My Esri series: Managing Customer Support cases in My Esri, part 1

Managing technical support cases is an important part of keeping your GIS operations running smoothly. In part 1 of this My Esri series, we touch on how to easily create a Customer Support case in My Esri and take advantage of its AI-enhanced case submission webform. In part 2,  we’ll look at creating cases with My Esri’s AI-enhanced case submission form.

In this blog series, we'll provide guidance around the many Customer Support self-serve features on My Esri. Let’s dive into those cases and support operations:

How to get started with Customer Support on My Esri?

When you purchase software, your organization designates a Primary Maintenance Contact with administrative privileges in My Esri. For continuity and easier administration, we recommend assigning a second administrative contact as a backup. These administrators can:

• Manage your organization’s users.

• Add Authorize Callers for Customer Support.

• Maintain access and support-related administration for the account.

Adding Authorized Callers from the Users menu

Where to access support features in My Esri? 

Before your users can begin using the support features, each user will need to be added as an authorized caller and granted these two support permissions:

• View technical support information.

• Take authorized caller actions.

Permissions granting support features

Once set up, each granted user will be ready to take advantage of the many support features from the toolbar along the top. 

See more on how to add Authorized Callers here and How to Administer Users on My Esri.

1. The Support Overview

From the Support menu, select Overview to access a centralized snapshot of your organization’s Customer Support activity. Administrators and Authorized Callers can quickly view open and closed cases, recent activity, bugs and enhancement requests, helping them stay informed about the status and history of support-related matters.

Support Overview Dashboard

One handy section of this dashboard is the Recent Activity table that resides at the bottom of this page. Get quick insights into the latest item by opening its related case.

2. Exploring your organization’s cases

Still from the Support menu, you can start exploring your Technical Support or Customer Service cases.

The Customer Service Cases are non-technical in nature. Some of these cases may revolve around entitlement questions, sales inquiries or My Esri Administrative questions. For Customer Service cases, only the user that has logged the case can see them.

Within the Technical Support Case’s view, you will see a table with all your current and historical technical cases. This table can be filtered down to exactly what you need to see.

Technical Support Cases View

Case Number: To support efficient diagnosis, troubleshooting and traceability, each unique technical issue should be submitted as its own case. In other words, we recommend creating one case per technical issue. This not only helps support staff investigations but is especially useful to you when trying to locate a resolution to a previously encountered issue.

Subject Line: Among those fields is a case subject line. The precision in this subject line is key to driving optimal results. We will see how to create a case first-hand and how AI Recommendations comes into play in the second blog of this series.

Tip: Take your time when choosing a subject line. Try to include the product or function with which you are experiencing some issue along with the concerned or desired outcome. Here is an example:

• ArcGIS Online | Error XYZ when exporting a feature class.

• ArcGIS Pro 3.5 | How to export a feature class.

Your analyst may change it after investigation to be more pinpointed. A good subject line has some advantages:

• Get better AI recommendations.

• It helps you and your support staff to find more related resources, easing their research effort.

• Your subject line is checked against our knowledge base, such as other cases and knowledge articles.

Last Updated: Complex issues may require several exchanges with your analyst. This field helps you quickly identify the date of the most recent communication without having to search through your inbox.

Actions: Most quick actions are straightforward and easy to use:

1. First is to add a note to your case. By clicking on the pencil icon, you can add a note or attach something like a screenshot, an error message or a log to help in the resolution of your case. 

2. You can also provide more information on how the issue is impacting your organization by using Raise the Severity button. It is important to provide context that helps us stay informed on the level of business impact this issue has on your organization’s operations. To help us assess the request effectively, please include relevant details such as quantifiable impacts, number of customers affected, release cycle status, architectural limitations, etc. 

3. Finally, if you or someone in your organization have resolved this issue, you can close the case by clicking on its quick action button.

Actions icons for adding a note, raising severity, closing and re-opening a case

Important Note: Only cases closed within the last 10 days can be reopened.

3. More information on cases can be found

Now, if the case is open or closed, by clicking on (+) in the right-hand side you can gain more information and interact with each case individually.

With Expanding Details, you will be able to see the case details, the issue description and the interactions between you and the support analyst on the case such as notes and emails shared back and forth.

In the Case Details section:

• System Profile Information: If provided, this section will contain the Product, Version and the Operating System you are working with.

In the Issue Description section: 

• For case logged by phone, this description will contain information collected during the initial call.

• For cases logged by My Esri, Esri Support or via email, the issue description is filled by the organization individual submitting the case request. 

In the Activity Log section: 

• A feed of communication exchanges between the customer and the Support Analyst, notes added by the Support Analyst and notes added by the customer.

If your Case is Closed, you will see:

The date your case was closed in the Case Details, as well as a Case Resolution description will be provided.

What you learned from this blog

• You explored the Customer Support features available in My Esri and how they can help you manage support activity more efficiently.

• You learned which permissions are required to view support information and submit or manage cases.

• You reviewed how to access your organization’s cases, interpret key case details and interact with existing cases through available actions and activity logs.

Thank you for familiarizing yourself with the features and functionalities of your Technical Support Case overview in My Esri.

Read Next: Take a closer look at My Esri Series: AI-enhanced case submission webform via My Esri – Part 2 for a full walkthrough of creating a case and how AI Recommendations comes into play.