Simone Susino - Customer Service Skills

module-name: "Customer Service Skills"
area: "Customer Service"
maintainers:
  - mdunninger
level: Beginner

Introduction

Welcome to the next module in your Support Onboarding pathway!

As you work through this onboarding issue, remember that this issue is non-confidential and is public. Please do not add any confidential data such as customer names, logs, etc. to this issue. Linking to the appropriate Zendesk ticket is OK!

Goals of this checklist

At the end of the checklist you will be able to:

understand how we interact with customers
utilize your customer service skills to ensure customer success

General Timeline and Expectations

Read about our Support Onboarding process, the page also shows you the different modules you'll need to complete as part of your Onboarding.
The training in this issue should take you 2 days to complete with a further 2-4 weeks to complete the assessment.

Note

This module was introduced and presented to SEs who had already been at GitLab for some time. As such, if you see this in your training and you have yet to handle a ticket or encounter a situation where a customer wants a meeting, for example, please use examples from your past work experience. Alternatively, use what you've learned in this training to imagine what you might want to say in the described situation, or re-visit the assessment once you have begun working on tickets.

Customer Service, Customer Communications and Ticket Management at GitLab Support

Related Handbook Pages

Read the We care for our customers section on the support team's home page in the handbook to understand what we are responsible for.
Read how to respond to tickets on tips and tricks to humanize your responses when talking to customers.
Read about how to handle feedback and complaints from customers.

Course Introduction

Please read the Introduction to Communications Training document - it's only one page - to get a little flavor of what this is about.

Supplemental Course Materials

Ticket Management - Quick Reference Guide

A very handy one-page document with key ideas and tips from all six modules of the course
Presentations - The original Google Slides presentations for all six modules, for your convenience
Google's IT Support Customer Service Course: How to Deal with Difficult Situations. This short (~10 mins) video provides some great tips on how to handle yourself and difficult customers.

How to Complete the Course

This is the async version of the Ticket Management and Communications course that Support Management originally presented as four, one-hour, live, interactive class sessions.

There are multiple paths you can take through this course. You should work with your manager to determine the best path for you based on your customer support experience and skills, and your communication skills. Regardless of the path you choose, successful completion of the course requires that your manager agrees that you've met all the criteria in the assessment.

📍 Important Note on Exercises

Note

⚠️ Please submit all your exercise responses as individual comments in this GitLab issue, using the specified titles
(e.g., 1.09 What and How, 3.04 Find the Yes, etc.).

❌ Do not post your responses on YouTube or in any external document

Recommended Paths

You and your manager might want to choose one of these recommended paths for you to follow, or might prefer to create your own path.

Traditional Path

This path gives you the opportunity to experience and learn from the full course. Depending on your experience, you may find some of the concepts to be new and you may find some to be familiar. The idea is to learn the new ones, and strengthen your grasp on the familiar ones.
We've created this async version from the recorded live sessions to allow you to hear the full discussions and in so doing hopefully to gain something more than you would by simply reading through the materials or by listening to the presentations without discussions.
The Path:
1. Complete all six modules, in order, from start to finish.
2. Complete the exercises in their listed order as you go through the course.
3. Proceed to the assessment
4. If your manager identifies any gaps in your demonstrated skills, agree on a plan for improving those skills and re-assessing

Non-Video (mostly) Path

This path gives you an alternative to watching videos, which can be a difficult means of learning for some people.
The Path:
1. Read through the presentations, watching only those videos that you feel might help you to understand specific topics better. Complete the exercises as you go as well.
2. Proceed to the assessment
3. If your manager identifies any gaps in your demonstrated skills, agree on a plan for improving those skills and re-assessing

Pre-Test Path

This path allows you to skip some or all of the training based on your ability to demonstrate what skills and knowledge you already have and consistently use in working on tickets.
The Path:
1. (Optional) Review the course content through the supplemental materials.
2. Proceed to the assessment
3. If your manager identifies any gaps in your demonstrated skills, then:
  1. work through the associated modules -- watch the videos and complete the exercises
  2. take a week or so to practice what you've learned before asking your manager to do the assessment with you again

The Full Course

Unless otherwise indicated, each video below can be found on YouTube in the Support Training - Ticket Management & Communications playlist. They're listed in order by module number, video number and title. For example, the 01 Introduction video on module 1 can be found in the playlist under 1 01 Introduction.

Note: Currently, the videos are not captioned. If you need captions please reach out to your manager and make use of automatic captioning in the meantime.

Total video content: 4h 59m 48s

Module 01: Connect

Module 1: Connect

Total video content in Module 1: 67m 38s

Module 02: Clarify

Total video content in Module 02: 79m 25s

Module 03: Create Positive Outcomes

Video content for Module 03: 67m 58s

Module 04: Own the Interaction

Video content for Module 04: 48m 38s

Module 05: Educate

Module 05:

Video content for Module 5: 18m 30s

Video 01 Educate - Intro (10:06)
Video 02 Enhance Customer Knowledge (2:40)
Video 03 Educate at Every Step (5:44)

Module 06: Close the Loop

Video content for Module 06: 17m 39s

Video 01 Close the Loop - Intro (0:50)
Video 02 Meeting Follow-Up (0:50)
Video 03 When to Close (8:17)
Video 04 Closing Message (6:43)
Video 05 Document Internally (0:59)

Assessment

There are two parts to this assessment. The first part is only applicable if you've gone through all of the modules and completed all of the exercises. The second part is applicable for everyone. Should you not receive a passing score on the assessment, agree with your manager on a plan for improving the necessary skills and knowledge before re-assessing.

Note: If you have not yet worked on any tickets, create a reminder for 2-4 weeks' time to re-visit this module and complete the assessment. Alternatively, please use what you've learned in this training to imagine what you might want to say in the described situation.

1. Modules and Exercises

Ask your manager (or any Support Manager) to review your responses to the exercises
Meet with that manager to hear any feedback they might have to offer, and to discuss in general what you've learned from the course

2. Demonstrating Ticket Management and Customer Communication

It will take some practice to build habits based on what you've learned in this course. Allow yourself 2-4 weeks of working support tickets - enough time so that you feel you've become somewhat consistent - before proceeding to the final tasks.Please work with your manager, in whatever way works best for the two of you. Select two or more tickets that demonstrate mastery of the below modules, and document briefly how it does so. It is OK to use the same ticket in multiple modules if you feel that the ticket handling demonstrates this module's topic:

Module 1: Connect (Build rapport or relationship, Focus on customer needs, Know your audience, Catch)
1. Ticket 1 (and link)
  - Summary:
2. Ticket 2 (and link)
  - Summary:
Module 2: Clarify (Keep regular contact, Manage expectations, Complete and clear communication)
1. Ticket 1 https://gitlab.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/661050
  - Summary: Provided clear communication and regular contact with the customer throughout the ticket lifecycle.
2. Ticket 2 (and link)
  - Summary:
Module 3: Create Positive Outcomes (Understand the customer’s priorities, pressures and motivations, Find the yes, Recover, Advocate for GitLab)
1. Ticket 1 https://gitlab.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/656154
  - Summary: The free user was not able to provide a credit card to complete the signup process, so I created an Exemption Request to help the customer to complete the signup.
2. Ticket 2 https://gitlab.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/656780
  - Summary: After the instructions have been provided, the customer was happy as he resolved the issue and marked the ticket as solved.
Module 4: Own the Interaction (Value the customer’s time, Bring the customer along, Keep moving toward a successful outcome)
1. Ticket 1 https://gitlab.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/656154
  - Summary: I promptly addressed the issue, explained the exemption request steps clearly, and kept the customer updated to ensure a smooth path to signup completion
2. Ticket 2 https://gitlab.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/661050
  - Summary: I responded to the customer's queries and helped them with both technical (verification code email not received) and non-technical (access customer portal to manage subscription) issues, guiding the customer to a positive outcome.
Module 5: Educate (Enhance the customer’s knowledge and understanding of the product, Educate the customer every step of the way)
1. Ticket 1 https://gitlab.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/656153
  - Summary: The customer was informed that the ticket was opened through the paid support channel, which is not available to free users. The customer has been educated on the differences between free and paid plans, and provided guidance on how to correctly create a support ticket under their subscription or paid plan.
2. Ticket 2 https://gitlab.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/656780
  - Summary: The customer has been educated how to manual link SAML to an existing GitLab.com account and also the links to the docs have been provided.
Module 6: Close the Loop (Summarize meetings and resultant action plans, Verify before closing, Communicate internally)
1. Ticket 1 (and link)
  - Summary:
2. Ticket 2 (and link)
  - Summary:

Congratulations! You made it, and should now have a strong understanding of how we approach customer service and ticket management at GitLab!

We hope that in the future you'll revisit individual videos whenever you want a little refresher on specific topics.

You are now ready to continue on your onboarding path to tackle the next module in line based on your role. Reach out to your manager or onboarding buddy if it is not assigned to you yet; you can check the onboarding page or your New Support Team Member Start Here issue to see the list of all modules under the Onboarding pathway!

Please also submit MRs for any improvements that you can think of! The file is located in an issue template in the 'support-training` repository.

Edited Oct 08, 2025 by Simone Susino