toolkit

Helpdesk (FreeScout) · Playbook

Helpdesk / FreeScout Playbook — local fallback

Summary. How the team runs support in FreeScout — triage, ownership, response targets, and how to read a blissey overview. This is the bundled fallback; point blissey at your live Outline wiki (OUTLINE + OUTLINE_API_URL, collection via BLISSEY_WIKI_COLLECTION) to surface your own version instead.

Surfaced by. blissey: the helpdesk overview (mailboxes × active/pending/closed, unassigned + recent active conversations).

Reading the overview

  • Active = open, needs a human. Pending = waiting on the customer (or snoozed). Closed = done.
  • The number that matters day-to-day is active — that’s the live load. A growing active count, or unassigned active conversations, is the signal to jump in.
  • Unassigned active tickets are flagged in the recent list — every active conversation should have an owner. Assign or triage them first.
  • Age on a recent active conversation is how long since it was created — old + active = at risk of breaching the response target.

Triage & ownership

  1. Every active conversation has one owner. Unassigned ≠ someone else’s problem — assign it (in FreeScout; blissey is read-only) or escalate.
  2. Right mailbox. If a conversation is in the wrong mailbox for its topic, move it so the right people see it.
  3. Pending is a promise. Move to pending only when you’re genuinely waiting on the customer — and set a follow-up so it doesn’t rot.

Response targets (adjust to your SLA)

  • First response: within one business day for standard requests; same-day for anything urgent/outage.
  • Don’t let active tickets age silently. If the overview shows active conversations older than your first-response target, that’s the queue telling you to act.

Standards / policy

  • No ticket without an owner while it’s active.
  • Close what’s done — a stale “active” ticket that’s actually resolved inflates the load and hides the real queue. Close it (or move to pending) so the overview reflects reality.
  • Customer-facing replies are a human/approved action — blissey never sends them; drafting/sending a reply is a deliberate, reviewed step (see the write-approval process if that’s ever automated).