Group Administrators received this e-mail on April 1^st. Presuming it’s not an April Fools Joke (it’s not), the new system is being implemented today, April 2, 2015 and it looks like it should help a lot with timely responses.

Family Tree DNA writes:

After reviewing several options to speed up e-mail response times and improve overall Customer Support efficiency, we are are putting a new system in place as of 10 am Central Time tomorrow, 2 April, 2015.

You’ll want to pay close attention because this is radically different from what you’re used to doing, but it’s for a good reason.

Until now, many of the emails would come to the general email boxes info@ familytreedna.com or helpdesk@familytreedna.com, uncategorized, adding the extra step of having to sort and triage emails, which takes a lot of time since they can vary from something as simple as changing a SNP order to more detailed analysis. Long emails with no kit number and an uninformative subject line complicate the process and require time to determine what the real question is.

With the new system, the above email addresses will be deactivated. Incoming emails will receive an automated, but politely worded reply directing the customer – or you – to the re-vamped Contact Us form. This form will require a kit number, unless you’re a new customer, and will require the submitter to choose a subject category.

All questions will be directed through a “Contact Us” form so that they are already categorized and can be routed to the appropriate customer service representatives.

Again, please note: info@familytreedna.com and helpdesk@familytreedna.com will no longer be monitored. Emails sent to either of those addresses will get an auto-response directing the sender to the “Contact Us” form here: https://www.familytreedna.com/contact.aspx#contactForm

For future reference, a link to the Contact Us form is conveniently located at the bottom of the www.familytreedna.com home page under the “About” column.

There will still be a “Group Projects” category, and for administrators, the email address groups@familytreedna.com will still be active, so if you’re writing with questions or situations regarding your project, or if you’re writing on behalf of project members, please use either of those options. The groups@familytreedna.com address is a priority category and is monitored regularly.

Please reserve messages to groups@ftdna.com for those that are time-sensitive, urgent, or simply cannot be answered by a CSR. Over the past few months so many routine – though still important – emails have been going to that email address that your Group Project Manager/Liaison cannot answer them all and still perform other duties such as advocating for you with management on important issues regarding group administration.

Important information for you to know and to share with your group members:

• It’s important to choose the category closest to the topic of your email.
• Kit numbers are mandatory.There will be an “I don’t have a kit number yet” box to click for new customers. Existing customers can recover their kit number from the “Lost Your Password” link on the login page.
• Submitting multiple tickets from the same email address about the same issue before having received a reply groups those issues together and puts them at the bottom of the queue. (That will not be the case with groups@familytreedna.com, since admins write about different projects and discrete issues from the same email address. Still, please keep in mind our service hours and use your best judgement when submitting a second email about the same issue.)
• Contact form submissions do not generate a confirmation email at this time. Your submission will be acknowledged on the page and you’ll be given a request ID number.

Thank you for your support and understanding as we work to bring you and your project members better service.

______________________________________________________________

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