September 24, 2022 Maintenance Details

Normally, system updates are done off-hours and most of the time go unnoticed. In very rare situations, there come conditions that require Gladly to be taken offline to apply a system-critical software update. Think of mobile devices going offline at night to apply critical updates to avoid disturbing the usability of your device; it’s similar to how this maintenance will transpire.

We understand that this maintenance could have service implications, so we created this help doc to provide you with details on what to expect during his maintenance window.

General #

When is the maintenance? #

• Saturday, September 24, 2022, at 10:30 PM Pacific Time. Gladly will be completely offline — inaccessible — for 30 minutes until 11:00 PM Pacific Time.
• Voice will be unavailable starting at 10:00 PM Pacific Time.

Visit our Status Page to subscribe to platform and maintenance updates.

Why is this maintenance important? #

We are upgrading a key platform database necessary to operate Gladly.

Why do you have to take Gladly offline? #

This update requires data migration that cannot be done while Gladly is online.

How long will Gladly be inaccessible? #

• 30 minutes
• Voice will be unavailable for one hour from 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM.

No one will be able to access or log into Gladly during the 30-minute maintenance window and Customers will not be able to contact you.  See Will our Customers still be able to contact us? below for additional details.

How will I know the maintenance is complete? #

A maintenance page will appear instead of your Gladly login page while the maintenance is ongoing. The normal login page will reappear as soon as the maintenance is done which you can use as a signal to log back in and resume normal operations. We’ll also post an update on Status Page once the maintenance is complete.

Will our Customers still be able to contact us during the maintenance? #

Not during the maintenance window, but what happens depends on the Channel they use to contact you.

Voice

• Starting at 10:00 PM, net-new calls will not be allowed. Callers will hear a recording that you are undergoing system maintenance or encountered an error processing the call if they call after 10:00 PM.
  • This is the recording your callers will hear. The maintenance recording is standard and cannot be customized at this time.
• Ongoing calls will not disconnect at 10:00 PM, but all active calls must end before 10:30 PM, or else the call will automatically end. Ask Agents to ask the Customer if they can call back if their call will last longer than 30 minutes past 10:30 PM.

Email

• Emails sent during the maintenance window will route shortly after Gladly exits the maintenance window.

Chat/Glad App

• Glad App will become inactive at 10:30 PM. All chats should end before this time. If not possible, ask Agents to ask the Customer if they can contact them again after the maintenance via another Channel (e.g. Voice) if their chat will continue past 10:30 PM or if they would like to try and chat again after the maintenance.
  • While the Glad App widget may appear on your website during the maintenance, Quick Actions and FAQs will not load. 
  • Chat will be unavailable, especially when you temporarily throttle chat before the maintenance begins.

SMS

• SMSs sent during the maintenance window will route shortly after Gladly exits the maintenance window. Customers will get this message if they send an SMS during the maintenance window: We are currently undergoing a maintenance/upgrade and will be offline from 10.30 PM – 11 PM US Pacific Time. This message will be delivered after the maintenance window has ended, so you may experience a slight delay in response times.
  • The maintenance message is standard and cannot be customized at this time.
  • The maintenance message received by Customers will not appear in the Conversation Timeline.

Social Channels

• Messages sent during the maintenance window will route shortly after Gladly exits the maintenance widow.

Help Center

• Help Center knowledge base will not load during the maintenance window. A maintenance page will appear during this time.

What happens to partners (like bots, WFM) while the maintenance is happening? #

Automation partners like Ada, Simplr, Thankful, and other bots that sit outside of Gladly will not be able to pass Customers to Gladly during the maintenance. We recommend reaching out to your automation partners to deactivate any automation flows during the maintenance and reactivate them once the maintenance is complete.

If you have a Workforce Management (WFM) provider, note that there won’t be any real-time adherence data during the maintenance period. While many partners know how to handle temporary gaps in data flow, we recommend auditing other systems dependent on Gladly.

Will Gladly reporting be affected? #

We do not expect reporting impact, except you may notice Contact gaps for the timeframe inbound communications are not allowed.

• Scheduled reports will still go out even if they are scheduled during maintenance.
• Reporting APIs will be unavailable during the maintenance.

What to do BEFORE the maintenance window #

For those of you with contact centers that have some Agents working at night, we suggest doing the following to minimize service impact.

Let Agents know ahead of time about the maintenance window #

1. Let your entire team know ahead of time about the maintenance and what to expect. Do this multiple times, especially a few hours before the maintenance window.
   1. Voice Agents — Make sure they communicate to callers about the pending maintenance, especially if they will be on the call after 10:00 PM and if the call will go past 10:30 PM.
   2. Set expectations with your team on what they can/should do while Gladly is going through maintenance.

Contact automation partners #

Contact any automation partners that pass Customers to Gladly if an issue can’t be resolved by the automation. We suggest deactivating those experiences during the maintenance and then restoring normal automation activity after the maintenance.

30 minutes before the maintenance window #

With the exception of Voice where new calls won’t be allowed starting at 10:00 PM, most Channels will stop working at 10:30 PM until the maintenance is done.

If you’re using Chat/Glad App, we suggest deactivating Enable Search and Quick Actions (deselect the box) setting in Glad App and manually throttle chats to 0% for 30 minutes before the maintenance window to prevent queueing Customers. This also hides the widget from your website. Then, revert to your normal chat volume settings and activate Enable Search and Quick Actions (select the box) when the maintenance is complete.

Five minutes before the maintenance #

We suggest logging out of Gladly five minutes before the maintenance window to reduce any disruptions. Stop and save any updates you’re making in Gladly before you log out.

Thin Client users only – Log out before the maintenance window begins.

What to do AFTER the maintenance window #

We do not expect any additional disruptions as soon as the maintenance window is complete and there are no actions required. Still, If you’d like, you can go through a “Go” checklist to make sure everything is in order.

• Make sure everyone in your team can log in.
• Call one of your lines and make sure you’re able to get through.
• Send an email to make sure it goes through. We suggest waiting at least 15 minutes after the maintenance window.
• Check Glad App on your website and make sure it’s available (if it’s within your business hours and should be available).
• If you’re using Help Center, make sure it’s loading on your website.

Thin Client users only – Log back into Corporate VPN before logging back into Gladly.

What if we have issues accessing Gladly after the maintenance? #

We have a team that will continue to check the stability of the platform after the maintenance window. If your team is continuing to encounter issues after the maintenance, or your team is unable to receive requests from Customers, contact Gladly Support and use P2 or above as a priority.