Working with Support Ops

Workflow for working with Support Operations

Working with Support Ops

General speaking, working with Support Operations can be broken down into 8 categories:

For a general overview, please see the flowchart.

Customer asking for support portal changes

Occasionally, a customer might mis-file a ticket and send a request for support portal changes using a Support form. In these cases, please change the form to Support Ops in Zendesk and we will handle it from there. Please do not reply (as that removes our SLA clock from the ticket).

Please never modify a user’s access permissions or make any edits to the organization itself. We have specific processes and policies we must follow for such changes to occur.

Asking general questions

For general questions and assistance, reach out via the support_operations Slack channel. From there, a member of the Support Operations team will respond and work with you to help address the question. Should the discussion need more than a simple answer, Support Operations will direct you to create an issue in the correct issue tracker.

Request changes to your Calendly

Note: Support Operations does not have the ability to change your personal Calendly settings, only those used in team events.

When you need modifications made to your Calendly (such as being added to an event, having the schedule used in an event changed, etc.), you will want to create an issue in the calendly issue tracker.

From there, your manager will review the request and approve it. Once approved, they will ping Support Operations.

Support Operations will then review the request and work the issue. Once completed, Support Operations will then confirm the issue is completed and close out the issue.

Propose a change

To propose or request a change, create an issue in the support-team-meta issue tracker so it can be discussed amongst the team. If the proposal impacts teams other than Support, include those teams in the discussion.

When creating the issue, be sure to set a reasonable due date. Choose a date on which the discussions will end and a decision will be reached between the approving manager(s) and the requester. If you need the assistance of Support Operations in the discussion, you can ping the Support Operations team using @gitlab-com/support/support-ops.

Once a decision has been made, the approving manager will then ping the Support Operations team in a comment on the issue using @gitlab-com/support/support-ops. A Support Operations team member will then review the issue and ask for any clarification as needed.

After Support Operations has confirmed the request and received any requested clarification, they will then create an issue in the appropriate tracker.

Support Operations will then work from the new issue to perform testing and other related tasks. At this stage, ensure you are available to help with the testing and review the results. Support Operations will ask the original requester to review everything before moving on to the next step.

Note: Do not create the issues in the Support Operations issue tracker(s). They require a support-team-meta issue for discussion and approval from a manager to be actioned on. Without this having occurred, Support Operations is likely to close out the issue and request the normal procedure be followed.

Get something fixed

This is category is for anything in our current setups that needs to be fixed (ie it is broken). These issues should not be for improvements or changes, but simply to get something that is currently broken fixed as soon as possible. For these, you would file an issue in the support-ops-project issue tracker. As these types of requests are highly important and solely to fix something broken, they do not require a discussion issue or manager approval.

Once the issue is created, Support Operations will work the issue. They may create new issues or move the original request as needed. As these tend to be timely in nature, make sure you are available to work with Support Operations.

Make changes to Zendesk Global or Zendesk US Government macros

Macros are deployed immediately. For information on macros, please see Zendesk Global Macros.

If you want to edit the wording of a macro, make an MR to the repo (Zendesk Global or Zendesk US Government). If you want to make non-wording changes (renaming it, add/removing options, etc.), use the Support Super Form ‘Edit a Zendesk macro’ option. If you want to create a new macro, use the Support Super Form ‘Create a Zendesk macro’ option. To discuss a macro (but not actually action on anything), use a support-team-meta issue.

Support Team page requests

For changes to the support team page, you would file an issue in the support-team-meta issue tracker.

Once the issue is created, Support Operations will work the issue. They may create new issues or move the original request as needed.

Everything else

This is a catchall category for anything that didn’t fit the previous ones. For these types of requests, you would file an issue under the support-ops-project issue tracker. From there, Support Operations will work the issue. They may create new issues or move the original request as needed.

Flowchart

graph TD;
  Start -- "Ask a general question" --> Slack;
  Start -- "Request changes to my Calendly" --> Calendly;
  Start -- "Propose a change" --> SupportTeamMeta;
  Start -- "Get something fixed/Other" --> SupportOpsProject;
  Start -- "Make changes to macros in ZD Global" --> ZendeskMacros;
  Start -- "Make changes to macros in ZD US Government" --> ZendeskUsGovernment;
  Start -- "Support Team page request" --> SupportTeam;
  Slack --> SlackResponds;
  Calendly --> CalendlyFillOutIssue;
  CalendlyFillOutIssue --> CalendlyPingManager;
  CalendlyPingManager --> CalendlyManagerFillOutIssue;
  CalendlyManagerFillOutIssue --> CalendlyManagerPingSupportOps;
  CalendlyManagerPingSupportOps --> CalendlySupportOpsWorksIssue;
  CalendlySupportOpsWorksIssue --> CalendlySupportOpsDone;
  SupportTeamMeta --> SupportTeamMetaDueDate;
  SupportTeamMetaDueDate --> SupportTeamMetaManagerApprove;
  SupportTeamMetaManagerApprove --> SupportTeamMetaManagerPingSupportOps;
  SupportTeamMetaManagerPingSupportOps --> SupportTeamMetaOpsReview;
  SupportTeamMetaOpsReview --> SupportTeamMetaOpsQuestions;
  SupportTeamMetaOpsQuestions -- "Yes" --> SupportTeamMetaOpsAsk;
  SupportTeamMetaOpsAsk --> SupportTeamMetaOpsRequesterClarifies;
  SupportTeamMetaOpsRequesterClarifies --> SupportTeamMetaOpsQuestions;
  SupportTeamMetaOpsQuestions -- "No" --> SupportTeamMetaOpsCreatesIssue;
  SupportTeamMetaOpsCreatesIssue --> OpsWorksIssue;
  SupportOpsProject --> OpsWorksIssue;
  ZendeskMacros --> OpsWorksIssue;
  ZendeskUsGovernment --> OpsWorksIssue;
  SupportTeam --> OpsWorksIssue;
  Start{"What do you wish to do?"};
  Slack["Ask in the support_operations slack channel"];
  SlackResponds["Support Ops responds in Slack and assists"];
  Calendly["Create an issue in the support-ops/other-software/calendly project"];
  CalendlyFillOutIssue["Fill out the issue based on the templae"];
  CalendlyPingManager["Ping your manager in the issue for next steps"];
  CalendlyManagerFillOutIssue["Manager does their part of the issue"];
  CalendlyManagerPingSupportOps["Manager pings Support Ops"];
  CalendlySupportOpsWorksIssue["Support Ops works the issue"];
  CalendlySupportOpsDone["Support Ops confirms issue is completed and closes it"];
  SupportTeamMeta["Create a discussion issue in support-team-meta"];
  SupportTeamMetaDueDate["Set a due date for the end of discussion"];
  SupportTeamMetaManagerApprove["Have a manager review the issue and approve moving forward"];
  SupportTeamMetaManagerPingSupportOps["Manager pings Support Ops"];
  SupportTeamMetaOpsReview["Support Ops reviews issue"];
  SupportTeamMetaOpsQuestions{"Any clarifying questions needed?"};
  SupportTeamMetaOpsAsk["Support Ops asks requester to clarify"];
  SupportTeamMetaOpsRequesterClarifies["Requester clarifies"];
  SupportTeamMetaOpsCreatesIssue["Support Ops creates issue in correct tracker"];
  SupportOpsProject["Create an issue in the support-ops-project"];
  OpsWorksIssue["Support Ops works issue from there, making new ones as needed"];
  ZendeskMacros["Create an issue in the macros project"];
  ZendeskUsGovernment["Create an issue in the zendesk-us-government project"];
  SupportTeam["Create an issue in the support-team project"];

Helpful links

Last modified November 13, 2024: Clarify ZenDesk spam instructions: Different permissions and methods, but same outcome (dbfc956f)

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