Here on the SWEB Support Desk, we spend a great deal of time reading and writing emails, in fact, it's our preferred method of communications in most instances. Because of this fact, the clarity of the information included in your communications with the Support Desk is of the utmost of importance.

Through this posting, we hope to provide some insight into how we manage email requests, in addition to providing you with a sample of a well-formatted email request.

So, why is email our preferred method of communications, anyway...? There are several potential answers to this question, but the top three reasons are:

1. Email provides an automated path to distribute your request directly amongst the entire SWEB Support Team.
You may have heard us recommend that "all new support requests be sent to LOLv3Help@threespot.com" - this is why. When you send an email to this address, it automatically gets distributed amongst the team. There's no need to wait for one person to get back to you - your request gets placed immediately into the queue for handling by the first available SWEB Support Team member.

2. Email provides chain of authority as we work with you to resolve issues on your site.
As you might imagine, your site belongs to you - we require specific authorization from you, the administrator of the site, to help you resolve technical issues. Having all support correspondence documented in email chains allows for us to capture the required authorization to provide timely support on your site.

3. Finally, perhaps most importantly, email provides you, the administrator, with the opportunity to clearly describe the problem you are experiencing.
This last point is the most important, as our ability to quickly and accurately diagnose your trouble depends, in large part, on the quality of the information we receive along with the request for help.

To assist with this last point, we'd like to provide a sample of a clear, concise, well-formatted email support request:

	FROM:	SWEB Admin [sweb.admin@domain.com]
	SENT:	Thurday, July 31, 2008 at 2:45 PM
	SUBJECT:	SEIU4321: Article Placement Problem
	BODY:	I have an article that I want to place on the front page of my site, but it doesn’t seem to be working correctly. When I try to place the article on the page, I select the article from the list of available articles, but it does not appear on the page. The page seems to refresh, but the article is not there. The name of the article is: “SEIU Supports Union Membership" The page I am trying to place this article on is: http://www.seiu4321.org/fakepage/default.aspx Thank you, SWEB Administrator

Please note the clarity of the most important support information:

• Note the inclusion of the site and description of the problem in the subject line
  
• Note the clear statement of the problem
• Note the clear statement of expected results
  
• Note the inclusion of the URL of the item requiring assistance.
  

Please endeavor to follow the guidelines provided here - doing so will allow for us to help you in the quickest, most efficient manner possible.