How to Report Website Errors and Reduce SLA Costs - 8 Essential Tips

As experienced web developers we can confidently claim that one of the biggest problems that support teams face in trying to resolve your site hiccups is the ability to replicate the issue. An unclear, one-liner, reporting error doesn’t provide developers with enough clarity to thoroughly understand your problem; hence finding a resolution will not be as efficient. This mistake is easily avoidable yet can become costly as many agencies charge for their time spent investigating.

Keeping your messages concise but informative ensures the problem is clear. Include as much information as you can such as the URL and what you were doing at the time. Telling your support team “My website does not work” is not an effective reporting strategy.

Creating a productive process that flows with efficiency is, undoubtedly, something that every professional would like to achieve. No colleague, freelancer, agency, or even director, wants to manage and translate unorganised issues in order to get to the nitty gritty goal.

To help save you time on expensive SLA costs it is important to provide as much information as possible related to the issue you’re found. By completing our tips you will significantly help your support team in tracking down the problem; the less time they have to spend researching and investigating, the more time can be spent on fixing the problem in hand.

One of the first things you’ll need to discuss when working with a developer, agency, or freelancing team is the type of support you would like for your website. Errors arise on every site so why not have an action plan in place before something goes wrong?

Having a clear plan saves you money and sets clarity and priority within the support team. This is also a great time to discuss the process taken to report problems. Your support team likely has a system already set up so check it is thorough, clear and convenient for you to use.

A key action the support team will undertake is walking through the error and reproducing it. Having access to usernames and account data aids tracking errors within specific accounts and sourcing the correct data.

Support teams require practical information such as device type and software stack, in order to help identify the issues you are having to ensure a cleaner start in resolving any problems. A common issue is that website bugs can be tricky to find and track down, especially considering each device your site is accessed on loads and runs slightly differently.

This means each operating system and device runs its own version of the code, resulting in inconsistencies across different tech. Letting the team know how to reproduce the problem and information about the device the issues was found on will reduce time spent trying to reproduce said issues.

Here is our Web Kitchen, “8 point checklist” for reporting website errors effectively;

• Make your devs aware of your software; this includes operating system and browser versions.
  
• Clearly describe what problem you encountered, what you were doing leading up to the discovery, and what you were expecting to happen. Did the fault derive from the customer’s end or yours?
  
• Screenshot your issue when you can.
  
• Report your device or screen size.
  
• Provide a link to the page you’re having an issue on.
  
• Include any important credentials like usernames and order numbers. HEADS UP. Never give your password out!
  
• Advice of tools you have used to find any problems e.g site speed.
  
• If you really want add the cherry on the top you can also paste the pages console output
  

Trust us. This clearer process will save you pennies and get your problem solved sooner. This helps you and your support team achieve their goals…to create and run a streamlined, successful, and hassle-free site.