy Daddy), and the VERY excited big-brother-to-be, Dominic
* Daytime support ticket staff will still be available to answer any presales and/or store builder support and functionality questions as usual. These team members are familiar with our software and its functionality and can assist with many common questions. However, we have been working very hard for many months on reformatting our complete knowledgebase with articles (many complete with screen shots and step-by-step instructions) that should answer many of your questions without the need to wait for ticket support. Please take a moment to search the KB to see if your question has already been answered for these quick answers at your fingertips!
* Please be sure to separate your individual inquiries into multiple tickets to make it easier for our support team to manage and delegate. This is always a good idea but even more so now. If you have multiple questions sent over in a single ticket, our daytime staff will do their best to answer what they can and then flag the ticket for further follow up by a higher level support team member. Not every team member is going to have full knowledge of every issue but everyone will do their best during this short time to provide the support you need.
* Along these lines, expect delays on any and all billing inquiries, account cancellation processing, new account setups/add on account inquiries, non-emergency technical or store builder functionality support after hours, and/or general questions that come in after 5p, CST during my leave time.
* New orders will be accepted during this time but no new accounts will be set up for at least a week during this period beginning on the day of my leave. This day has yet to be determined and will depend on when labor begins. This will be thoroughly explained on the website and on order forms during this time and a maternity sale coupon code will be provided to new clients who wish to sign up and wait anyway. Please be patient and understanding of this process as we welcome our new addition and transition into a family of 4. There will be no exceptions to this rule as I personally approve and set up all new orders myself and none should be expected.
* Lastly, I have been training my husband, Bizzy Daddy, on how to navigate our support ticket area and have provided him (and the rest of our staff) with over 500 prewritten articles that contain complete answers to many common questions. In the event that he is unable to find the answer to your question among these articles, he will transcribe a reply for me during this time. For this and the other reasons listed above, please expect minor delays in after hours reply times between May 20-June 20 (ish). We'll be working hard as a family to continue to meet your needs during this time. Your patience and understanding is very much appreciated.
We are anticipating baby to arrive sometime in early-mid June, 2016. When labor begins, my husband will post a prewritten announcement to your client area notifying that my leave has begun. We'll update that announcement (with pictures! :) ) when the baby has safely arrived and post another update when regular business hours are resumed. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.
If you have any questions that you have been collecting to ask, or tasks that you have been considering or putting off, it would be best to contact us in regard to these matters before May 20, 2016. If you would like to discuss this issue please feel free to contact us at any time.
Thank you!
Jenni (Bizzy Mama), Jose (Bizzy Daddy), and the VERY excited big-brother-to-be, Dominic
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
