Start here
Welcome #
Coffee Cup Solutions looks after your IT. That means the computers, the email, the phones, the security, and the awkward thing that started doing something odd this morning.
You do not need to know which of those categories your problem falls into, and you do not need to work out whether it is worth bothering us with. Get in touch and we will pick it up.
There is no such thing as a silly question here. The things people feel daft asking about are almost always things several of their colleagues are also quietly struggling with.
Worth bookmarking, or keeping the email it came in. Everything you need to reach us is on this page, and the rest of our guides are at guides.coffeecup.support.
Getting in touch
Five ways to reach us #
All of them reach the same helpdesk and all of them create a ticket. Use whichever suits the moment.
| How | Where | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| The CC icon | The blue CC icon near your clock |
Almost everything. It is the quickest and it tells us about your machine automatically. |
| Live chat | Start a live chat | Quick questions, and any machine that does not have our tools on it yet. |
| Phone | 0118 38 42 175 | Anything urgent, and anything easier to explain out loud than in writing. |
| support@coffeecupsolutions.com | Non urgent things, and anything you want to send a screenshot or a document with. | |
| The portal | Raise a ticket | Raising something from a phone or a machine that is not yours. |
Raising the same problem by chat and email and phone creates three tickets and three people looking at it, which slows things down rather than speeding them up. One is plenty. If it becomes urgent after you have emailed, ring us and mention you have already raised it.
Ring us. If your computer or your internet is down, the chat and the icon will not help you, and the phone is the obvious answer. The number is 0118 38 42 175, and it is worth putting in your mobile now rather than looking for it when you need it.
Getting in touch
The quickest way: the CC icon #
There is a small blue CC icon in the system tray on your Windows PC, down by the clock in the
bottom right. It is the fastest way to reach us and the one we would rather you used.
The reason it is better than the others is not that it is faster to click. It is that it quietly sends us the details of your machine along with your message, so we already know what you are working on, what it is running, and how it is set up, before anyone reads the ticket. That often removes an entire round of questions.
- Click the blue CC icon If you cannot see it, click the small arrow next to the clock to show hidden icons.
- Describe what is happening In your own words. You do not need technical language.
- Send it You will get a confirmation email with your ticket reference, so you know it has reached us.
It should be on any computer we manage. If yours does not have it, use live chat or ring us, and mention that the icon is missing so we can get it installed.
What to expect
When we are available #
Our helpdesk is open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm.
Anything raised outside those hours is waiting for us when we open, so it is still worth sending. You do not need to remember to send it again in the morning.
Some organisations have an out of hours arrangement with us. If yours does, you will have been given separate instructions for how to use it, and those take precedence over this page outside normal hours. If you are not sure whether you have out of hours cover, ask whoever manages IT at your organisation.
We would rather you said so than assumed we would work it out. Something stopping a whole team working, or stopping you invoicing, is different from a printer that has been annoying you for a fortnight. Say which it is and we will treat it accordingly.
What to expect
Helping us help you faster #
You do not need to diagnose anything. A few details up front just save a round of questions.
| Tell us | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| What you were trying to do | Often points straight at the cause. |
| What happened instead | Including the exact wording of any error message. |
| When it started | This morning, or since Tuesday, or since the update last week. |
| Whether it affects others | Just you, or your whole team. This changes what we look at first. |
| Whether it is stopping you working | So we know how to prioritise it. |
| A screenshot, if you can | Genuinely the single most useful thing you can send. |
On Windows, press the Windows key, Shift and S together, then
drag over the part of the screen you want. It copies, and you can paste it straight into an email or a
chat.
On a Mac, press Cmd, Shift and 4, then drag. It saves to your
desktop.
We never need it, and we will never ask for it. If anyone contacts you claiming to be from Coffee Cup Solutions and asks for your password or a security code, that is not us. Put the phone down and ring us on 0118 38 42 175.
What to expect
What happens next #
Everything that reaches us becomes a ticket, so nothing gets lost in somebody's inbox.
- You get a confirmation An email with a reference number, confirming we have it. If you did not get one, we probably did not receive it, so chase us.
- We pick it up An engineer takes it on and either fixes it or comes back to you with questions.
- We may connect to your machine A lot of things are quicker to fix directly than to talk through. We will ask before connecting, and you will be able to see everything we do.
- We tell you when it is done Along with what it was, if that is useful to know. If it is not actually fixed, say so and we will reopen it. That is not a complaint, it is just how it works.
When you reply to an email about a ticket, keep the reference in the subject line. That keeps everything on the same ticket rather than starting a new one, and means whoever picks it up has the whole story.
Worth knowing
Things that are not faults #
The helpdesk is not only for things that are broken. A good proportion of what we do is making things better, and most people ask for far less than they could.
All of these are perfectly normal things to get in touch about:
- A new starter. Tell us as early as you can, ideally a week ahead, and we will have their account, email and computer ready for day one.
- Someone leaving. Tell us their last day. This one matters, since an active account for someone who has left is a genuine risk.
- New equipment. A laptop, a monitor, a headset. We will advise and quote.
- Access to something. A shared mailbox, a folder, a system.
- Software you need. Ask before buying it. There is often something you already have a licence for.
- Moving office, or adding a desk. Worth a conversation well before the day.
- Something that is just slow or annoying. If you have been putting up with something for months, tell us. It is often a five minute fix that nobody knew was needed.
- Advice. If you are considering a new system or a change to how you work, we would much rather be asked beforehand.
You think you have clicked something you should not have, entered your password into a page that turned out to be fake, or noticed something odd happening on your account. Ring us on 0118 38 42 175.
Nobody is ever in trouble for reporting this, and the first twenty minutes matter far more than whose fault it was.
That is everything
Welcome aboard. If you are not sure whether something is worth raising, raise it. We would much rather hear about the small thing now than the big thing it turns into later.