Mellenger Days are additional paid days off - at the discretion of Mellenger Interactive management - for employees. Let's face it - we all LOVE Mellenger Days but the reality is that they are regular business days for our clients.
Through our SLAs (service-level agreements) or Mellencare agreements, we commit to being available 24/7 to our clients for critical website issues.
What are Critical issues?
These are defined as:
The client’s website is not loading for multiple users
The website is loading, but showing an error instead of content or the content is significantly malformed or out of place
The website appears to have been defaced/hacked in some manner
Any urgent security-related matter
So even if us Mellengerms are tucking into a day of Love of Blind on Netflix or planning a day of extreme mountain biking, someone has to keep an eye on the shop on Mellenger Days. Here is the procedure we will follow on Mellenger days to ensure that we continue to address critical client isues in a timely fashion.
Before the Mellenger Day
At the WIP meeting approximately 2 weeks prior to a scheduled Mellenger Day, the team will discuss who is "on call" for the upcoming Mellenger Day. "On call" is defined as available to check their Mellenger email every 2 hours starting at 8am and ending at 6pm PST.
Every effort will be made to rotate the Mellenger Day "on call" responsibility amongst all team members.
The "on call' team member is not expected to personally resolve the critical issue.
Their job is to:
a) Monitor the support inbox starting at 8am until 6pm PST, at minimum 2 hour intervals
b) Attempt to address a critical issues or triage it to the lead dev team member
c) Communicate back to the team that the issue is being handled and when it is ultimately resolved.
A week before the scheduled Mellenger Day, an email will be sent to our SLA and Mellencare clients by the Project Manager to advise that the Mellenger office will be closed on a particular date and that if they require critical support that day, they should email support@mellenger.com. This email will define "critical" as per the SLA and Mellencare agreement.
On the Mellenger Day
The "on call" team member will check their Mellenger email at 8am PST and again, every 2 hours, until 6pm PST. If a client emails Support, the team member will:
Review the client email and ascertain if the issue is, indeed, critical as defined in the Mellenger SLA and Mellencare agrement (see definition above).
If a critical issue has occured, the "on call" team member will
Reply to the client's email immediately*
If the issue is indeed critical (see definition above), advise the client that we are looking into it right away. Please refer to the Critical Client Support section for guidance
If the issue is not critical, thank the client for their email and advise them that we will address the issue on the next business day. Make sure to provide this date of the next business day, as our US clients won't be aware of Canadian stat holidays.
Attempt to resolve the issue themselves; we know this won't be possible very often. Refer to this page for details on hosting, platforms etc.
If the site is on Pantheon, be sure to check the Pantheon Status Page to see if they're reporting issues
Reach out to the dev lead on the project for help if they cannot resolve the issue themselves.
Provide regular and timely updates to the client, ultimately advising when the issue has been resolved. This will be done by either the team member who is handling the critical issue, whether the "on-call" team member or the dev lead.
*Please ensure that support@mellenger.com is copied on all emails to the client.
A caveat
There is always a chance that once a client is advised that their issue is not critical and that it will be addressed on the next business day, they will say that their issue is very important and request (or demand) that it is addressed immediately. At this point, it is best to reach out either Andrew or Megan for support to pick up the communication with the client.
Best way to reach a Mellengerm
Andrew - 604.765.0463
Chino - Text to 778.325.5483
Codi - Text to 778.998.4692
Francois - Text or call 778.994.3510
Megan - Text to 778.233.6344
Philippe - Text to 778.513 8618
Wes - 604-618-6619