Meeting the First Response Time (FRT) Service Level Agreement (SLA)

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On this page

• On this page
• Aim: 95% or better First Response Time (FRT) SLA achievement
• How:
  • Reply and assign 'new' tickets every day
  • Find 'new' tickets from the Needs Org / FRT and Handover Needed views
  • Taking action in the Needs Org / FRT view
    • Why assign first?
    • Using the Handover to Preferred Region macro
  • Taking action in the Handover Needed view
  • How do I choose between Needs Org / FRT and Handover Needed view?
  • Taking action on 'Needs org' tickets (triaging)
  • What does success look like?
  • Tips for sending first replies
  • Manager responsibilities

Aim: 95% or better First Response Time (FRT) SLA achievement

Everyone in the Support team contributes every day to ensure tickets get first replies within the Service Level Agreement we have with our customers.

Our goal is to reply to at least 95% of new tickets within the ticket's SLA.

You can track your progress and see global results on this Zendesk Explore Dashboard

How:

Reply and assign 'new' tickets every day

On each working day, all Support Engineers reply and take ownership of 'new' tickets:

1. Self-managed focus: 1 ticket per day, 2 tickets on one day per week (6 per week)
2. SaaS focus: 2 tickets per day (10 per week - includes SaaS account tickets)
3. L&R focus: 3 tickets per day (15 per week)

These numbers are based on our current ticket volume, number of SEs and average PTO (15%). We will continue to monitor ticket volume and number of SEs to make sure the above guidelines are accurate. If everyone contributes on days they are available we will exceed the 95% target above.

Find 'new' tickets from the Needs Org / FRT and Handover Needed views

'New' tickets you can take ownership of can be found in two views:

1. Needs Org / FRT (tickets needing a first reply)
2. Handover Needed (tickets needing an owner or someone to continue working on a high priority 'All Regions' issue)

The priority is to prevent tickets breaching SLA in the Needs Org / FRT view.

The Handover Needed view has two types of tickets.

1. Tickets that have already had a first reply but are not assigned. This happens when someone sends a first reply to prevent the ticket from breaching SLA, but doesn't assign as the preferred region is not theirs. We consider these tickets as 'new' (Zendesk status will say 'open') since they need an owner.
2. Tickets that have a 'High' priority and where the preferred region of support is set to ‘All Regions’. These are tickets that require global collaboration to continue to work at reducing the ticket priority.

Taking action in the Needs Org / FRT view

1. Choose a ticket at or near the top of the Needs Org / FRT view
2. Determine the ticket priority and preferred region of support. If the ticket priority is 'High' and preferred region of support is 'All Regions' then follow the HPAR tickets workflow otherwise go to the next step.
3. Assign it to yourself (this takes it out of the view - see Why assign first?)
4. Write your reply to the customer
5. Take next steps depending on the region and the work you completed:
   1. If you have a complete first reply, submit as Pending
   2. If the preferred region is neither your region nor 'all regions', use the Handover to Preferred Region macro
   3. If you can't reply:
      1. try to collaborate first (see Tips for sending first replies)
      2. leave an internal note describing your investigation
      3. put the ticket back in the FRT view by assigning it to GitLab Support

Why assign first?

The workflow calls for assigning a ticket first, then replying. This is to take the ticket out of the view and help avoid confusion with the 👁 presence indicator. You can always un-assign (see above) if you're unable to make the first reply after some investigation. If you do this, please be sure to leave an internal note describing your investigation and anything you found.

Using the Handover to Preferred Region macro

This macro will un-assign and prompt you to write an internal note summarizing next steps. When the customer replies the ticket will appear in the Handover Needed view.

Taking action in the Handover Needed view

This is basically the same as above:

1. Choose a ticket at or near the top of the Handover Needed view with preferred region equal to your region or 'All Regions'. If the ticket priority is 'High' and preferred region of support is 'All Regions' then follow the HPAR tickets workflow otherwise go to the next step.
2. Assign it to yourself (this takes it out of the view - see Why assign first?)
3. Write your reply to the customer
4. Choose one of the following:
   1. Submit as Pending.
   2. If you can't reply:
      1. try to collaborate first
      2. leave an internal note describing your investigation
      3. put the ticket back in the Handover Needed view by assigning it to GitLab Support

How do I choose between Needs Org / FRT and Handover Needed view?

1. The top priority is to prevent tickets in the 'FRT' view from breaching SLA.
2. If there are no imminent breaches, pick a ticket from the view with the most tickets to keep things balanced.

Taking action on 'Needs org' tickets (triaging)

Everyone is responsible for Triaging tickets to make sure they have:

1. The correct ticket form (such as GitLab.com, if they're asking for GitLab.com support).
2. An associated organization
3. The correct priority
4. The correct 'Problem Type'

A form change results in an auto-reply for tickets that don't have an org associated yet. Hence, it is recommended to first associate the user with an appropriate org. Then change the form to the most relevant form type and fill in additional metadata where possible.

What does success look like?

1. We meet or exceed our 95% FRT SLA achievement target.
2. The Needs Org / FRT view ticket count stays in the single digits.
3. The Handover Needed view ticket count stays in the single digits.

Tips for sending first replies

1. If the ticket priority does not match our Definitions of Support Impact let the customer know and agree on the new priority. Use the macro General::Changed priority.
2. If the ticket has the potential to become an emergency, ping the engineer on-call for a heads-up.
3. If a ticket is close to breaching and you need more time to provide a comprehensive response then send an initial quick reply to prevent the breach and follow up with the customer later.
   1. Ask any clarifying questions and let them know when you plan to work on it and when they can expect a reply.
   2. Submit as on-hold.
   3. You can use the 'Due Date' and 'Reminder' apps in Zendesk to remind you when to follow up. If it's not an urgent ticket it might be that you'll work on it the next day. The customer has an opportunity to reply to you if this isn't soon enough for them. The 4-minute SLA Clock video gives general guidance on this workflow.
4. Collaborate! Not sure how to reply? Speak with the team and work together.

Manager responsibilities

The manager on-call in each region will keep an eye on the 'FRT' and 'Handover' views and alert the team if extra focus is needed. Managers also take one or two tickets each per week.