How a request moves.
WHAT THE STAGES USUALLY ARE
New, not yet seen Open, being worked Pending, waiting on the customer On hold, waiting on something internal Resolved Closed
WHY PENDING AND ON HOLD ARE SEPARATE
One is the customer's move; the other is yours.
WHY THAT DISTINCTION MATTERS
Response time measurement should exclude time waiting on the customer, and must not exclude your own delays.
WHAT TO DEFINE FOR EACH STATUS
What it means Who is responsible while it is there What moves it on
WHAT TO AVOID
Statuses nobody can define Tickets sitting in a status with no owner
WHAT AUTOMATION HELPS WITH
Acknowledging receipt Routing by topic Reminding when something has sat too long Closing pending tickets after a period with warning
WHAT TO BE CAREFUL WITH
Automatic closure that feels dismissive.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD
Warn first, and make reopening easy.
WHAT EVERY TICKET NEEDS
An owner, always.
WHY
Unowned tickets are worked by nobody.
WHAT TO REVIEW DAILY
Anything unassigned Anything older than your target Anything reopened
WHAT REOPENING INDICATES
It was not actually resolved.
