Support Triage Duty

Overview

Support triage duty is a first-line monitoring role to ensure incoming support requests are promptly acknowledged, categorized, and routed to the right department, team, or person.

At FlowFuse, we do not currently have a dedicated support team. To share the support load, keep every department connected to our users, and ensure clear ownership, we operate a full company triage rotation. This reflects our commitment to proactive ownership as a company, ensuring customers receive timely, thoughtful responses and that requests reach the right place quickly.

The goal of triage is not to solve every issue yourself, but to act as a connector and create forward motion.

How Triage Reflects Our Values

Support triage duty is not just an operational practice. It is an expression of FlowFuse’s company values in action.

  • Results

    Triage emphasizes initiative and outcomes over process. The focus is on creating momentum for customer requests rather than waiting for the right moment or person.

  • Iterative Improvement

    Triage is a living system. As we learn more about customer needs, volume, and patterns, we expect both the process and this handbook to evolve.

  • Collaborative Community

    By rotating triage across the company, customer ownership is shared rather than siloed. This keeps teams connected to real user needs and ensures information flows openly.

  • Constructive Candor

    Triage relies on clear, respectful communication, whether acknowledging a customer, routing a ticket, or escalating internally to keep work moving.

  • Customer Empathy

    Even when we do not yet have answers, triage ensures customers are heard, acknowledged, and supported with appropriate urgency and care.

Triage exists as a practical extension of how we work together at FlowFuse.

The Flow: How It Works

The Schedule

  • Each Friday, the Support Coordinator announces the next Triage Lead in #support-tickets.
  • Rotations last one week (Monday to Friday).

The Role

  • You are the first set of eyes, not the final owner.
  • Your responsibility is to acknowledge, categorize, and route requests so they reach the right place quickly.

You are not expected to be an expert, only a connector.

Where Tickets Come From

  • Live chat from the website support widget
  • Email sent to support@flowfuse.com

All tickets appear in the HubSpot Helpdesk.

What to Monitor

HubSpot

Keep the Unassigned Triage view open during the day. If you don't have access to HubSpot, only focus on the Slack Channel noted below.

To note: Chatbot tickets don’t go into triage and don't appear in Slack. Only in HubSpot.

Slack

New tickets trigger notifications in #support-tickets.

Tip: To receive badge notifications, configure the channel’s notification settings rather than relying on the bell icon.

Configuration steps:

  • Open the Slack channel #support-tickets
  • Click on the channel name
  • Click on the second icon at the top of the screen (bell icon)
  • Choose "All new posts"

SLA Awareness (Important)

Some customers have response-time SLAs based on their subscription.

Triage leads are not responsible for enforcing SLAs directly, but are responsible for ensuring tickets are routed and acknowledged in a way that supports them.

Current SLA definitions and response expectations are documented in the Subscription Agreement.

When triaging:

  • Be especially attentive to Enterprise customer tickets
  • Prioritize routing and visibility for time-sensitive issues
  • When unsure whether an SLA applies, escalate early in #support-tickets

Severity Guide

A ticket is considered urgent if it involves:

  • Production outages or blocked deployments
  • Security or data concerns
  • Enterprise customers reporting downtime or business impact
  • Anything that risks breaching an SLA

When in doubt, escalate rather than waiting.

Categorization & Routing

To route the Slack message, the triage person should follow the instructions below.

Category Action
Sales inquiry Tag @sales in the Slack thread of the ticket
Billing inquiry Tag @sales in the Slack thread of the ticket
Product support (Enterprise) Tag @engineering in the Slack thread of the ticket
Product support (Team) Tag @engineering in the Slack thread of the ticket
Product support (OSS or Community) Tag @product in the Slack thread of the ticket
Spam (e.g. booth design offers) Comment spam in the Slack thread of the ticket

Replying vs Routing

  • If you can confidently answer a simple question, or you are part of the team the ticket would be routed to, you may reply directly in HubSpot if you have access.
  • If the issue requires investigation or follow-up, route it to the appropriate team.

Whoever replies first in HubSpot becomes the ticket owner and will receive future notifications for that ticket. The owner can be re-assigned when appropriate.

Ownership After Routing

Once a ticket has been replied to in HubSpot or routed in Slack, ownership sits with the assigned ticket owner or team.

If a ticket stalls after assignment/triage, responsibility for follow-up and resolution lies with the owner or owning team, not the triage role.

Triage exists to create initial clarity and forward motion, not to monitor or enforce ongoing progress.

Slack Workflow

Use emoji reactions on ticket notifications in #support-tickets:

  • Add 👀 :eyes: on the main Slack message to let the team know that: You are on it

  • Add ✅ :white_check_mark: on the main Slack message to let the team know that: Issue has been dealt with

This keeps the channel readable and avoids unnecessary status messages.

Vacation & OOO Coverage

The Support Coordinator reviews the rotation against Deel each week and proactively swaps anyone who is out of office.

Rules of Engagement

  • Do not merge tickets in HubSpot
    Merged tickets become unsearchable due to a HubSpot limitation.

  • Internal emails may still represent customer requests. Read carefully.

  • When unsure, ask in #support-tickets or the relevant department channel.

Handling Spam

Common spam includes booth design offers and unsolicited sales pitches.

For these:

  • Click Mark as spam in the HubSpot Actions menu, or
  • Delete the ticket