Use this skill when designing ticket triage systems, managing SLAs, creating macros, or building escalation workflows. Triggers on ticket triage, SLA management, support macros, escalation workflows, support queue, first response time, and any task requiring customer support process design or optimization.
Use this skill when designing ticket triage systems, managing SLAs, creating macros, or building escalation workflows. Triggers on ticket triage, SLA management, support macros, escalation workflows, support queue, first response time, and any task requiring customer support process design or optimization.
First response time is king - The metric customers feel most is how quickly
someone acknowledges their problem. A fast FRT buys goodwill and time. Every SLA
must prioritize FRT above all others. Measure it first; everything else is secondary.
Triage before solving - An untriaged queue is a random queue. Agents working in
random order guarantee high-priority problems wait behind low-priority ones. Triage
assigns priority, tier, and routing - it does not solve the problem.
Macros save hours, not minutes - One macro used 50 times a day saves 50x the
time invested in writing it. Expand the library whenever agents write the same reply
more than once a week. Review quarterly. A bad macro is worse than no macro.
Escalation paths must be clear - Ambiguous escalation is the leading cause of
tickets stalling. Every agent must know, without asking, exactly when and where to
escalate. If an agent has to think about whether to escalate, the path is not clear.
Measure everything - Support intuition degrades under volume. Track FRT,
resolution time, CSAT, first contact resolution rate, escalation rate, and queue age.
Review weekly. Data surfaces problems before customers do.
Core concepts
Support tiers
Tier
Typical customers
Support entitlement
Community / Free
Trial, free plan
Docs and community forum only
Standard
Paying customers
Email, SLA 24h FRT
Professional
Growth plan
Email + chat, SLA 8h FRT
Enterprise
Large contracts
All channels, SLA 1h FRT, named contacts
Tier assignment rule: Tier is set at account creation from the billing plan and
must trigger automatic re-routing in the ticketing system. Never rely on agents to
manually route by tier - automate it.
SLA components
Component
Definition
Measured from
First Response Time (FRT)
Time from ticket creation to first agent reply
Ticket creation
Next Response Time (NRT)
Time between agent replies after customer responds
Customer reply
Resolution Time (RT)
Time from ticket creation to closed status
Ticket creation
SLA clock rules:
FRT clock starts immediately on ticket creation, including nights and weekends,
unless the tier contract specifies business hours only.
Clock pauses when a ticket enters "Pending Customer" status (waiting on customer).
Clock never pauses for internal notes or transfers between agents.
Each transition must have a defined owner and time constraint. Tickets sitting in
"Triaged" for more than 30 minutes indicate a routing or staffing problem. Tickets
in "In Progress" beyond the resolution SLA need a manager flag.
Queue management
Queue states to monitor:
State
Definition
Action threshold
New
Submitted, not yet triaged
> 15 min: trigger triage alert
Breached
Past FRT SLA
Escalate to lead immediately
At-risk
Within 20% of SLA window
Flag for prioritization
Aging
Open > 5 days with no update
Manager review required
Stalled
No agent activity > 24 hours
Auto-assign to queue lead
Common tasks
Design a triage system
Priority matrix (impact x urgency):
Low urgency
High urgency
High impact
P2 - schedule soon
P1 - respond now
Low impact
P4 - backlog
P3 - respond today
Priority definitions:
P1 - Critical: Service down, data loss, security issue, or revenue blocked.
FRT target: 1 hour. Assign immediately. Page on-call if needed.
P2 - High: Core feature broken, workaround difficult, or VIP affected.
FRT target: 4 hours. Pull from queue before P3/P4.
P3 - Normal: Feature degraded, workaround exists, standard customer.
FRT target: per tier SLA (8h or 24h).
P4 - Low: Cosmetic issue, how-to question, feature request.
FRT target: 48 hours. May be batch-processed.
Triage checklist (run on every new ticket):
Assign priority using the matrix above.
Confirm customer tier from CRM. Upgrade priority if enterprise.
Check for duplicate tickets from the same account - merge if found.
At 75% of FRT window: auto-flag the ticket as "at-risk" in the queue view.
At 100% of FRT window: alert the team lead via Slack and mark as breached.
At 150% of FRT window: escalate to support manager, log as SLA violation.
Weekly SLA health report: FRT compliance % per tier (target > 95%), resolution
compliance % per tier (target > 90%), breach count by priority, top 5 breach reasons.
Create a macro and template library
Macro taxonomy:
Acknowledgment:
- First response: issue received
- First response: investigating
- First response: needs more info
Status Updates:
- Update: investigating root cause
- Update: fix in progress, ETA known
- Update: fix in progress, ETA unknown
- Update: escalated to engineering
Resolution:
- Resolution: issue fixed, steps to verify
- Resolution: workaround provided
- Resolution: known issue, linked to status page
Closures:
- Closing: no response from customer (7 days)
- Closing: duplicate ticket
- Closing: feature request logged
VIP and Escalations:
- VIP: acknowledgment with named CSM
- Escalation received: enterprise path
Macro quality rules:
Every macro must have a human-review checkpoint. Never send blind.
Macros must include placeholder fields for: customer name, product area,
ticket number, and agent name.
Review and update the full library every quarter.
Retire macros with a < 2% usage rate after 90 days.
See references/macro-templates.md for the full ready-to-use template library.
Escalation handoff requirements - every escalation must include:
Summary of the issue in 2-3 sentences.
Steps already tried and their outcomes.
Customer tier and sentiment (calm / frustrated / at churn risk).
Relevant screenshots, logs, or error messages attached.
Proposed priority for the receiving team.
Optimize queue management
Queue health metrics:
Metric
Healthy
Warning
Critical
Avg queue age (open tickets)
< 24h
24-48h
> 48h
% tickets at-risk
< 5%
5-15%
> 15%
% tickets breached
< 2%
2-5%
> 5%
First contact resolution rate
> 70%
60-70%
< 60%
Ticket reopen rate
< 10%
10-20%
> 20%
Queue optimization tactics:
Morning triage burst: First 30 minutes of each shift: triage all new tickets before agents pick up personal queues.
Aging sweep: Every 4 hours, a lead scans for tickets with no activity in 24h and reassigns or prompts.
Tag-based batching: Group similar tickets and batch-reply after one root-cause investigation.
Deflection loop: Top 10 ticket topics each week. 5+ recurrences means a help article is needed.
Handle VIP and enterprise support
VIP designation criteria:
Contract value above a defined threshold (e.g., > $50k ARR).
Named in the contract as a "premium support" account.
Manually flagged by Sales or CS at deal close.
VIP support protocol:
Phase
Action
Creation
Auto-tag VIP, route to dedicated queue, notify CSM via Slack, send VIP macro within 15 min
Resolution
Proactive updates every 4h, CC CSM on all replies, escalations go direct to senior agent
Closure
CSM personal follow-up within 24h, suppress CSAT if relationship is sensitive, log in CRM
Design an on-call support rotation
Rotation structure:
Primary on-call: Monitors queue, handles escalations, pages engineering if needed.
Secondary on-call: Available for overflow; backup if primary is unavailable.
Support lead: Available for management escalations and SLA breach approvals.
Follow-the-sun model (distributed teams):
Region
Coverage (UTC)
Handoff
APAC
00:00 - 08:00
08:00 UTC
EMEA
08:00 - 16:00
16:00 UTC
Americas
16:00 - 00:00
00:00 UTC
On-call health metrics:
Metric
Healthy
Unhealthy
Escalations per on-call shift
< 3
> 8
After-hours P1 tickets per week
< 2
> 5
On-call handoff notes complete
> 90%
< 70%
On-call rotation rules: Minimum 4 agents per region. Never assign the same
agent two consecutive weeks. Provide compensation for after-hours coverage.
On-call agent must complete a shift handoff note before logging off.
Define SLAs in calendar hours for enterprise tiers; staff accordingly or use follow-the-sun
Macros sent without review
Generic replies to nuanced problems destroy CSAT; customers feel like a number
Every macro send requires agent review of all populated fields; never auto-fire macros
Escalation with no context
Receiving team re-investigates what front-line already knows, wasting hours
Mandate a structured 5-point handoff note on every escalation
Measuring only resolution time
Slow FRT loses customers even when resolution is fast; CSAT drops before resolution happens
Track and report FRT as the primary SLA metric; resolution time is secondary
VIP tickets in the shared queue
VIP accounts lose priority to volume; CSM discovers the problem when the customer complains
Route VIP tickets to a dedicated queue with guaranteed assignment within 15 minutes
Gotchas
SLA clock running during "Pending Customer" status - Many ticketing system configurations keep the SLA clock running even when a ticket is waiting on the customer. This inflates resolution time metrics and creates false SLA breaches. Verify your ticketing platform pauses the clock correctly when status changes to "Pending Customer" or equivalent.
Macros that skip populated placeholder fields - A macro template with {customer_name} that sends as-is when the field is empty sends customers an email that starts "Hi ," - a CSAT disaster. Every macro must require agent review before send; never configure auto-fire on macros with dynamic fields.
Enterprise tickets routed into the shared queue - An enterprise customer submitting a ticket via the same channel as a free-tier user will wait behind a backlog of low-priority tickets unless routing is automated. VIP/enterprise tier identification must happen at ticket creation via CRM lookup, not manual agent review.
On-call rotations without minimum coverage rules - An on-call rotation with only two engineers per region means one calling in sick leaves a single person covering P1s. Define a minimum viable coverage threshold and have a clear escalation path when it cannot be met (pool from a secondary region, use a support-on-call vendor, etc.).
Escalation handoffs without context transfer - Escalating a ticket with only "customer is unhappy" forces the Tier 2 agent to re-investigate everything already discovered. Every escalation must include: the issue summary, steps already tried with outcomes, customer tier and sentiment, and all relevant logs or screenshots. Missing any of these doubles the resolution time.
References
For detailed guidance on specific customer support operations domains, load the
relevant file from references/:
references/macro-templates.md - ready-to-use support response templates covering acknowledgment, status updates, resolution, and closure scenarios
Only load a references file when the current task requires it.
Companion check
On first activation of this skill in a conversation: check which companion skills are installed by running ls ~/.claude/skills/ ~/.agent/skills/ ~/.agents/skills/ .claude/skills/ .agent/skills/ .agents/skills/ 2>/dev/null. Compare the results against the recommended_skills field in this file's frontmatter. For any that are missing, mention them once and offer to install:
