Triaging Tickets

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.

Overall Flow

graph TD
    G[Ensure correct form] --> A{Is it a Support Ticket?}
    A -->|Yes| B{Is the ticket tied to an org?}
    A -->|No| H[Check if it falls under 'Other Requests']
    B -->|Yes| D{Does the ticket have an SLA?}
    B -->|No| J[Is it a Free User?]
    D -->|Yes| C[Done]
    D -->|No| F[Contact Support Ops!]
    J --> |No| E[Contact Support Ops!]
    J --> |Yes| I[Does it qualify for Support?]
    I --> |No| K[See 'Handling Free User tickets' section below]
    I --> |Yes| E

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.

The single source of truth for what forms exist is the Current active forms list in the Support Ops handbook section.

Below is a list of some commonly used Zendesk forms with a brief explanation regarding their usage:

• Self-Managed: An issue where the customer is maintaining their own local instance of GitLab
• SaaS (GitLab.com): An issue involving the GitLab hosted SaaS offering
• SaaS Account: Single user account issue only, all others go to GitLab.com (SaaS).
• L&R (License and Renewals): subscription and purchase issues, see also L&R workflows.
• Level Up: For tickets that should go to the Professional Services team, such as requests about the GitLab LevelUp platform(levelup.gitlab.com).

Please note: Please follow the guidance under Moving to non-support forms to change the ticket form, unless it’s between Self-Managed, SaaS (GitLab.com) and SaaS Account.

For security related matters

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

Moving to non-support forms

For cases that need to go to non-support forms, apply the General::Forms::Incorrect form used macro. Support Operations will do the rest from there.

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 - Category and Subcategory 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 macro 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.