Writing A Great Support Ticket

Writing A Great Support Ticket

Our Support Ticket Process Overview

1. Navigate to https://sage.agency/support/
2. Ensure your task title is descriptive.
3. Add all relevant details.
4. Send screenshots and/or screen recordings.
5. We’ll take care of the rest! 🙂

Clarify Your Needs With A Subject Line

Adding a subject line to your support ticket will better help us understand what your needs are. Please make sure to add one!

When creating a title for your inquiry, you’ll want to pick one that sums up the issue you are facing. The reason this is important is because strong titles make it easier for us to keep tabs on the tickets that we have coming in…yours included!

If your support ticket doesn’t have a strong subject line, our follow-up with you will be slower since we might not have the necessary context to remember your case.

Here are some examples of bad subject lines:

• ? Please fix
• HELP! My page is messing up
• Why isn’t this working?

As you can see, these subject lines are vague and don’t specifically illustrate the problem you are facing.

Here are some examples of good subject lines:

• I’m Getting A Page Loading Error On My About Page Specifically
• Web Page Loading Speed Has Been Slow—General Comments As To Why Are Appreciated
• Please Create The Following Page – All Images and Content Included in Google Docs

Your Main Body Text

Once you have a strong subject line in place, your next step is to flesh out your main body text.

The secret sauce to writing the text of an excellent support ticket is to be specific, and as best as you can, add a lot of detail to your request.

You’ll want to present your most important concerns first, or at the very least, point them out at the beginning of your message to add context to the whole.

If your request contains a lot of detail, then you might also consider breaking up your request into a bullet point or numbered list.

Explain: What Have You Tried So Far?

Sometimes when you write a support ticket, you will have already tried a number of steps on your own to solve the problem.

If this is the case, you’ll want to explain what you’ve already done so that we can try other solutions for you.

Adding what you’ve done to a bullet point or numbered list is very helpful.

Writing A Great Support Ticket – Answering Important Questions

When writing a support ticket to us, here are some questions we are likely to ask you:

• What page or pages are messing up? (You’ll want to provide URLs)
• Are you seeing any error messages?
• What browser are you using?
• Have you tried different browsers?
• Are you using a desktop or mobile device?
• Is the issue happening on another device?
• When did the issue start?
• Has the issue happened more than once?
• Who first noticed the problem? (Include their name and contact information)
• What were you doing when the problem occurred?
• What have you tried so far to fix the problem? (Remember to add as much detail here as you reasonably can)
• Can you provide us with screenshots, video, or documentation?
• Any recent changes made to your site? Plugins updated or added, core/theme changes made?

Any of these questions that you answer preemptively will help us provide you with a faster solution.

Further Reading: 4 Pieces of Advice For Writing A Great Support Ticket

Writing a support ticket can be tough, especially if you haven’t had much practice communicating with businesses whose products and services you use.

Miscommunication in written form is a big deal that can impact your relationships and your ability to problem solve…and unfortunately, it’s all too common.

Tips For Writing An Excellent Support Ticket

Naturally, given the challenge of communicating effectively with businesses, you might feel confused about what you should and shouldn’t include in your communications, whether you are speaking to a website design company, IT company, or an altogether different company.

The good news is that there are rules you can follow that will help you communicate better.

At Sage, we utilize a project management tool called “ClickUp” for our internal processes, and getting support is as easy as sending us an email!

1. Keep A Level Head

We know how tough it can be to remain neutral when you’re upset with a product or service, but being able to detach yourself from the harsh criticism you may want to level on a customer support employee may be very beneficial.

While we understand the need to not mince words, remember that customer support employees are people too, and human nature dictates that people are less inclined to help you or give you a good effort if you’re rude to them.

Having detachment will help you process your thoughts so that you can clearly explain the issue you are facing and allow the customer support employee to present you with a more viable solution.

The calmer you remain, the better. And what you’ll typically find, if you remain calm, is that the support agent will open up to you and be more enthusiastic about working with you.

Bottom line: Being respectful is a win-win.

2. Pay Attention To What Is Being Said

Oftentimes, what support agents say will have subtext, which may not be easy to pick up on, especially if you are unfamiliar with the product or service you are asking about.

Also, it’s arguably easier to pick up on subtext when you’re speaking to someone face to face than it is when you’re communicating through text. Trying to explain difficult concepts to someone through writing doesn’t give you the benefit of seeing their body language and expressions.

This is one of the limits of written language – a limit you can get around if you are a skilled written communicator.

However, you might not have practice constructing messages in a way that captures the nuances you would otherwise be able to convey when speaking in person.

Writing A Great Support Ticket – Paying Attention

For this reason, you’ll want to pay extra close attention to what is being said during your conversation with the support agent and figure out the best way to clear up any miscommunications, if the need arises.

Once you establish a clear line of thought, then you and the support agent will be able to work toward a solution.

Fortunately, in many cases, paying close attention to nuance isn’t necessary. There are plenty of times when you will have a very simple and straightforward complaint about a common issue that the support agent can easily fix.

3. Communicate Clearly and Thoroughly

Writing in a clear, direct, and respectful manner can be difficult, but it is so important when communicating with clients.

While there are too many nuances to the English language for us to list all the styles in which you could write a support ticket (every situation requires a different tone, for instance), you’ll want to make sure that:

(1) Your message sounds well-polished when spoken out loud, (2) that it’s not convoluted or overly wordy, and (3) that you make sure to provide a clear explanation to the problem you are facing.

Regarding this last point, remember that the customer support agent won’t be aware of the extent of the issue you are facing until you’ve explained it.

4. Send A Follow Up Message

If you don’t hear back from a support agent within 24 hours, following up on your original message is important, although we would recommend sending a follow-up even sooner.

Persistence keeps companies accountable.