Checking Multiple Browsers Before Responding to Website Support Requests

When responding to support requests involving a website it's important to remember that the customer may not be using the same browser as you. They may not even use the same operating system (Windows, Macintosh, etc.) There are many issues that I've seen over the years as a website developer which work perfectly fine in one browser and completely fall apart in another. So make sure that you have covered your bases before responding to the customer.

For example, I recently contacted a service provider about an issue with using their admin panel to print invoices. For some reason the white background wouldn't print with the invoice. Since the invoice was layered over top of some other text everything would mush together making it difficult to read. Their almost instant response was that the invoices print fine for them. Then they proceeded to ask for more information.

Well this caused a light bulb to go off in my head and what do you know; the invoices print fine in Firefox. But what about the average customer who may be less familiar with technology? It would have been nice if the service provider looked into the issue on the other common browsers, especially since the form where you submit a support ticket automatically collected my browser information.

If given a choice, I prefer to limit the amount of back and forth between the customer trying to solve an issue. They have better things to do than to help me troubleshoot. For more information about my internal thought process for helping customer, check out my previous post titled “Tips for Handling Website Support Requests.”