Start Managing Issues with the Pro Dashboard

First things first: In case you're still wondering how best to navigate the registration process, we've put together a nifty little video to help guide you. Check it out right here:

Now that you've got your fancy new Pro Account set up and created a watch area too, we bet you're wondering how to get started working with the issues. Have a look at this screenshot:

As you can see, there's a great deal of information presented here. Think of this as a control panel, a window into the current status of your community. You've got the gauges and the dials to see what's going on in your community and what concerns your neighbors most; you've also got the instruments to interact with them directly and work with them and others to get their concerns addressed.

Start at the left side of the page. The top of the sidebar shows the Watch Areas that belong to your Pro account, and you can sort issues by their status (Open, Acknowledged, Closed) and also other characteristics. Most Recent brings up the issues that have had any kind of activity most recently (no, seriously). That can mean that an issue was just raised, or that it was just closed, that an issue was just commented on - activity of any sort. Hottest refers to the issues that have have had the most activity within the last few days - and again that means activity of any sort. Top refers to the activities that have the highest rating: more people want these issues addressed than any others. Clicking on Hidden brings back issues that you've chosen to hide from the Dashboard - more on that in a bit.

My Issues refers to issues which you have dealt with personally, and the links in the sidebar allow you to view them according to how you've interacted them. Closed, for example, brings up the issues that you've closed yourself, and Voted For simply brings up the issues for which you voted "I want this fixed too!" Likewise with the rest of the sidebar. The links are all pretty self-explanatory. Altogether, they're a great way for you to dive back into the different parts of the SeeClickFix network that you've worked with before.

Now turn your attention to the issues stream. This is the nerve center of your community: new issues will pop up here as soon as they're reported. In the listing for each issue, what you see in bold is the issue summary - what a citizen typed into the "Summary" box when they reported it - along with the issue's current status. Next to that is the issue's rating: how many people have expressed their interest in having the issue fixed. Next to that, clicking the "more" link displays the full description of the issue as it was reported.

The address - that's self-explanatory. Underneath that are a set of links which allow you to work with the issue directly. Starting from the left, Direct Link navigates away from the Dashboard and brings to to the issue page itself. Most of the information on that page will be accessible from the Dashboard itself, but you might want to check it out to get a fuller picture of what's going on. You can see if any pictures or vide have been uploaded and which public watchers have been notified in addition to getting a sense of what a regular citizen sees when they are looking at the issue page.

Next to that is a link to Comments. You can view the comments that have been posted on an issue and the approximate times they were posted, and you can add comments of your own. Clicking Notes brings up a small text box; if you hit the Save Note button, any changes to made to the text box will be saved and will be displayed just like that the next time you come back and hit the Notes link. Especially for those of us who are in the business of community management, this is a pretty handy feature. Sometimes you'll want to leave a little bit of time for the community to respond to an issue before you put your own two cents in; other times there's something that might not merit a comment, but which you personally need to remember the next time you're looking at. Notes are shared between all the profiles within an account, so you can use them to attach your own commentary to the community discussion. Everyone else who has a profile within your Pro account will see your Notes (and you'll be able to see theirs) so it's a great way to start an independent dialogue on what's going on in the community.

The next two links allow you to change the current status of the issue. The link between Notes and Acknowledge won't always be the same; if an issue is Closed, here you'll find a link to Reopen it. If an issue is Open you'll see a link to Close it. To the right is a link to Acknowledge. As a Pro, this is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. Acknowledging an issue lets the citizens know that there's someone in town with a bit of clout who's going to be following up on it. Keep in mind that once you've acknowledged an issue, citizens will be looking to you for updates on its progress and hopefully its ultimate resolution. It's a great way to help citizens feel that their concerns matter to someone else too, and also to put your name and logo out there as someone who's takin' care of business.

The last two links in the issue bar are more technical. Click the Inappropriate link if you feel like an issue doesn't belong. Inappropriate doesn't necessarily refer just to objectionable content; swears and vulgar language will automatically be filtered out and replaced with characters (!@#$%^&*) by our system. If you do use it, it'll more likely be in the context of an nonsense issue that someone raised as a joke (usually one that's not funny). If Negative Nellie raises an issue to let the community know that she's hungry, hit the Inappropriate link to let us know. Someone from our team will have a look at it ASAP. If there's anyone else who flags an issue as inappropriate before we take it down ourselves, it automatically disappears. Finally, if you just feel like there's too much clutter on your Dashboard, or there's an issue which you want to pull out of the issues stream as it is displayed, hit the Hide link. The issue doesn't disappear from public view, just from you Dashboard. You can bring Hidden issues back by clicking "Hidden" from the list of links underneath Watch Areas at the top of the sidebar.

And that's about all of it! Don't worry too much if it seems like there's a lot of information here. It's all pretty intuitive and you'll get a feel for how to make use of the different features as you start working with the issues. If you think that something could have been designed better, let us know! We're always making improvements to our design and would love to hear your feedback.

We wish you the best of luck in your efforts to make your community a better place. Except for a bit of pluck and some local know-how, everything you need to make a difference is right in front of you. Happy Clicking!