Introduction to CarePortal Support

Overview

Whether you’re ‘tech-savvy’ or not, all of us can become confused when navigating the ins and outs of CarePortal. If you want obscure data, think the system isn’t working right, or simply need a reminder on how to perform a certain task, you can always submit a Support ticket! In this article, you’ll learn how to submit tickets like a pro—allowing us (the CarePortal Support team) to address your concerns as quickly and accurately as possible.

Intended Audience

Network Leaders, Agencies, Churches, Community Champions, End Users

Included in This Article

• What Does CarePortal Support Do?
• What Can I Ask CarePortal Support?
• How Do I Submit a Support Ticket?
• What Information Should I Include in a Support Ticket?

What Does CarePortal Support Do?

CarePortal is a connecting technology, and the Support Team exists to help you use it! When someone has a question about the technology, we are there to identify the problem and provide a solution. Our goal is to enable you to navigate CarePortal with ease and confidence, so you can quickly move from your computer to the doorstep of a family in need.

We work closely with the Development Team to refine CarePortal’s User Experience. We have our ear to the ground, so to speak, when it comes to user difficulty - allowing us to identify common issues and present them to the Developers to ensure improvements will be beneficial.

Click here for an article describing the lifecycle of a Support Ticket! Our Support Manager is listed among other CarePortal leaders here!

What Can I Ask CarePortal Support?

Technically, anything! We can find anything that can be found on CarePortal and direct you elsewhere when necessary. If you’re wondering how to do something on the CarePortal system—or whether you can do it at all—Support will have an answer for you! We also welcome any recommendations.

There are some questions that we must redirect. If you have a question about a family in need, only the Caseworker submitting the request has access to that information. Questions about other organizations or opportunities in your area are also beyond the scope of the Support Team. Remember, we specialize in CarePortal, so general technology questions may also be outside our expertise – but that doesn’t mean that we won’t do our best to help you find an answer!

When in doubt, ask! The Support Team will normally be able to provide a next step for you, even if we are unable to solve the issue immediately.

How Do I Submit a Support Ticket?

There are three primary ways to submit a Support ticket: 

1. When you use CarePortal online, there will always be an orange “Support” widget at the bottom-right corner of your screen (see screenshot below). Once you click it, you’ll be offered some self-support options and an option to connect with your Support Specialist. Connecting with us through the widget will begin a messaging conversation (you don't have to leave the page open to keep the conversation going). 
2. Send an email to [e-mail]. 
3. If you're using the app, shake your mobile device, and you’ll see a pop-up on your screen. Follow the prompts to submit the ticket.

Once you've submitted your ticket, you can expect to hear back from us within a maximum of one business day - but we most often reply much sooner than that! Our working hours are 8 am to 5 pm CST, M-F. 

What Information Should I Include in a Support Ticket?

We want to resolve any issue you encounter as fast as possible so you can continue to serve children and their families through CarePortal. While every member of the Support Team is trained to investigate, the more information you provide in the original ticket, the faster we can find a solution. If the necessary information isn’t included in the original ticket, we may have to ask follow-up questions – potentially doubling the amount of time it takes to fix the problem. Here are a few tricks you can use to avoid that!

In the last section, we noted that you can submit Support Tickets from anywhere on the CarePortal website using the orange ‘Support’ widget at the bottom-right corner of your screen. When you submit a ticket, we can see from where you sent it. So, go ahead and submit the ticket while on the page that’s causing trouble! If your question is about a CarePortal Request, be sure to include the request number, too.

Screenshots are SO helpful – screen recordings even more so! Sometimes, the Support Team can see details on your screen that you don’t realize are problematic. When troubleshooting, we typically try to replicate the issue. If we see what your screen looked like when you encountered the issue, we often have all we need to imitate it! When sending screenshots, include the URL at the top of your screen (see example below). The problem can be hiding there, too.

When describing your issue, the more detail, the better! Try to explain what you were trying to do/what you expected to happen when you encountered the problem. Add the steps you took prior to encountering it, if applicable.

As you reference something (a person, a request, a church, a place, etc…), add information that will help the Support Team locate it. For example, instead of saying “One of our church responders…”, write “Jane Doe ([e-mail])...” That way, we can immediately check out their account and make sure everything is working properly. Odds are, we’ll ultimately need that information to effectively troubleshoot the issue, so it's best to provide it upfront.

Are you looking for data? If so, be very, very specific! Our database stores loads of data, so we need clear parameters to sift through it and find only the information that is most accurate and relevant to you. Common questions to consider are, “What entities? Active or Inactive? What areas? Over what time frame? Are there any exceptions?”

If you forget a detail or don’t have a clue what’s going wrong, that’s okay! We love helping people use CarePortal and will ask for more information as we need it. CarePortal is a connecting technology—the Support Team’s priority is to keep it connecting so you can serve your communities!