Customer Support Tips

Tips on Emailing Support

We thought we would provide a brief overview of our email support, along with several tips for getting a timely and effective response from the TOPS Support Team.

• Let's start with response time. Our target for email turnaround-time is a maximum of two business day (Monday through Friday). We always aim to answer as quickly as possible, of course, and frequently beat our response goal. It may also occasionally take longer than 2 days -- especially during peak periods, such as after the launch of new features/tools, during extremely active retail seasons, and so forth.
• The most common reason for an administrator to not receive a response to their query is that their email program has been set to filter certain types of mail. In other words, a response is sent, but it ends up in the recipient's 'junk mail' folder. So, be sure to double check your email filters and ask your company's administrator to add *@topssoft.com to the white list.
• To request changes to your web site, you can contact us directly from your web site by clicking the “Menu Change?” link under the Admin Only section of your private menu. If you are not able to use the "Menu Change?" link from your web site, email us directly at websupport@topssoft.com
• Emailing support is always better than calling because it gives us (and you) a written record of your issue and resolution. This can be very useful later on when you need to duplicate steps that support has helped you with in the past. If you are unable to email support, we are available toll-free at 1-800-899-5689
• If you do call support, be sure to let the support receptionist know that you are calling with a Web Support issue, and ask for your ticket number so that you can track your open support issues.
• Web Support Technicians are available Monday through Friday (9:00AM to 5:30PM EST). So, contacting support late on a Friday afternoon is likely to mean that your reply will not be received until Monday.
• Be aware of peak periods and slack periods. Highest volume of email occurs on Monday. Volume is lower, and turnaround-time is potentially quicker mid-week. So if your question is routine rather than urgent, take advantage of this and consider writing mid-week.
• Be as succinct and as specific as possible with your questions. If the support team has to make a guess as to what the question is, then the answer is less likely to be useful and meaningful.
• It is important to provide whatever background information will be required to answer your questions fully and quickly. For example, please include pertinent feature names, modules and dates which correspond to your question, etc.
• Finally, every email is answered by a real person. So, please be courteous. if you ever get a reply that doesn't meet your satisfaction, please reply to that email and explain what was lacking in the original answer.

We hope these tips will prove useful -- and, as always, we welcome your feedback. Email us at WebSupport@TOPSSoft.com today.