Triaging Tickets

A walkthrough of triaging tickets in Zendesk

Purpose of this page

This page aims to walk you through some basic checks and items to tick off when triaging tickets in ZenDesk.

Overview

In previous years, triage of tickets was done in the Needs Org queue and required Support Engineers to ensure that tickets were assigned to their organizations with proof of entitlement. Currently, all submitted tickets should have an organization or belong to a free user. Tickets from users who are not listed contacts will automatically be rejected and closed with instructions on how to become a contact for their organization. However, customers may still submit tickets under the wrong forms, so having accurate information helps with reporting and getting the tickets to the right people.

Applying the Correct Form

A ticket should have the correct form applied to it to help route it to the right set of individuals who can assist with that request.

For tickets submitted using an incorrect form or those that need to be moved to non-support forms, apply the General::Forms::Incorrect form used macro. Support Operations will handle the reassignment from there.

Apply the macro Security::All Security Questions. This will reply and mark the ticket solved.

Handling Free User tickets

Free Users who are reporting Self-Managed or SaaS issues

  1. Triage the Free User ticket and verify if they are a SaaS user who meets the support criteria outlined in the free users section of the statement of support.
  2. If they do not meet the above criteria or the ticket is for a self-managed Free User, in New tickets you can select Free customer in Self-Managed Subscription dropdown, which will activate the Auto-close free and self-provisioned trial SM tickets trigger (responds and solves the ticket). If the ticket is Open, then direct the customer to the GitLab community forum via the “Self-managed or GitLab.com Free User Request” macro and mark it “Solved”. If you wish to provide technical assistance to the user, then please do so via the GitLab community forum.

Free Users who are reporting L&R issues

Triage the Free User ticket and verify if the user’s issue relates to subscriptions or account/billing listed in the Applying the Correct Form section, change the form to the appropriate one so that a team member can deal with the request directly.

If the user is asking for assistance getting in contact with sales, you can use the “L&R” form.

If the request falls outside of such scenarios, see the Other Requests section, or direct the user to the GitLab community forum and the ticket marked as “Solved”.

After applying the correct form

  • Apply the correct Support Ticket Category value if possible.
  • If missing, gather information about the GitLab Install Type, Reference Architecture and GitLab Version
  • Consider gathering any other information that might be missing if the customer used the incorrect form.

US Government tickets in Global Support Portal

Users of GitLab’s US Government Support offering may opt to raise a ticket in the Global Support Portal as well. The most common reason for this is the need for support outside of the US Government’s hours of operation. If during the triage process, a Global Agent comes across a ticket that is from an organization which appears to be a customer entitled to US Government Support, the agent can work this case the same as they would any other ticket.

If a ticket is created through the Global Support Portal and a request is made that only agents with US citizenship handle the case, then the agent should direct the customer to file a new case via the US Government Support portal and make their account team aware.

Other Requests

We also receive non Support requests in our queue - if you see something not listed below or something you are unsure about, ask in the #support_leadership slack channel and make a MR to update the list below when you find out the answer.

Request Workflow
Training Redirect requester to Education from Professional Services
New Set Up/Installation Follow the Passing a Lead to Sales workflow
Requests for swag Ask in the #swag internal slack channel or direct to the FAQ for existing orders. For general requests for free swag, use the General::Free Swag Request Macro.
Questions related to status of job application Use the General::Job Application Questions and send a note to the internal #talent acquisition Slack channel.
Legal Questions and Concerns Ask in the #legal internal slack channel
Missing Learning and Development Certificates Direct requester to review Missed Certificate and contact learning@ with a note about which certificate/knowledge assessment is missing.
Questions regarding GitLab Partner Program or problems with registration. This program is under Channel Partner. Kindly direct requester to contact partnersupport@ or ask in #partner-programs-ops when unsure.