INTERNAL - Outage Process

If you receive the first call from a client alerting you of a possible outage, get full details of the issue that is occurring: exactly what the issue is, what the error message says if there is one, how many people within their company are affected, and how long ago the issue started. Let the higher level of Support staff know and provide them with all the details. Level 2 or Level 3 support will make sure to alert the developers and keep everyone in Support updated.

• Note: Make sure that the client is not experiencing an internet outage. If they are getting an error message on the maps within the app or error messages relating to the maps or Bing, that is generally a sign of an internet issue, even if the rest of the system loaded.

You can also check the MediRoutes Product Status page at status.mediroutes.com. The Product Status page will show any major disruptions in a variety of our services.

Previous examples of outages are GPS being down for all drivers or no one being able to login to the desktop application. Typically, there will be a sudden flood of incoming calls and emails while you are on the initial outage call. As you begin calling people back and looking at the emails, you will see that they are all for the same type of issue. This is a pretty solid indication that an outage is occurring and further confirms it if you have not heard back from higher level Support staff.

Handling the tickets:

• Do not worry about the amount of calls coming in. It’s all hands on deck. We will all work together to get back to everyone. The Aircall phone message will be updated to alert people before they go on hold for a representative, and at some point, a mass email communication will be sent out as well.
• Get bare minimum information on tickets. Get a note in that it is an outage ticket and the name and company of the client if it did not come through on Aircall. Contact and company can be associated once the outage is over. Do not worry about that or getting title or category and subcategory on the ticket until after the outage has ended. Just get a simple note in so you can move on to the next Return Call.
• ALWAYS assign yourself to a Return Call ticket BEFORE you call them back to ensure that no one else tries to call them back at the same time.
• Grab email tickets IF you can. The Support Manager will help grab emails to respond to those clients.
• Once the all-clear has been given, go ahead and enter an outage title on the ticket (web outage, desktop outage, mobile outage), select the respective category, and enter the subcategory as Bug for the respective category (Desktop – Bug, Web – Bug, Mobile – Bug). You can enter/associate contact and company information as well if it did not come through from Aircall.

Some clients will, naturally, be frustrated depending on the severity of the outage. The best way to handle these clients is to first assure them of a workaround if one is available. For example, if the issue is only on the website, you can refer them to the desktop app. You will also want to assure the client that our development team is actively working on the issue. If the client asks to be escalated to Scott, you can message him and see if he is available.

• Note: If a client begins to act unnecessarily aggressive towards you, such as berating you or swearing, kindly let them know that you will be ending the call with them. We will not subject you to that kind of behavior or emotional duress.

Someone from Level 2 or Level 3 Support will touch base after the all-clear was given to go over the issue and make sure the rest of the team is all good before everyone starts follow-ups and ticket clean-up. Once the all-clear is given, we will all start following up with the clients who called and emailed during the outage to let them know that it was resolved. Tickets can be merged, cleaned up, and closed out as you go through all the follow-ups. Do the best you can to at least get back to everyone who reached out during the outage. Getting tickets cleaned up and closed out is a lower priority and can be done the following day, if needed.