The edit tool on every Avistra website has two ways of asking for something. Make an edit is for a change to what is already on the page: point at it and say what it should say. Support request is for everything else: a new page, a bigger change, a question, something that looks wrong. This note is about the second one, and about knowing which is which. If you have not opened the tool before, How to make edits on an Avistra website shows the sign-in.
What a support request is
A support request is a message to us, written the way you would write an email, sent from inside your site. It has a subject, a message, and whatever you want to attach: photos, files, and a screenshot of the page you are looking at. Nothing on the site changes when you send it. It comes to us, we read it, we do the work, and the reply comes back to you by email, usually the same day.
That is the difference. An edit is a change the tool can make on the spot, because you have pointed at the words and said what they should be instead. A support request is anything the tool cannot do by itself, or anything you would rather just tell us about.
When to use which
Use Make an edit when the thing that should change is on the page in front of you. A price, a phone number, an opening time, a sentence, a photo that should be a different photo, a line that should come out. Point at it, say what it should say, and a small change like that is made while you watch.
Use Support request when it is not on the page yet, or when it is bigger than a few words:
- A new page, and what should be on it.
- A section added, moved, or taken away.
- A new logo, new photos, or new colours across the site.
- A form that should ask a different question, or send to a different address.
- Something that looks wrong, on a phone or on a computer, and you are not sure why.
- A question about your site, your plan, or your email.
If you are not sure which one you need, use Support request. It is never the wrong choice; we will do the edit for you if it turns out to be one. And if you start an edit and the tool decides it is too big to make on the spot, it comes to us as a request anyway, with your picture and your words attached.
Sending one
Choose Support request in the bar at the lower right of the page. A panel opens with three parts:
- Subject. One line saying what it is about. It is optional, but it helps us and it helps you find it later in your Request log.
- Message. Write it the way you would write an email. Say what you want, where it should go, and anything we should know. There is no wrong way to say it.
- Attachments. Photo or file adds anything from your computer or phone: a Word document with the words for a new page, a PDF, a photo, a logo. Screenshot of this page has the tool take a picture of the page you are on, so you can say "this bit, here" without explaining where. You can also paste a picture straight into the message and it lands as an attachment. Up to eight files at a time.
Then choose Send. A short note confirms it has gone, and you can close the tool. The panel remembers what you have typed while the tool is open, so closing it to look at something does not lose your words.
What happens next
Your message arrives with us with everything attached, and the page you sent it from. We read it and reply by email, usually the same day. If it is work we can do straight away, we do it and tell you it is done. If it needs a conversation first, a question about what you meant, a choice between two ways of doing it, that conversation happens by email, the same as any other. Reply to any email from us and it comes straight back to the person working on your site.
Where it stands
The chevron at the end of the bar opens a small menu. Request log lists everything you have asked for, edits and support requests alike, and where each one stands. A support request reads With us until it is done. When we have taken care of it, you get an email saying so, and it reads Done in the log. Withdraw takes back a request we have not started yet; we are told, so nothing is done twice.
The short version
On the page already: Make an edit. Anything else: Support request. Both are part of your plan, so ask for what you need.