Reopen – reopening a question for further client contact

There are many reasons why a question might need to be re-opened for further client contact – you may have found more information that you want to send to the client, or they may have phoned and asked for more information (they can of course directly reopen the question themselves using the client interface, or by the “Request additional information link” in the response email).

To reopen a closed question, select the question from a search screen or enter its question number in the Question action bar box, and then click on Answer, Reallocate, or Change in the Question Actions bar (these functions automatically detect that closed questions need reopening before they can be used), or go to the Answer menu list and click on Reopen. The Reopen screen shown above will then be displayed.

To reopen the question for further contact with the client, using this Reopen screen, enter any details about why the question is being re-opened, if any need to be recorded, decide on Allocation, and click on Submit. The Target date may be recalculated (see details of this below), and you will then be able to use any of the question action bar functions on this question.

The “Allocate this question” option shows how the question would be allocated if it was a new question.  You can choose who you want the question allocated to. The summary at the top of the screen shows who the question is currently allocated to.

The Reopen function can usually be used by Probation users and above.

If your System administrator has allowed it, Questions can also be reopened by clients using the client interface “Check existing question function”, and the Target date will be recalculated (see details of this below).  When this happens the system can be configured (form by form) to either reset the question as an unallocated question so that the next available staff member can handle it, or, it can be configured to allocate the question to the staff member who provided the answer or an available staff member (see the “Allow reopen by client” request form parameter). 

Questions can also be reopened by imported emails, according to the “Allow reopen by client” parameter in the question’s Request form.  Usually your system will be set to handle these reopens as a request, which means that the question is not actually reopened when the email is imported.  Rather, the question will be placed in a “Reopen requested by . . .” status and the allocated staff member will (usually) receive an email advising that the imported email has arrived and would reopen the question.  A “Manage reopen requests” function provides options to Reopen, Deny the request to reopen, Record as a new question, or Record as an evaluation.  Alternatively staff can go ahead and use any of the Answering functions as questions in “Reopen requested by . . .” statuses will be automatically reopened if a staff member decides one of these functions need to be used to process the reopen request.  “Reopen as a request” is the best approach to handling imported emails that would reopen the question as, often, they will be out of office notices, or a simple thank you, that should NOT be reopening the question.  By not automatically reopening the question for imported emails, the closing date is not inadvertently changed.  Further, staff get to choose to go ahead with providing a further response, or use the Manage reopen request function to address the specific needs of each imported email that would reopen the question.  “Manage reopen request” automatically appears in the Answer menu list, Actions menu list, and the question number menu list, when it is appropriate to use, and can be used with just a few clicks!

However there are several options as to how imported emails can be handled – here are the full details!

Emails from staff to the Service email address that quote the question’s number in their subject line will always reopen the question and recalculate the Target date (see details of this below).

Emails from third parties, will reopen the question only if the question’s Request form parameter “Allow reopen by client” allows it, and will result in the question being reallocated according to the “Allocate to” option selected in that parameter (Automatic setting), or will result in the question being set to “Reopen requested by third party” status, so a staff member can use Manage reopen request to Reopen, Deny the reopen, Handle as a new question, or handle as an evaluation.  The Close date will NOT be recalculated (third party emails are often non-delivery, or delivery delay emails).
But if “Allow reopen by client” is not allowed, and “Allow client evaluation” is allowed, an email that arrives from a third party will be treated as an “email that could not be automatically applied”, which will result in an email going to the parameter 8.3 email address so a staff member can work out what to do with this email.  Often these emails from third parties will be notices from email servers about non-deliveries or out of office notices, and the system admin will be able to be ignore the notification about them.

Emails from the client will only reopen the question if the question’s Request form parameter “Allow reopen by client” allows it with the setting “Automatic” (in which case the question will be reallocated according to the “Allocate to” option selected in that parameter), or if the setting is “As a request” (in which case the question will be allocated according to the “Allow reopen request” “Allocate to” setting.

When “Allow reopen by client” is set to “Never” the question is not reopened and the end user receives an email in response advising them of other options to reopening.  However if “Allow client evaluation” is ticked, the email will be recorded as an evaluation (even though the client will still receive an email advising them of other options to reopening the question). 

When “Allow reopen by client” for the form in use is set to “As a request” (the default setting) staff can choose to deny the reopen request, apply the reopen request as a client evaluation, record it as a new question, or just start working on the question.  The question is not reopened until the staff member uses an answering function.  It has a status of “Reopen requested by client”.

When allocation to the staff member who provided the response is set, if that staff member is currently set as Unavailable, the system will apply the escalation routine and reallocate the question to:

• 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.

Escalation means that staff should be encouraged to keep their Availability status up to date – use My preferences under Home, or toggle the availability symbol in the footer of any page.

If the client replies to the response email and the Request form has been set to disallow reopening by the client, the system can be configured to either ignore messages received this way, or treat the reply as an evaluation comment.

Note that if you reopen a question in the KB, the question is automatically removed from the KB on the presumption that you will be able to re-include it at a later time with a fuller answer.

Other functions that you can perform on closed questions are provided in the Actions screen, so if you do not want to reopen for client contact (perhaps you just want to add the question to the KB) go to the Actions screen or menu list to see the other options applicable to this question.

When a question is reopened, its Target date may be recalculated.

If the question’s Target date is being set according to a Last Useful Date and the Last Useful Date has not yet expired, the Target date will not change when the question is reopened.  This means that the client’s wishes are still being adhered to. If the Last useful date has expired and the question has been reopened, RefTracker presumes that the Last Useful date is no longer an issue, and recalculates the Target date using the Objective response period and ignoring the expired Last Useful date.  If the reopen request indicates a specific later Last useful date is acceptable to the client, you can (and should) change the Last useful date using the Change screen.

However, if Target date is being calculated based on an Objective Response Date, it is recalculated on Reopen as if it is a new question, which means that the Objective response period defined in the Request form will be added to the date and time the question was reopened.

To make it more obvious that the question is being treated as if it is a new question arriving at the reopen time, the “Open date” for the question that shows in the Open questions screen is updated to the time of reopening, which means that the question now sorts at the top of your open questions list, making it easy to see that it needs attention.

Of course this also means that the “Needs attention” functions restart at that time to ensure that the question is picked up by a staff member within your service level criteria, and to provide a warning before the Target date becomes due.

When a question is reopened, either by a staff member or a client, the system inserts the text
Previous answer –
before the text of the Answer as it was when previously closed.  This “Previous answer” text makes it clear as to what text was previously created for the answer so an appropriate new/additional answer can be created that includes the previous answer, or utilises its text as appropriate.  Just as you can amend any of the text of the previous answer when you reopen a question, this automatically inserted “Previous Answer” text can be removed, if appropriate.
The staff member may even feel that the answer does not need to be resent and this new text will make that clear. 
In responding to the reopen request, the staff member may prefer to send an Inform client (that does not add to the Answer), or a Partial answer (the text of which will be added to the Answer), and NOT send another response.  The new Client contact confirmation box highlighting now makes it more obvious that this can be done (as explained above).

Once a question has been reopened you can use all of the normal Answer processes on that question.

Exercise

Find a closed question using the Search screen, and use the Reopen screen to reopen it. When you click on Submit the question will be reopened and you will be presented with the Answer screen so that you can use this or any other Question action function to send further information to the client.