RFC: Add a new section to Support General Policies to inform that support will handle only 1 issue or incident within a support ticket
Request for comments
Need
Often in support tickets, a customer will make a request for an SE to perform an operation which is different from the original request, see ticket: 370935 as a recent example of this or request an engineer to investigate an unrelated issue within the same single ticket. In situations such as this it would be beneficial to be able to point customers to our support guidelines and either request they open a new ticket or open a new ticket on their behalf.
Approach
I propose that we update the Support General Policies to add a new section that advise customers that it is Support's policy to track each unique request or problem in a single corresponding support ticket. We already do this when handling internal requests as documented in the handbook.
We can word it with something like (feel free to make suggestions) the following:
It is GitLab Support's policy to handle each customer request or incident within a single support ticket, this is to ensure that all incidents and requests are accurately tracked. There may be occasions during a ticket's lifecycle where additional problems are identified or additional requests need to be fulfilled. In situations such as these, we recommend that you submit a new ticket and reference the previous ticket for context.
Benefit
- Having a 1-to-1 relationship between a problem/request and a ticket will more accurately reflect the volume of work support is performing.
- Having a 1-to-1 relationship will also provide a clearer audit trail for customers and better highlight the value of support.
- Having a 1-to-1 relationship will enable more accurate reporting of ticket submissions
- Having a 1-to-1 relationship will enable support engineers to focus on a particular issue at any one time rather than be side-tracked by competing requests within the same ticket.
Competition / Alternatives
N/A