Introduction

HubSpot is the platform that we use for our Merchant and Customer Service correspondence. It allows us to organize our email chains of correspondence with merchants and end users into tickets so that we can organize them based on responses and merge threads together should multiple email chains and responses be involved. HubSpot also helps us create a single platform to respond to merchants and end users by only using the tx_inquiry or CSR email addresses respectively, reducing the chance of an end user only responding to one member of the csr team, and increases the efficiency with which we can resolve any problems that may impact our services or the experiences of merchants and end users.

Using this platform also helps separate our two unique email inboxes to keep merchant inquiries separate from CSR inquiries, so that we can ensure a quicker response time for our merchants, since our goal is to provide a response to our merchants in 60 minutes or less.

Getting Started

Logging in to HubSpot:

Your HubSpot login credentials are set up by the Products Manager, and emailed to your individual Gigadat email address. Your Gigadat email address will also be used as part of your login credentials.

Profile & Preferences

One of the first pieces of information that HubSpot will prompt you to put in, before allowing further access, is the your name as it will appear on the outgoing emails, regardless of the emails. This means that whether you are responding to emails from tx_inquiry@gigadatsolutions.com or csr@gigadatsolutions.com, as long as the messages are sent through HubSpot, then the name that appears on the email that the end user receives will be what you have put into your profile information. This can be updated at a later time, through the Profile tab under your general settings.

In order to update your settings, you can click on the down-arrow in the upper right-hand corner beside "Gigadat solutions."

By clicking "Profile & Preferences," you are taken to your account's settings. On the left side you will see the tabs for the various settings that can be updated. The only field that we will be working with is "General" under "Your Preferences."

In the field on the righthand side, the only two tabs that we need to look into are "Profile," and "Email."

Profile

This is the screen where you can update the name that appears on your outgoing communications. From here, you can also update your language, the date/number format, format, as well as the home page that you are taken to whenever you log into HubSpot.

Email

Both sections Manage connected emails and Manage email extension are handled by administrators. However, if you open the connected emails page, you will be able to see the email addresses that you have access to. As a CSR, these should be csr@gigadatsolutions.com and tx_inquiry@gigadatsolutions.com.

The last link that you can click, is Edit email signature. You can copy and paste the signature from your work email. It will include your name, company name, your position and the company logo. It will also include the notice of confidentiality information beneath.

Notifications

In the upper, righthand corner of your window is the notifications of new tickets. Clicking on the icon with the number of new notifications will bring the dropdown with the notifications for newest tickets.

At the top, you have three buttons; Filter, Actions and Settings.

Filter allows you to filter out the notifications that you'll see in your list.

Actions will allow you to either archive all notifications, or mark them all as read.

The Settings button will allow you to change your notification settings within HubSpot.

Table

At the top of the screen are several dropdown menus. For merchant and customer support purposes, the only dropdown relevant to the CSR team is Service.

Underneath Service, you will see three options;

• Tickets
• Feedback Surveys
• Knowledge Base

The option that we will be focusing on, is Tickets.

Information on the table

The table will be broken down further into three components;

1. Profile Options
2. Sorting/Filtering
3. Columns

Profile Options

These options allow you to specify which role in HubSpot that you are performing, and helps you organize the information that will be presented.

1. Table selection - There are multiple tables that can be selected, such as contacts, deals, marketing events, etc., the only one that we will be accessing is Tickets.
2. Table view (list or board) - You can choose to have the tickets placed in a list, or organized into a table. While the list does place each ticket in order, the simplest view is the board view.
3. Pipeline - There are several pipelines that Gigadat uses HubSpot to organize and respond to customer and merchant queries.
4. Ticket sorting - The view that controls how tickets are sorted among the 4 columns.
5. Actions - Administrative options for pipeline automation.
6. Import - Administrative tool to import contact information, deals, tickets or product information.
7. Create ticket - Allows us to create a new ticket should we need to contact a merchant or end user.

Pipeline

Pipeline selection allows us to switch between the various types of messages that will be handled. The two that are relevant to the CSR team are the CSR Pipeline and tx_inquiry Pipeline.

Ticket sorting

There are multiple options for sorting tickets. Standard are ticket sorting options that are defaults that HubSpot has already provided. You will also be able to find ticket-sorting views that were Created by me, or Created by others.

You can also Create new view, or open up a selection including All views.

Filtering and Sorting

These options allow you to filter and search for specific tickets based off of various pieces of information.

1. Search bar - If you are looking for a specific ticket, or tickets from a particular end user, the search bar can be used to locate tickets based on Information found in the Ticket name and Ticket description. You can also use the Ticket number to locate specific tickets as well.
2. Ticket owner - Display only tickets belonging to a specific CSR team member. The default owner on new tickets is CSR Admin.
3. Create date - The date that the ticket was created, and typically reflects the date that the first email was sent/received.
4. Last activity date - The date that the ticket received it's most recent activity, i.e. information was modified, message received or sent, etc.
5. Priority - If a ticket was designated as having a priority, then you can filter out all other tickets.
6. More filters - This opens up a selection menu for any of the properties that can be used to filter out unwanted results, i.e. Time to close, Ticket ID, Last contacted date, Close date.
7. Board actions - You can set up your own ticket sorting if you wish to set up your own filters based on which information to sort the tickets using, and which information should appear at the top. You can also edit the information that appears on ticket cards in your table view. Edit stages is an administrative tool to determine the information that users have access to.
8. Save view - If you have updated the way the table is sorted, then you can choose to save that view, and it will appear under the ticket sorting as an option under Created by me.

Sorting

Under Board actions, the option to sort tickets is available.

There are two factors to set up how you wish to have the ticket cards sorted on the table. Priority is the ticket information that the tickets will be sorted using. Sort by is the how the information will be prioritized. Using the above image as an example, Priority is set as Last activity date, while Sort by is set as Oldest. This means that the tickets appearing at the top of each column will be the ticket in that has the oldest activity date, and the tickets at the bottom will be the tickets with the most recent activity.

For this reason, it is preferred that under Ticket sorting, either CSR Oldest first or Merchant Oldest first be selected, because we have set these to ensure that older tickets are responded to first.

Columns

The columns where the tickets are sorted reflect the status of the ticket, as well as how many tickets share that status. We have four;

New

These tickets have not been responded to.

Waiting on Contact

This status is applied to a ticket once we have sent a response by HubSpot's automation.

Waiting on Us (WOU)

When an end user has responded to an email thread in an existing ticket, then the status is updated by HubSpot's automation to alert us that we have received a reply.

Closed

Tickets that no longer require action. The status of any closed ticket can change to Waiting on Contact or Waiting on Us by HubSpot's automation if we send a response to an email or the end user sends a follow up response.

Ticket cards

Tickets are presented as cards with some information so that we can tell tickets apart if we are wishing to locate certain tickets. They are presented with less information so that they can remain compact on our table, and only 4 pieces of information are provided;

1. Ticket name - When a ticket is New, the name of the ticket is the same as the subject email. These are to be updated to include the end user's name and email address for searching purposes.
2. Close/Open date - If the ticket is New, then this field will reflect how long since the ticket was first opened. If the status is Waiting on Us or Closed, then this will show whichever date the ticket was first closed on.
3. Ticket owner - The last person to send an email on the thread. The default for New tickets is CSR Admin.
4. Contacts - These will appear to reflect all of the email addresses linked to that particular ticket. These are presented as contact bubbles, and will either be the initials of the name associated with the email address, or the contact photo if the contact was imported.

Clicking on any part of the card that is not the name will open up an information panel to the right of the table. This panel will be identical to the ticket information that is available when the ticket is opened. This will also allow you to update the ticket's information.

Tickets

To open a ticket, click on the Ticket name on the card in the table, and you will be able to view all of the ticket information and activity. There are two portions to the main page; Information in the pane on the left, and the Activity occupying the rest of the screen.

Information

The upper portion of the ticket information pane has the following information;

1. Tickets - Takes you back to the table view.
2. Actions - Check properties and take other actions on the ticket.
3. Ticket name
4. Closed/Opened date
5. Status
6. Pipeline
7. Create a new activity - Clicking on any of these will create a new entry under the respective category.

The lower portion of the ticket information pane, beneath "About this ticket," is the where we can edit and update the ticket's information and properties.

1. Ticket name
2. Ticket description - By default, this field is populated by the contents of the first email that was received. However, it can be modified to include any other information relevant to the ticket. If you Create a New Ticket, then this field will be empty. If you merge any tickets, this will be populated with the same information as the ticket that the other ticket(s) are being merged into.
3. Ticket owner
4. Create date - The date that the ticket was first created. If tickets are merged, this will default to the date of the oldest ticket.
5. Last customer reply date
6. Pipeline
7. Priority
8. Customer's Favourite Food - This is a category provided by HubSpot so that we can include any other information that may be acquired for building rapport with customers. (May be removed by administration at a later date).
9. View all properties - Also found under Actions
10. View property history - Also found under Actions

Actions

There are 4 options in the Actions drop-down menu:

1. View all properties - Allows you to see the expanded information pane, and update any information.
2. View property history - Provides a thorough list of each action that appears on the Activity of the ticket, as well as when any properties were updated. This also provides the user who updated the ticket.
3. Merge - Allows us to merge multiple tickets into one.
4. Delete - Removes a ticket, all of the properties and information, and disassociates any and all email threads.

Activity

The activity on a ticket can be sorted beyond the main page where all activity can be seen. It can be narrowed down by using the tabs to focus on specific types of activity;

• Activity - Any and all activity will be shown.
• Notes - Any notes that have been left by other CSRs.
• Emails - All email correspondence.
• Calls - Requires phone number. Not relevant to CSR or tx_inquiry duties.
• Tasks - Future tasks regarding the ticket. Not relevant to CSR or tx_inquiry duties.
• Meetings - Schedule or log meetings pertaining to the ticket. Not relevant to CSR or tx_inquiry duties.

If you wish to filter the activity, you can do so to show any of the 12 types of activity, as well as by specific users and teams.

Merging

If there is an end user or merchant that has multiple tickets opened regarding the same matter, then the best way to help reduce confusion and keep the conversation limited to one thread is to merge tickets. This is a simple but irreversible process, so care is required to ensure that the correct tickets are merged.

In order to merge tickets, simply click Merge under Actions. You will be shown this pop-up:

Clicking on search will show a drop-down search bar, as well as the most recent tickets.

You will see the ticket name/email subject, and if there is room on the screen, the ticket description will be shown in brackets following.

The search bar to find tickets to merge operates in a similar fashion to the Search bar. This means that you can use the ticket name, information from the ticket description, OR the ticket number.

Creating a new ticket

There may be instances where we are required to reach out to a merchant regarding an issue that does not have a ticket at that time. To do this through HubSpot, we must create a new ticket. If you click the Create ticket option from Profile Options, then your screen will open the following tab;

As you can see, everything is empty, and requires being filled in. Some information will not be required to be filled in at this stage. At this stage, you will only need the Ticket name, and the Pipeline. If you choose, then you can also update the Ticket owner at this stage. The Create date will automatically update to the current date.

For the Ticket name, you can use the end user's name, if this is in regards to an end user, or other information that is related to the reason for our reaching out.

The Pipeline will ensure that the correspondence appears in the correct pipeline and that the email that is sent from is the correct email address, although this information can be updated when sending an email.

Once you have written and sent your email, then please copy-and-paste the body of the message into the Ticket description.

After sending the message, please ensure that the Ticket owner is updated to your information, and you can change the status to closed.

Emails

In the Activity bar at the top of the open ticket, you can choose to focus on the email correspondence.

There are 3 options to choose from;

1. Thread email replies/Show all email replies - If there are multiple conversations or email threads and you click Thread email replies, then the emails will be sorted into their email chains. These can be opened or collapsed as necessary, and will always show the most recent email first. If you have the emails sorted by thread and click Show all email replies, then emails will be sorted individually, based on the time that they were received. You will be able to view that entire email thread up to that time by opening up the email that you're looking at.
2. Log Email - Administrative tool, used to log correspondence. Not relevant for either CSR or tx_inquiry.
3. Create Email - Creates a new email thread.

Composing emails

Whether you are creating a new email, replying or forwarding a message, you will always have the same pop-up, which has similar options to most email interfaces. If you click and hold on the top bar, you can move the pop-up around the page, allowing you to unblock portions of the screen if needed.

The recipient information, subject and body are all blank in a new email, and the Send option is unavailable. Once a valid email has been set as the recipient, the subject and body have had input, the send option will become available and change colour, see below:

The top bar of the pop up contains three options:

1. Minimize - Reduces the pop-up to the bar, and appears as the blue bar only, seen above.
2. Full screen - Expands the pop up to occupy your window, and will not allow you to move the pop-up.
3. Close - Shuts down the tab. A warning will prompt asking if you are sure that you wish to close the pop-up if you have changed any information since opening the email.

If you need to update the sender email, you click on the email address in the From line, and you will be able to select either the csr or tx_inquiry emails, as well as your own Gigadat email address.

At the bottom of the e-mail pop-up are the formatting options available, attachment options and record assosiactions. The first four options are:

• Bold
• Italicize
• Underline
• Clear formatting

Immediately to the right is More formatting options. They include:

• Font
• Size
• Text colour
• Text background/highlight colour
• Block quote
• Create bullet/numbered list
• Text alignment

The next option is to Create a link. Here you can choose if the link appears in the email directly, or appears as specific text.

After that is the Insert image option. You may Choose existing image from files that have been uploaded to HubSpot's gallery, or you can Upload new from your own files.

There is a similar option for Attach file. This allows you to Choose existing files that have been uploaded to HubSpot already, or you can Upload new files as well.

The final option is Insert, which offers four options.

The only valid option of these is Signature. This will allow you to modify your signature for the current message, or update your signature on all future correspondence. This prompt can also be triggered by clicking on your signature in the email that you are composing.

This can be done by checking the Also update my account signature with these changes box.

Invalid emails

HubSpot also makes note of email addresses or contacts that have resulted in emails being bounced back because the addresses are invalid. If you set one of these email addresses as the recipient, the box around the email will turn red, and HubSpot will not enable the Send button until this email address is removed or corrected.

Notes

In the event that we need to communicate information relevant to the ticket, such as a link to a relevant merchant ticket or other transaction information, you this information is stored under Notes.

Clicking Create Note will open the note pop-up.

You will have access to all of the same formatting options as email.

Once the note has been completed, you can see it on the main Activity or Notes feed.

Once the note is complete, there are four main options available:

1. Pin - This will automatically move the note to the top of both the main Activity feed or Notes feed. Please note that pinned notes will be unpinned when tickets are merged, and you will need to pin the note once again. Therealso can only be one pinned note at a time, for this reason it would be best to have the note filled as thoroughly as possible.
2. History - See all of the properties that have been changed.
3. Delete - You can remove the note entirely.
4. Add comment - Provide comments or allows communication with any others who may have to follow up with that ticket.

History

The note's history is provided in four columns;

1. Property - The specific property that was updated.
2. Changed to - The new values for that property.
3. Made on - Date of the change.
4. Source - The user who made the change to the note.

Ticket number

Ticket number is not provided in most of the main documentation of the ticket. However, it can be very easily found in the URL when you open the ticket.

The highlighted portion in the image shows the 9-digit ticket number that can be used to help merge tickets or find them in the table.

Inbox

The HubSpot inbox mirrors our dedicated Gmail inbox for the csr and tx_inquiry pipelines. You can also find the ticket that a specific email is associated with from this screen. There are two ways to get to the Inbox;

1. Conversations tab - There is a direct link to the Inbox in the dropdown if you click Conversations in the menu at the top of the page.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Notifications - You can either open up the notifications tab and click on any that appeared, or if an alert has popped up underneath the notifications icon, then you can click on the alert before it disappears.
   
   

Main page

When you open the inbox, your screen will look more like this:

As you can see, it is very similar to most email-interfaces that you have likely come across. You will see the page broken into:

1. Folders
2. Messages
3. Selected message and direct reply field
4. Contact information in HubSpot

At the top are other options to select which messages in the inbox that you would like to see.

Inbox selection

This option allows you to switch between the HubSpot Inboxes for either CSR or tx_inquiry.

Status filter

You can filter to switch between displaying the messages which are attached to Open or Closed tickets.

Priority

Select whether you want the Newest or Oldest messages to appear first.

More options

Allows you to move the current message to the Trash folder, Block Sender's emails from appearing in HubSpot, flag that message as Spam in HubSpot, or you can move that message to another inbox if the sender used the incorrect contact information to reach out.

Ticket Information

There are two spots where the ticket number, and a direct link to the ticket that the email is associated with, are provided.

1. At the very top, above the window where you can scroll through activity and other messages, is the name of the ticket, as well as the ticket number, with a direct link to the ticket.
   
   
2. In the field with activity, will show the time that the ticket was created, the name of that ticket when it was first created, and the ticket number, also containing a direct link to the ticket.

As you can see, the ticket number is reflected in the URL.