For department members, leads and the grievance officer
Guide for department staff.
You handle requests for your department in the support queue. Every reply, note and status change is recorded on the ticket, so the history is always complete.
Who can do what.
| Role | Sees | Can |
|---|---|---|
| Department member | Tickets routed to their departments | Reply, add internal notes, set status, resolve, assign within the department |
| Department lead | The same | Everything a member can, plus move a ticket to another department. Receives escalations for overdue tickets. |
| Grievance officer (a member of the Grievance Cell) | Every Grievance, in any department | Handle and move any Grievance. Receives escalations for overdue Grievances. |
| Support admin (Walnut super admin) | Every ticket, including Other (triage) | Everything, plus manage departments, members and settings |
You are added to a department by a support admin. If you open the support queue and see "Staff only", ask an admin to add you.
Your queue.
Open Support queue from the top bar. It opens on open tickets in your departments.
- Views: My departments, Assigned to me, Grievances (grievance officer and admins), Needs a department (admins) and All tickets (admins).
- Filters: status (open by default), type, department, overdue only, and a search across ticket ID, subject, name and email.
- Overdue means the resolution target has passed and the ticket is not resolved or closed. It is shown as a word, not only a colour.
New ticket emails.
When a ticket is routed to your department, an email goes to the department's shared inbox and to every member. Every Grievance also goes to the Grievance Cell and to the grievance officer email set in the support settings; if neither is set up, the support admins are emailed instead. The email links to the ticket in the staff console.
Do not reply to the email. Replying to it does not reach the submitter. Always reply on the ticket.
Handle a ticket in five steps.
Take it. Assign it to yourself or a colleague in the department, so everyone knows who owns it. Assignment is internal. A ticket that needs a department must be routed before it can be assigned.
Respond. Write a reply to the submitter. The first public reply, status change or resolution counts as the first response for the target. Set the status to In progress, or Awaiting submitter if you need information. Attach up to 3 files (PDF, JPG or PNG, 4 MB in total).
Keep notes internal when they should be. Choose internal note for anything the submitter should not see. Internal notes are never shown or emailed to the submitter.
Move it if it is not yours. A lead, an admin or the grievance officer (for a Grievance) can route it to another department. The new department is emailed and the assignee is cleared. If you are not a lead, add an internal note and ask your lead.
Resolve it. Write a resolution note for the submitter: what you did, and what they should do next. They are asked to confirm or reopen. If they do nothing, it closes automatically after 7 days, with a reminder the day before.
Statuses you can set.
- In progress: you are working on it.
- Awaiting submitter: you need information from the submitter. They see this as "Awaiting your reply". When they reply, it moves back to In progress automatically.
- Resolved has its own action and needs a resolution note.
- A reply from you on a resolved ticket does not reopen it. If the submitter replies to a resolved ticket, it goes back to In progress. The submitter can also reopen a resolved or closed ticket.
Targets and escalation.
| Type | First response | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Issue | 2 working days | 7 working days |
| Grievance | 3 working days | 30 calendar days |
| Feedback, Suggestion, Requirement, Query | 5 working days | Best effort, no due date |
A daily job checks targets. When a first response or a resolution is overdue, the ticket is escalated once: to the department's leads (or the support admins if the department has no lead), and for a Grievance to the Grievance Cell and the support admins. A reopened ticket gets fresh targets and can be escalated again.
Targets are the standard settings and can be changed by support admins. The ticket page shows the targets that apply.
The person named on an Issue.
An Issue can name a person under "Who is this about?". You see it on the ticket and in the email as "About: name (not notified)". The system does not contact that person. Handle it with care: do not forward the ticket to the person named, and ask your lead or the grievance officer if the issue amounts to a complaint about someone's conduct.
For the grievance officer.
- You are a member of the Grievance Cell department. You see every Grievance, in any department, under the Grievances view.
- You can handle, assign within the Grievance Cell, and route any Grievance.
- Appeals arrive as new Grievances, with a subject starting "Appeal on" and the original ticket ID as the reference.
- Aim to acknowledge in person within 3 working days and to resolve within 30 days. Explain the outcome and the reasons in the resolution note.
- Your public contact details are set by support admins in the support settings and shown on the grievance officer page.
Good practice.
- Write plainly, in British English, and say what happens next.
- Never ask for passwords, sign-in codes or card details.
- Keep everything on the ticket. If you speak to the submitter by phone, add a short internal note or a reply that summarises the call.
- Attachments open only for people allowed to see the ticket. Do not download and forward them outside Walnut.