The First Step Help Desk
Your Web site package gives you a number of powerful tools for you to manage your Web site yourself. You can edit pages, send newsletters, add products, create passwords, create surveys - and much more. However, sometimes it's not obvious exactly what to do, what manual to read, or what's going wrong.
We provide a Help Desk to assist you when you get stuck. You can call 02 8006 2481 within Australia (or +61 2 8006 2481 from outside Australia), or e-mail .
The Help Desk is available from Monday to Friday during normal business hours in Australian Eastern Time (GMT plus 10 hours, plus one more hour in summer).
IMPORTANT: If you're paying a monthly licence fee for the First Step software, this Help Desk service is free. Otherwise, it's charged at our Standard Support rate.
The Big Picture
The main role of the Help Desk is to help you when you get stuck. It's like your RAC/NRMA breakdown service: When you get stuck, we'll help you get back on the road.
The Help Desk won't actually do the work for you, and won't "hold your hand" while you're doing it. We can do those things, but they then become scheduled support or training tasks, charged at our support rates.
When you raise an issue, we'll look into it and generally respond within one working day. Some things take longer to diagnose, and we'll keep you informed as we're working on them.
Some things fall outside the scope of what we do. We can help you with any work you're doing on your Web site, and if any problems occur beyond that, we'll help you identify who to contact next.
 "I just wanted to express my continued gratitude for the professionalism, timeliness, and unwavering high level support that we’ve been privileged to experience from you. I highly recommend your services and as you know, have often referred your services to my colleagues and associates. Thanks again."
SalesCoachCentral.com |
Where to Find Help
Before contacting the Help Desk, you might find the answer to your question here:
- User Guides
- Frequently Asked Questions
- On your Administration Commands Page
How to Get the Most from the Help Desk
Help us to help you! We can help you best if you follow these guidelines.
If you would like us to call you back, please give your phone number and the best time to call.
If you're working to a deadline, please tell us so we can do our best to set priorities appropriately.
As much as possible, give us enough information to reproduce a problem at this end, so we can investigate it and ensure we're solving the right problem for you. For instance, if some formatting isn't working on a Web page, please tell us exactly which page, which bit of formatting is at fault, and what you expect it to do. We know it isn't always possible to be this precise, but the more information you give us, the easier it is for us to do our job.
What We Do
When we get a Help Desk request, we will:
- Acknowledge it within one business day (usually sooner), and where possible, give you an anticipated completion time or date;
- Investigate the problem and give you suggestions for fixing it;
- If it's a more complex problem, we'll pass it on to our second-level support team to investigate.
For complex issues, we'll keep you informed of progress.
Some Areas in which Help is Offered
Here are some of the things we can help you with (in most cases, we'll refer you to the appropriate place in the documentation):
Web site changes: Logging in; editing your pages; understanding the overall functionality; managing your backups; uploading pictures, files and media clips to your site; adding items to your shopping cart; adding surveys, polls, feedback forms and quizzes to your site; using PayPal
CourseBot (Newsletter Facility): creating Courses; Course Units; Adding Subscribers; Scheduling Newsletters; Sending out one-off newsletters; managing Courses and Subscribers; changing Course templates; information on SPAM and the Privacy Laws;
Web hosting: Viewing statistics; providing passwords; uploading files.
Domain names: Getting passwords and keys; registering new domain names; delegating domain names
 "I dealt with Eva from your Help Desk the other day - what a terrific experience! I have never dealt with a help desk as good - great knowledge, really helpful and friendly in the process. Great work!"
CreatingSynergy.com |
Getting Help from Others
Some things fall outside the scope of our Help Desk, so we'll refer you to other people - for example:
- Setting up your Web browser, e-mail program or other Internet software (refer to your ISP)
- Problems with any other software or hardware (refer to your own IT specialists)
- Problems connecting to the Internet (refer to your ISP)
- Your Web site being inaccessible (refer to the Web host),
- Graphic design changes when you're using your own designer (refer to your designer)
For Your Amusement ...
Other Services
If you require the occasional small task done on your behalf, we do it as a support task - see our support page for details.
If you require regular support of this kind, or would prefer us to manage your entire Web site, sign up to our Leverage at Work package.
One-on-one telephone training is available by pre-appointment and is chargeable at our standard Support Rate.
We also offer other consulting services - for example, reviewing your Web site, advising on your marketing strategy, helping you leverage your intellectual property, and so on. See Gihan's consulting services.
