First Call

Glossary of Terms

These are explanations of some terms which callers will frequently use while reporting problems, but may be unfamiliar to agents.

PED: Short for PIN Entry Device – a small, battery-powered credit card payment terminal.

The PED connects to the phone by bluetooth. Problems with PEDs are one of the most commonly reported issues.

Avocet: The name, used by VTWC and HEx customers, of the entire TTK ticket issuing and validation system. It comprises a phone (usually Android), scanner, PED and printer, all connected together by bluetooth.

Doris: The name, used only by LNER customers, for Avocet.

Shift: A log-in session on the Android phone, required to issue tickets (but not to scan them). Users enter a name and pass phrase to start a shift. Problems with shifts will include ‘unable to start shift’, ‘unable to end shift’.

Call Reception Procedure

1. First Call agent takes call, with the greeting:
   Thank you for calling the TKK Help Desk, you’re speaking with [agent’s first name], how can I help?
2. The following is noted as part of the standard First Call process:
   Caller’s Phone Number
3. Agent asks caller for the following information, and notes it down:
   Caller’s Full NameCaller’s Company – this is one of:
   LNER (London and North Eastern Railway),
   VTWC (Virgin Trains West Coast) or
   HEx (Heathrow Express)
   A One-Line Description of why they are calling
4. Agent to caller:
   Please wait while I find a support engineer to take your call …
5. Agent calls TTK engineer(s), and transfers the call to the first engineer who picks up, saying to caller:
   Transferring you to [full name of engineer] now …
   If a call to an engineer is not answered within 6 rings, or goes to voice mail, or the engineer says he can’t take the call, hang up, and try another engineer. Try at most 3 times – after the third ‘no pick-up’, say to the caller:
   I am sorry, all our engineers are busy at the moment. Someone will call you as soon as possible. Can we use the number you are calling from? [note response and possible alternative number]. … Is there any time today when you don’t want to be called? [note response]
6. Agent ends call with caller.
7. Agent logs call in the TTK Mantis system. See separate process below for details.

Wrong Numbers and Cancelled Calls

If the caller decides they don’t need to be transferred to a TTK engineer for any reason (for example, a wrong number, or the problem solved itself during the call), please raise a Mantis in the usual way (including entering the caller name, company & phone number if known), and in the ‘description’ explain why the call did not need to be forwarded. Then assign the issue to ‘Richard Handel’. (please note, it’s important to assign this type of call to ‘Richard Handel’, not ‘TTK Engineer’ which is only used when alerts need to be sent out).

Notes on Mantis

1. Mantis uses the term ‘Issue’ for an item to be logged (which can be ‘Enquriy’, ‘Error Report’, etc.). So a call is logged in Mantis as an ‘Issue’, and is entered by clicking on the ‘Report Issue’ link, which is in the control bar near the top of all Mantis screens.
2. When entering phone numbers in Mantis, please add spaces to make them readable, for example:
   good: 07970 123 456
   bad: 07970123456
3. Please never delete an issue in Mantis (even though Mantis provides the ability to delete issues). If an issue is created in error, add a note explaining, then close the issue. Once an issue is created, Mantis generates emails which link to it – deleting the issue would break those links, causing confusion.

Logging a Call

Log into Mantis (if not already logged in), and create a new ‘Issue’ by clicking ‘Report Issue’.

You are now presented with a form for entering the details of the call. Note, any items on the form which are not mentioned in the list below are optional, and can just be skipped.

Enter the following items:

Category: Must be entered: select one from the list, probably always either ‘Error Report’ or ‘Enquiry’

Assign to: Must always be entered (even though it is optional in Mantis). Select the name of the TTK engineer who took the call, or, if no one picked up, then select ‘TTK Engineer’ (note, this is very important – when an issue is assigned to ‘TTK Engineer’, Mantis will email all engineers about the call)

Summary: a one-line description of the problem, as provided by the Caller.

Description: Allows for more details of the problem – if more info was provided, please enter it here. For example, if no TTK engineer picked up, any special instructions on when/how the caller can be contacted. This item is mandatory in Mantis, so something must always be entered. If there is nothing more to enter, just type ‘No further details’.

Caller Name: the full name of the caller.

Caller Phone: the number from which the call was made.

Customer: select the customer from the pull-down. Note the value ‘Other / Unknown’ should only be used in exceptional circumstances. The caller is always expected to be from one of the companies listed. If ‘Unknown / Other’ is selected, please provide an explanation in the ‘Description’ item.

Forwarded: select from the pull-down. This is the name of the TTK engineer who took the call or ‘Nobody’ if no engineer picked up.

Once the above info has been entered, click on ‘Submit Report’, to create the ‘issue’. You will see a confirmation on screen that the issue has been created, and that completes the logging of the call.

Each call has a Mantis ID. It is not normally necessary to give the caller the Mantis ID, but if they ask for it, you will have to keep them on the call till the Mantis entry has been created.

New calls for existing issues

If a new call relates to an existing issue, there is no need to create a new Mantis issue. The first step is to find the existing issue in Mantis – to do this, you can use the Mantis search features – click on ‘View Issues’. Initially, this will list all current open issues, in order of the most recent first. If you can easily find the issue from this list, there is no need to use the search features. Otherwise, the best way to search is probably to look for all issues created by the caller. To do this, do the following:

1. Click on the ‘Hide Status’ pulldown, and change it from ‘Closed’ to ‘[None]’. This will include all issues, even if they have been closed (if this is a new call for an issue which has been closed, you should re-open it, further instructions below).
2. Click on ‘Caller Name’, and enter the caller name (or select the name from the list if a pull-down list is provided). This will restrict the list to just the issues for the caller.
3. Click on ‘Apply Filter’ to display the list. If you still can’t find the issue, you can try other searches (for example, filter on ‘Reporter’ if you know who took the original call). If you still can’t find the issue, then give up, and create a new Mantis issue – if this happens, proceed in exactly the same way as for a new issue.

If you found the existing issue in Mantis, then the procedure for transferring the call to TTK is the same as for a new issue, but instead of creating a new issue in Mantis, you edit the existing issue (by clicking on it in the list from ‘View Issues’), and do the following:

1. Add a note to the issue, with explanation of what the problem / enquiry is, and any other relevant information.
2. In the pull-down to the right of the ‘Assign To’ button, select the correct assignee (the person who the call was transferred to, or ‘TTK Engineer’ if no one picked up). Then click the ‘Assign To’ button to change the assignment. Important: if the issue is already assigned to the right person, there is no need to change it, but in that case, you must change the status of the issue to ‘Assigned’, by selecting ‘Assigned’ in the pull-down to the right of the ‘Change Status To’ button, and then clicking the ‘Change Status To’ button.
3. Make sure the issue is in the ‘Assigned’ status – which is indicated by a pale blue background in the list.