Quite often, we receive support requests that don’t give us enough information to start the troubleshooting process. If we had just a few more details, we could contact you with answers, instead of questions.  For example: A ticket that is opened with the following description leads us to ask additional questions before any troubleshooting can begin:

“I am having email problems; one never made it, and then it came back to me. Please help!”

If the same ticket were opened with the following information, we can begin actively troubleshooting your issue and respond with answers rather than questions:

“An email sent from user Wayne@bh.com to Candidate Erik at ErikW@google.com on 7/28/2009 bounced back to me with an error message that said “Email is undeliverable - User Undefined”.  Please Help!”

Loads of information with just a few more keystrokes! This level of detail will certainly reduce the amount of time and questions needed to resolve most any issue.  Of course, you may not know exactly what information to provide us with, but one thing is for sure, the more details the better. Below are some of the most common questions you may hear from a Bullhorn Technical Support Analyst in follow up to different types of support requests.

If you ask yourself these questions and provide the answers when opening the ticket, you could cut your time to resolve by half!  You may even solve it yourself during the process of opening the ticket!  Of course, we are not suggesting you solve your own problem — we are simply asking for your assistance to make the whole process work as efficiently as possible.

Top 5 General Support Questions you should ask yourself when opening any ticket

• Is this issue only present on my PC, or does it also occur if I log in from a different PC?
• When did this issue first occur?
• Can this issue be reproduced, and if so, what are the steps to be followed?
• Is this issue only happening to me, or is it happening to everyone in my company?
• What was the actual error message?

Top 5 General Email Support Questions

• Is the problem happening with all of my emails, or just one?
• When was the email sent?
• What are the sender’s and recipient’s email addresses?
• Was this an internal email to another Bullhorn user, or was it sent to a contact or candidate?
• Was there a bounce back message and what did it say (copy and paste the error message into the description, or attach a screen shot to the ticket)?

Top 5 Bullhorn Performance Questions

• Is this happening only on my PC?
• Does it happen to everyone in my office?
• When did this issue first occur?
• Have I contacted my IT department to see if there are any issues they are aware of?
• Can I get to any other web sites?

Top 5 Bullhorn Mobile Questions

• What model of phone do I have? Example: Treo, iPhone, BlackBerry?
• What is the last email that was successfully sync’d to my phone?
• Can I access the internet through the browser on my phone right now?
• Have I already done a soft reset on my phone (i.e. remove and reinsert the battery)?
• What happens when I manually sync (i.e. Intellisync > Sync)?

Top 5 Bullhorn 360 or Reporting Questions

• What fields or actions am I reporting on?
• What is the intent of the report, what data am I trying to capture or measure?
• Provide a specific example of a particular piece of data such as a candidate or submission, that should have returned but did not.
• What do I think is incorrect about the results? What was I expecting to see?
• What is the name of the report?

Top 5 Timecards and Back Office

• If this is an export issue, what is the name of the export file?
• Did the timecards show up on the export file and not in the Bridge?  Or did the timecards show up correctly in the Bridge, but then did not import into Quickbooks/ADP?
• Were the timecards approved before I exported them?
• Was the client who did not receive the approval email for a particular timecard listed as the primary approver on the placement?  Do they have a valid email address?
• What is the placement number and pay period for the timecard in question?

As a technology leader, we are dedicated to providing you with the latest innovations in support and service. Bullhorn has selected RightNow, a best of breed customer service tool, to create the new integrated Bullhorn Resource Center.

With the Bullhorn Resource Center you will be able to:

• Search the entire Bullhorn Knowledge Base (over 2,000 articles and growing)
• Find the latest Bullhorn product updates and support news
• Submit and easily manage your tickets
• Subscribe to topics to receive all the latest updates
• Access Bullhorn’s Blogs, Brainstorm, Support Forums and status.bullhorn.com

What you can expect

• Quick access to our latest features, most popular articles and support updates

• A simple, yet intelligent way to search our Knowledge Base
• The ability to subscribe to Knowledge Base articles ensuring you will always be up to date on the latest changes to Bullhorn
• Articles that are easy to forward and share, so your co-worker’s knowledge grows along with yours

• Easy to use ticket submission and management

• Automated email responses that include your ticket number along with suggested knowledge articles
• Automatic creation of tickets from emails so your issues will always be easy to track on the Resource Center

Behind the scenes
Back in Boston, our support teams will be leveraging RightNow’s automated workflow, knowledge base, ticket management and ticket reporting features to provide a higher level of service to our clients.
 

Launch Date
The Bullhorn Resource Center will be available on 3/30/2009 and can be accessed in Bullhorn by clicking Support and then by selecting Bullhorn Resource Center.
 

Learn More
For more information on using the Bullhorn Resource Center, watch our 15 minute pre-recorded webcast and view our Quick Reference Guide/or FAQS.

If you have questions or comments, please let me know. I look forward to your feedback as we continue to find ways to improve our level of service to you.

Matt

WOW is the first word that comes to mind.  For those of you that are not in Las Vegas, I am truly sorry that you were not able to attend. We had an incredible opener with Barry and Art reviewing where we have been and where we are about to go. Danny Cahill gave a great presentation that got the crowd excited to get back to the basics and drove home to the crowd that numbers drive business.  It is that simple. The more calls you make the more business you will have and yes, today you will need to make more calls than you did a year ago.
 
I have heard great feedback from customers on the content during the sessions and that they are getting a lot out of them.  I realize that the underlying goal for the event is for attendees to learn more about Bullhorn and how others are leveraging the system, but I too am learning from our customers.  I am not the only Bullhorn employee that is learning, we have all been able to interact with our customers and hear about what features excite them and what they want to see more of. So much of our business is over the phone with you, so to see your face when we demo the new calendar or discuss what you want to see of VMS tools, it is the unspoken words that mean more than anything else. While I know the event is for the customer, it is also a huge opportunity for us to get the necessary feedback that helps us take Bullhorn to the next level. 

For those of you that are here with us, I want to thank you all for your time and the input you have provided us so far.  It is truly appreciated and please know that you have a say in the future of Bullhorn.  For those of you unable to attend, please keep your eyes on Bullhorn Brainstorm as I am sure you will see some great new features that were discussed at Bullhorn Live for you to Vote on.  Can’t wait for our next one!

First let me thank the Marketing team for putting on an incredible event. The energy here is high and it has been wonderful to speak with many of our clients.

My main objective of attending the conference is to speak face to face with our clients and understand how all of us in Technical Support, Client Services and eServices can better serve our clients. So far we have received great feedback to take home with us. We are also hosting a lunch this afternoon to really drill into our client’s specific feedback and present some of the changes that will be coming to all of our teams. This type of feedback is invaluable to make sure we are moving in the right direction and delivering the service our clients need.

We have a lot of changes planned for 2009, starting with the launch of our new Client Services team and a revamped Bullhorn Resource Center. Both initiatives will be put in place with the goal of placing more knowledge in our client’s hands and to make sure they are leveraging Bullhorn to its full potential.

I look forward to our session this afternoon and if you were not able to join us this year, I would love to hear your feedback also.

The first day of Bullhorn Live was full of excitement.  It has been great to meet so many new faces of customers and help them network with each other. 

I was really struck by Danny Cahill’s presentation today.  With every bit of media helping us to think “the world is coming to an end,” he put some great perspective on it.   This is NOTHING new, we have weathered this before and we will do it again and even come back stronger.  I wrote down a really interesting stat he gave us.  Back in 1984, the government bought an 80% share in Continental Illinois Bank.  Why was this so profound?  This bank is now known as Bank of America. 

I presented a session this morning on using Bullhorn as a Sales tool.  It was interesting to see how many customers truly forget all these tools are there.  We all know that to pull us out of this we have to work harder and these sessions are great avenues to helping clients create new ideas to do this. 

I would like to thank Danny for a great thought I walked away with…”I create my own reality,” because we truly do. 

Ultimately, it is attitude that gets us through the rough times and I am so moved by the excitement at this conference.  Those who are attending need to go back to your organizations and spread the buzz.  

On a daily basis, I speak to clients about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and how to best leverage Bullhorn to report on that information. During these conversations with clients, I often ask these questions:

• How does your organization measure an individual’s success as a Staffing Professional?

• Do all individuals in your organization have access to tools that measure their performance?

• Does management have tools that provide KPIs when measuring staff’s performance?

• Do you share any metrics with your current clients or prospects?

The responses to these questions vary greatly. It is not uncommon to find that clients are measuring for measurements sake - perhaps not measuring effectively or not measuring that which they consider important. The old adage is true – you measure what you value and value what you measure. 

Given the advent of the New Year and Metrics Matter session at our upcoming user conference Bullhorn Live 2009, this is the ideal time to get you thinking about metrics and measuring what matters. I have outlined some best practices that should be considered when thinking of metrics.

Best Practices: 

• Identify your metrics and ensure all users are consistently recording activity associated with these metrics in Bullhorn.

• Communicate metrics with your staff and stress the importance of what they mean for individual success, career growth, and the company’s success. This will help define clear goals and provide insight into how their efforts directly correlate to the success of the company.

• Provide tools your staff members can utilize to monitor their performance against their goals. Staff members can also perform comparative analysis to historical results as well as to top performers.

• Share relevant metrics with your clients and prospects. The amount of activity your company performs to fill a job requisition is a valuable data set to share with clients and prospects. When working with clients, they will be impressed by the level of detail and amount of knowledge you present them. Not only does this provide a client outreach opportunity to present the progress of your efforts, it often results in more job orders.

• Adjust metrics as needed. Metrics should be adjustable as they can change over time. They may also be impacted by many factors including, but not limited to: economic conditions, skill level/experience of employee and type of job requisition to fill.

Not Sure where to Start?

• Poll management to determine their Key Performance Indicators for a staff member’s success.

• Review Bullhorn Standard Reports and the associated definitions of these reports that can be found in Bullhorn Help.

• Attend Bullhorn Live 09 and attend the Metrics Matter panel discussion designed for industry experts to share their best practices.

At Bullhorn, we’re proud of our products and the level of service that we provide to our customers. Improving our service to meet your needs is at the very core of the way we do business. In an effort to serve you better, I’d like to invite you to participate in a very brief set of questions that will provide us a better understanding of how well Bullhorn services you. 

We greatly appreciate your input and look forward to using your feedback to deliver an even better Bullhorn experience. 

I attended the first Bullhorn Live in June 2007 and was a current customer at the time. Since most of those who attended last time have already registered, I thought I would reach out to those who haven’t signed up yet to help you understand what you will experience. 

Since becoming an Account Manager at Bullhorn, I have had numerous clients say to me “You don’t know what you don’t know.”  Well, this is the conference where you will find out what you don’t know.  You will be on information overload, in a good way, and come home armed with so many things you can do differently.  

I came home with new reports I could use, some tools I didn’t even know existed and knowledge from other companies on how they were taking Bullhorn to the next level by integrating the system with their other systems. 

I didn’t just learn from the jam packed sessions, but I got a big return on my investment with networking.  Even though I was always in a room with my competition, it was as if we were all among friends.  I am sure the ice sculpture that doubled as a Cosmopolitan dispenser helped, but everyone was willing to share stories and strategies.  We compared notes and helped each other work through some common challenges.  I had the most productive brainstorming sessions in a very long time. 

It really is hard to put into words how much I learned from the conference, but I can say that I never expected to learn so much and certainly had homework on the flight home prioritizing what to do first.  I was grateful to the network I was able to build inside the staffing community and kept up many of the conversations after the conference.  They became a great sounding board. 

This is what this conference is for; we want you to meet other users and learn with each other and help each other.  

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the obvious reason why you should attend… Vegas Baby.  I will tell you, Bullhorn knows how to throw a party, and there are pictures to prove it. 

Check out photos from last year here 

Once you register, be sure to join the LinkedIn group for Bullhorn Live 2009 Attendee’s.  This is a great way to network before the event.  

Bullhorn Live 2009 Attendee Networking Group
 

As I opened my email this morning I had another social network invite to something called BEBO. 
 
Do you find yourself saying, ‘’If one more person invites me to ANOTHER social network…”  I think I have gotten them all, LinkedIn, Spoke, Facebook, Plaxo and now I have heard it all… BEBO.

In the past I was willing to connect to these various networks and I did sign up for all these sites and tried my best to make a go at it time after time. However, I found LinkedIn to provide me the best tools for sourcing and researching sales prospects.

SO.. I was extremely happy when we were able to enhance our LinkedIn integration on Clients inside Bullhorn… have you used it?  If not check it out. This allows you to see how many connections you have to people at this company EVEN if they are NOT in your system.  Think of how many new candidates and clients are just waiting in LinkedIn for you? Go to the little IN button on the top right of a company profile.

LinkedIn is the best social network for the staffing industry in my humble opinion.  It allows you to easily get names of people by job title or company alone.  I know we all know that it is best to hunt for the passive resumes, this is your “link” to them. This is also a great connection to those key decision makers.

Go ahead, jump on and start searching for folks.. you will be AMAZED at what you will find. 

Need something to get you started? Click on my link, get signed in and then… go into all of your prospects in Bullhorn and find connections you do not already have in Bullhorn!