How to manage tickets in the Inbound Support queue?

Inbound Support Queue: CSM Quick Reference Guide

Ticket Status Guide

Status	When to Use	Ball With
New	Fresh ticket, no one has looked at it yet	CSM (triage)
Reopened	Customer has replied, awaiting your response	CSM (respond)
Waiting on Customer	You've replied and need info or action from customer	Customer
On Hold	Blocked by internal dependency (e.g., Inc Product team)	Paused
Redirected	Routed to Sales/Marketing; you've replied and looped in team	Other team (closed)
Auto Closed	Closed after being in “Waiting on Customer” for 5 business days	Completed
Closed/Resolved	Issue resolved (confirmed or no response after 5 days) CES (Customer Effort Score): Closed/Resolved tickets will receive a CES rating request 1 hour after ticket closure.	Completed

Ticket Category

AI will auto-suggest a category. Review and correct if needed - the system learns from corrections.

Category	Use When
Account & Access	Login issues, password resets, permissions, user management
Survey & Data	Survey errors, response issues, data export, reporting problems
Certification & Lists	Deadlines, requirements, status questions,
How-To / Guidance	General questions, feature guidance, best practices
Billing	Invoices, payments, package changes → Redirect to Sales or Billing
Sales Enquiry	Pricing, demos, upgrades, new products → Redirect to Sales
Marketing Enquiry	Events, partnerships, media, content → Redirect to Marketing
Other	Misdirected, anything that doesn't fit above

Ticket Flow

Standard Support Flow

Ticket arrives → New
You reply → Waiting on Customer (auto) → Verify Category
Customer replies → Reopened (auto)
You reply → Waiting on Customer (auto)
Resolved or no response for 5 days → Closed (auto)

Redirect Flow (Sales/Marketing)

Ticket arrives → New
You reply and loop in relevant team (CC or forward)
Set status → Redirected → Verify Category (Sales/Marketing/Billing Enquiry)

⏱ Auto-Close Rule: Tickets in 'Waiting on Customer' for 5 business days with no response will automatically close.

SLA Targets

Business Hours: Mon-Fri, 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM SGT

Metric	Target	What It Means
Time to First Reply	6 hours	From ticket creation to your first response
Time to Next Reply	2 hours	From customer's reply to your next response
Time to Close	40 hours	5 business days to fully resolve

Priority: When to Mark Urgent

Set Priority = Urgent for these critical issues only:

Issue Type	Examples
Platform Access Issues	Can't login, locked out, password reset failures
Active Survey Errors	Survey not loading, responses not saving, data loss risk
Certification Deadlines	Deadline at risk, certification expiring, blocking audit

Quick Reference

When You Reply to a Support Ticket

Send your reply
Change status to Waiting on Customer
Review AI-assigned Category - correct if wrong

When Redirecting to Another Team

Reply to customer acknowledging their enquiry
Loop in the relevant team
Set status to Redirected
Verify Category is Sales Enquiry or Marketing Enquiry

When Blocked by Product Team

Set status to On Hold
Add internal note: what you're waiting for, who's handling it
Update customer that you're investigating
Follow up with US team or other internal team proactively

Marking Spam

When to use: Obvious spam, phishing, or junk emails you want to block permanently.

Steps:

Open the ticket in Help Desk
Click Actions dropdown (top right) → Block sender
Click Block and delete ticket

What happens:

Ticket is deleted
Conversation moves to Spam view
Future emails from that sender are auto-blocked

Note: For non-spam misdirected enquiries (wrong company, general questions), set Category = "Other" and close normally instead. This keeps your reporting accurate.

Questions? Reach out to CS HubSpot Champions