Client Reopens an Answered (Closed) Question

If the client wants more information about the answer that they have received, they can click on the Request additional information link in their answer email, if this has been allowed for by your System administrator. 

They can also access the same function by going to Check on existing question for that question.  Once a question is closed, the Check on existing question function shows the response, and if re-opening is allowed for this type of request, they can click the radio button that provides access to this same “Request more information” screen.  System administrators can prevent questions from being reopened by going to System>Request forms summary and in the Edit Options screen, Other options tab, of the appropriate request form, setting “Allow reopen by client” to No. 

When the client clicks on Submit in this screen:

• they are provided with confirmation of their request for additional information via a confirmation screen, and 
• according to the attributes of the Request form in use, the staff member who sent the answer to the client is sent an email containing the client’s request for additional information, and asking them to address the additional information request,
  or, an available staff member will be sent an email asking them to address the additional information request,
  or, the question may be placed in the unallocated questions pool 
• if your organisation sets Target date by Objective response date (parameter 2.12), the question’s objective response date is automatically reset, as if this was a new question, so that the system indicates to the librarian that they should respond with your library’s normal service level response time objectives. In other words, if your library normally provides responses to new questions within three days, the librarian who provided this response to this question will be advised that they should provide a response to this request for additional information, within three days. If your library uses the client provided Last useful date as Target date, the Target date will not change as no new Last useful date information will have been automatically provided – but you may want to go to the Change screen and enter a new Last useful date that reflects any new client expectations. 

A new question ID is NOT created when questions are re-opened in this way – the same question is simply re-opened.  Note that the Target response date is recalculated, as if it is a newly arrived question, if the Target Response Date is not being set according to an unexpired client provided Last useful date.

Your system may also allow clients to reopen their question by replying to the response email.
If the ability for client’s to reopen a this type of request has NOT been allowed, and you send a reply to a closed question, the system will respond with an email like this one that advises other options for how contact can be made.