Ticket Lifecycle

The lifecycle at a glance

Stage	What happens	Who
1. Arrive	Customer contacts by email, chat, social, phone or form. Automatic acknowledgment tells them when to expect a reply.	Ticketing system
2. Triage	Read, tag the topic, set priority, check history and order	Tier 1
3. Own	One named owner from now until solved or handed over	Tier 1 or Tier 2
4. Work	Resolve within policy and authority, or escalate with a full note	Owner
5. Wait (if needed)	Pending (customer owes us) or On-hold (internal team or vendor owes us)	Owner
6. Resolve	Customer has the answer or the fix; next steps confirmed	Owner
7. Solve and survey	Status Solved; satisfaction survey sent automatically	Owner
8. Close or reopen	Closes after the client's set period; a customer reply reopens it	Ticketing system
9. Learn	Root-cause tag feeds the weekly top reasons report	Owner, Tier 2

Stage 2: Triage in 60 seconds

For every new ticket, before you write anything:

• Read the whole message (and the whole thread if it is a reply)
• Check the customer's previous tickets and notes
• Open the order, account or booking
• Tag the contact reason from the approved list
• Set the priority
• Check for linked tickets (the same customer writing through two channels)

Priority levels

Priority	Examples	First response
Urgent	Safety risk, legal threat, suspected account takeover, payment taken but no order, public complaint spreading, VIP customer	Immediately; follow the Escalation Ladder
High	Order past its promised date, product unusable, billing error, event-date gift at risk	Ahead of Normal, within target
Normal	How-to, return request, order change, general questions	Within target, oldest first
Low	Feedback, feature ideas, compliments	Within target, after Normal

Priority is about impact on the customer and the business, not about how loud the message is. An angry message about a 5 USD shipping fee is still Normal. A polite message saying "I was charged three times" is High.

Stage 3: Ownership

1. If you touch it, you own it. Once you reply, the ticket is yours until it is solved or handed over formally.
2. A formal handover means an internal note (below) and a reassignment, plus telling the customer if a new person will reply.
3. Shift change: any ticket you own that will need action before your next shift gets a handover note to the next shift or your lead.

Stage 4: The internal note

Write an internal note whenever someone else might pick up the ticket. Use this format:

Issue: (one line) Checked: (what you looked at and found) Done: (what you did) Promised: (what you told the customer, and by when, with zone) Next: (what needs to happen, and who)

Example:

Issue: Order not delivered, tracking shows "delivered" 3 days ago. Checked: Address matches the order. Carrier shows delivery photo at a different door. Done: Opened carrier claim, reference (CLAIM NUMBER). Promised: Update by Thursday 12:00 PM ET. Next: If no carrier answer by Thursday, Tier 2 to approve resend (over my limit).

Stage 5: Statuses (use them honestly)

Status	Means	Use when
New	Nobody has looked at it	Never leave a ticket here longer than the first response target
Open	We owe the next action	You are working on it or will soon
Pending	The customer owes the next action	You asked a question or need a photo, document or confirmation
On-hold	Someone inside the business or a vendor owes us	Waiting on warehouse, carrier, client, product team
Solved	The issue is resolved, or the reply is complete and nothing more is owed	After the final answer
Closed	Locked by the system after the client's set period	Automatic

Pending follow ups

If a Pending ticket gets no reply, follow the client's timing. A common pattern: a friendly reminder after 2 business days, a last check after 4, then Solved with a note that the customer can reply anytime (see the No Reply Follow Up template).

On-hold follow ups

On-hold does not mean "forget". Check every On-hold ticket daily. If an internal answer is late, chase it, and send the customer the promised update even if there is no news.

Stage 6 and 7: Resolving and solving

A ticket is ready to solve when:

• Every question the customer asked is answered
• Any action promised is done (refund issued, label sent, account fixed)
• The customer knows what happens next (for example "the refund appears in 5 to 10 business days")
• Tags, notes and fields are complete
• The root-cause tag is set

Stage 8: Reopens

A reopen means the customer was not fully helped. Treat it as a learning signal:

1. Read why it reopened.
2. Fix the issue properly this time.
3. If the first reply missed something, note the lesson for yourself.
4. If the process or macro caused it, tell your lead.

Stage 9: Learning from tickets

At the end of every week, Tier 2 or the lead sends the client the top 5 contact reasons, with numbers and a suggested fix for each. For example: "112 of 640 tickets (18%) asked where their order was. 70% of those were within the normal delivery window. Suggestion: add the delivery estimate to the order confirmation email."

This is where support stops being a cost and starts improving the client's business.

Check yourself

1. List the six triage checks.
2. A polite customer says they were charged three times. What priority, and why?
3. What is the difference between Pending and On-hold?
4. Write an internal note for a ticket where you are waiting for the warehouse to confirm stock.
5. A ticket is On-hold and you promised an update today, but the warehouse has not replied. What do you do?

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