How you can help

We need enthusiastic (and patient!) people to answer questions from all types of Firefox users. You don't have to be an advanced user to start giving help. Many questions people ask will be covered in the Knowledge Base or Forums already, and the user just didn't find their answer, or needs help walking through the solution.

What you'll need

• You'll need to install the Spark client for your OS.

Spark is a third party application that, combined with the server-side Openfire software, lets you take questions from the users who access our Live Chat support through a web interface.

• Read our guide to using the Spark client to learn about the different features we use.

When you should help

Our hours of operation reflect when helpers are reliably around to help. Since these are the times that we tell users to come by, this is when we'll need extra help. We'll also want help after hours.

Hours of operation

Monday:

• 11am to 2pm PDT (GMT -7)
• 6pm to 7pm PDT
  
  

Tuesday through Friday:

• 10am to 1pm PDT
• 6pm to 7pm PDT
  
  

For Saturdays, Sundays and holidays see our after hours policy

After hours

If you're available outside our set hours, you're more than welcome to log in to the server and help any users that come around. Before you do so, check that a Room Monitor is available. Please don't open Live Chat without a Room Monitor.

If you can reliably be available to help outside of our current hours, please let us know. Once we have enough people committed to help at other times, we'll expand our hours to include them.

Quality assurance and monitoring

Even though Live Chat is mostly one on one support, we still need to monitor conversations as we would on the forums, for instance, to make sure users are getting the right answers, and aren't being taken advantage of.

Transcripts

All conversations are logged on the server, and are viewable by our admins. We'll periodically go through the transcripts - more often in the case of new helpers - to make sure our helpers are on the right track. We'll also make use of transcripts to keep the Knowledge Base up to date. Transcripts will also come in handy in the case of disputes between a user and a helper.

Room monitors

Our admins, and, in the future, some of our senior helpers will be able to watch a help session in progress without being seen by the helper or user - much like call monitoring in a call center. These room monitors can still speak in a chat if they feel the need to jump in. They can also kick an abusive helper and take over a help chat.

Getting started

Read our rules

You can find our rules and guidelines for using forums and chat here. Please read them!

Read our basic support handbook

Our Live Chat basic support handbook will help you get started if you haven't given Firefox support before, and it will let you know some of our policies for different situations. While you don't have to follow it to the letter, it's very important that you're familiar with this guide.

Shadow help chats as a trainee

As soon as you're logged in to Spark, you'll be added to our "trainees" group. You won't be offered help requests directly with users, but members of our support group can invite you to join their help chats.

Join the Contributors conference to let the support team know you'd like to be invited to watch chats.

1. Click on the conferences tab at the bottom of the Spark window
2. Double click on "Contributors" in the list of available conferences

The invitations will work just like help requests do. You'll be offered a chat with "Accept" and "Reject" buttons. If you don't accept the invitation it will be passed on to another member of the trainees group.

How to take questions

Once you're moved from the trainees group into the support group, you'll automatically be offered help requests if any are available.

1. Read the user's question, as well as the other provided information like operating system.
2. *If you think you can answer the question or are confident you can help find the answer, click the "Accept" button. A one on one chat with the user will begin.
3. *If you don't think you can help the user, or don't want to take that question click the "Reject" button. Another available helper will be offered the request.
4. *If you get offered the same chat several times in a row, but don't think you can help, accept the chat anyway and explain the situation to the user. Ask them to wait while you try and find another helper to transfer the question to, or help the user search for an answer to their problem.

How to log in without being offered requests

At times you may wish to be logged in to the support server without taking questions. You may want to talk to other helpers, or take a break without logging off if you've been helping already.

1. At the top of the main Spark window, under your user name is the status drop down. It is set to "Available" by default.
2. Click the drop down and set your status to "Away" or "Extended Away"

Spark will automatically set your status to away if your computer goes idle.

Join the workgroup conference

Everyone must join the group chat (Spark calls them "conferences") for the support workgroup while available to take requests. You can use it to get advice on a tough question, tips on how to use Spark, or find out who is available to join the help chat or who you can transfer it to.

1. At the bottom of the main Spark window, click on the "Fastpath" tab
2. Click on the "Conference" button near the top, under "Logged in to the Support Workgroup"