Needs attention functionality

The “Needs attention” function provides tools to help staff meet service objectives related to picking up questions on time and delivering responses on time.  It provides information in the Open questions screen as a reminder, and it can send an email as a reminder.  A history entry is created in the relevant question whenever a “Needs attention” email is sent.

These tools are individually set by your System administrator for when questions should be picked up (“Needs attention – Allocation”), and when they should be responded by (“Needs attention – Response” and “Needs attention – Overdue”).  They are individually set by your System administrator for each type of request your organisation handles via the Request form for that type of request.  Your System administrator can set the Target date colours used by each of the needs attention functions using the CSS editor.

The Needs attention – Allocation function:
Here’s an example of the email you might see in relation to a question that has been waiting for a staff member to claim it, for too long (more than the “Needs attention – Allocation” amount of time).  For each Request form in your system, your System administrator can determine if these reminder emails should go out, and if so, how long after question arrival they should go out. 

A second “Needs attention – allocation” email will be sent out in the unlikely event that the question has still not been picked up by a staff member, after double the “Needs attention –allocation” amount of time – so, for example, the first notice might be set to go out 30 minutes after arrival, which means that the second notice will go out 1 hour after the first notice.  This delay is intended to give breathing space if your service happens to be extraordinarily busy at that time.  This second notice is clearly marked as “SECOND NOTICE”.
To ensure that you do not get “Needs attention – Allocation emails” without first having had an opportunity to do the work, the Needs attention emails only go out during the opening hours of the question’s Staff location.  Further the Needs attention processes will not run until the notification period or 60 minutes (whichever is the less) has expired since the location opened.  So you can go home at night with a clear mind, the Needs attention processes do not run for the last 30 minutes, or notification period (whichever is the less) of each location’s Open hours. 
These emails are usually sent to the Notification email address defined for that request form, but if no such email address is defined the email will go to the Supervisor for that Staff location, and if none of them exist, it will go the System Administrator – so if you do not use a notification email address for your questions going into the Unallocated question pool, this process acts as an escalation process.
Additionally questions that meet the ”Needs attention – Allocation” criteria will also display “Needs attention” in the ID column of the Open questions screen.  This prompt can be set to appear for some Request forms and not for others, and it can appear even if your System Administrator has set that no reminder emails should be set. 

When you see “Needs attention” in the ID column of the Open questions screen, it is urgent that someone claims that question.

The Needs attention – Response function:
Here’s an example of the email you might see in relation to an open question that is allocated to you, and is nearing its Target date. 

For each request form in your system, your system administrator can determine if these reminder emails should go out, and if so, how long before the Target date the email should go out.  Only one of these “Needs attention – Response” emails will be sent in relation to any question.  These emails are usually sent to the allocated staff member for that question, but if the question is unallocated the email will go to Notification email address, and if there is no notification email address set, the Supervisor for that Staff location, and if none of them exist, it will go the System Administrator.  So if the question is unallocated, this process acts as an escalation process.

Further, if the intended recipient is unavailable the next level of user will be allocated the question and notified instead.  See the section below about escalation.

Additionally questions that meet the ”Needs attention – Response” criteria will be highlighted in the Open questions screen by their Target date appearing in a warning highlight colour and the ID of the allocated staff member, if there is one, will be in the highlight colour.  Your System Administrator may even have set your system to provide the highlighted Target date prompt in the Open questions screen, without any emails being sent.  They can set different “Needs attention – Response” periods for each different type of request.

Please note that on occasions you may receive a “Needs attention – Response” email, and the target date in the Open questions screen may be highlighted, immediately the question arrives.  This may seem superfluous, but it is intended to ensure that you have noticed that the Target date is very short in this instance!

The Needs attention – Overdue function:
Here’s an example of the email you might see in relation to an open question that has just gone past its Target date. 


For each request form in your system, your system administrator can determine if these reminder emails should go out, and if so, to whom they should go.  Only one of these “Needs attention – Overdue” emails will be sent in relation to any question.
Your system administrator can choose to send this email to the allocated staff member for that question, to the Supervisor for the question’s Staff location, or to the System administrator.  If the intended recipient is unavailable the next level of user will be notified instead – Supervisor or System administrator so this function will act as an escalator.
Additionally questions that are overdue will be highlighted in the Open questions screen by their Target date appearing in a warning highlight colour, and the ID of the allocated staff member, if there is one, showing in the highlight colour to indicate it needs attention. 
Your System Administrator may even have set your system to provide the highlighted Target date prompt in the Open questions screen, without any emails being sent.  They can also set different “Needs attention – Overdue” recipients for each different type of request.

Hint: Where a form is set up to provide “Needs attention – Response” or “Needs attention – Overdue” emails, you can use this functionality as a reminder tool.  For example if you have a task that needs to be done regularly, use the Change screen to reset the Target date each time you do it, to the next date on which it next needs to be done.  If your system is set to use Last useful date as the Target date, change Last useful date (most special libraries are set up this way), otherwise change the Objective response date (most public libraries are set up this way).  Both of these are usually located in the Change section at the bottom of the Change screen.  The “Needs attention – Response” email functionality will ensure that you get a reminder email just before the next time you need to do that task!  So keeping Last useful date or Objective response date accurate, will help you manage your workload.

It is IMPORTANT that the System administrator checks the setup of this functionality for all of your available forms (don’t forget any email importing forms!) by going to System>Request forms summary and that form’s Edit options mode, Processing options tab.  Set appropriate values for the “Needs attention” parameters in that tab  (see the information at Request form Edit options mode, Processing options screen for details of how to do that.

Escalation

If “Needs attention” Response emails have been implemented for your system, and the allocated staff member is Unavailable, it sends the email using the following escalation routine:

  • the allocated staff member’s Work reviewer if they have been involved with this question, and if that Work reviewer is Available, or, if the previously involved Work reviewer is Unavailable or there has been no previously involved Work reviewer,
  • the currently logged on and Available Supervisor at the allocated staff member’s Location with the lowest number of open questions, or, if none,
  • the Available Supervisor at their Location with the lowest number of open questions irrespective of whether they are currently logged on, or, if none,
  • the currently logged on and Available System administrator at their location with the lowest number of open questions, or, if none,
  • the Available System administrator at their location with the lowest number of open questions irrespective of whether they are currently logged on, or, if none,
  • the Active System administrator even if they are Unavailable.

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If “Needs attention” Overdue emails have been implemented, where more than one level of staff can be selected to receive the email:
If “Allocated staff” is ticked and the allocated staff member is unavailable, the email will only be escalated to another level of staff if the process of selecting staff at other ticked levels has not resulted in someone to send the email to.

When an escalation email like this is sent, it clearly says which Unavailable staff member it is in relation to.