From a customer support standpoint, I think there are some benefits to be gained for both PM and the customer to implement some sort customer support ticket system instead of this unorganized madness. It can be simple and doesn't have to be super advanced or extemely costly to implement.
These poor overworked mods are doing the best they can, but it's very frustating for a customer to feel like they are ignored. With limited resources, it is even more imperative to have an effective/efficient error tracking/resolution system.
From what I've read over the past couple weeks on the forums, some people are getting lucky and having mods respond in a day, sometimes even a couple hours, and having their issue resolved immediately. Great for them, but sucks for everyone else that couldn't get a response for weeks and have no cell service.
In it's simplest form:
1. Every issue is logged and assigned a ticket number chronologically. That way the Mods can see which issues should be dealt with first.
- I don't think mods should be handling cases that come in while it's convenient for the mod to handle it, but rather in a First in First Out basis for fairness and transparency.
Some refinements would be:
1. Our self-serve portal is able to view our ticket and ticket status. Therefore knowing our issue has been reviewed and acknowledged/prioritized in terms of severity. Many people don't even know if their issue has been received (Direct Messages in "unread" state).
2. Someone (i.e. automated or mod) is reviewing the tickets as they come in and are assigned a priority (i.e. 1 for critical cell services, 2 for payment, 3 for misc. questions). Mods would then go through the highest priorty on a FIFO basis before moving onto groups 2 and 3 etc.
Either way, I think the current method of handling errors is unsustainable with only a few mods and some behind the scenes support staff. I guarantee 100% that some direct messages go unread and are lost in a swamp of support requests. Those that are lucky enough to catch a mod when the mod happens to have some free time or are in between tasks get lucky. This further increases the amount of messages and backlog - since people see these results and just increase the volume of their requests until they get "lucky".
