{{project}} / support owner {{business}} / product and version [ ] / review {{deadline}}

Purpose: choose the correct path before sending a familiar reply.
Record: internal ticket ID | date | buyer’s symptom in their own words | intended task | last successful step | environment | product/version | attempted checks | impact | current state | owner/next review. Keep private contact and entitlement details in the approved restricted system; use aliases or references in a shared pattern register.
Separate stages: obtaining an authorized download; extracting its complete archive; opening the intended file in a supported app; editing; exporting/saving; restoring a backup; interpreting the content; requesting a new feature. Similar wording can conceal different stages: “won’t save” may mean no file was created, a file cannot be found, or a saved file cannot be restored.
Disposition: task resolved with buyer confirmation; answer provided with outcome unknown; known limitation explained; unsupported environment with an alternative to check; reproducible defect escalated; request recorded without commitment; awaiting essential information. A reply sent is not automatically a resolved task.
Urgent stop conditions: possible loss of unsaved work, suspected exposure of private data, a suspicious payment/download link, or an operation that might overwrite the only copy. Preserve work and route to the appropriate owner before ordinary experimentation. Follow the business’s actual entitlement, refund, and security procedures rather than inventing policy in a support reply.
Count distinct tickets, recurring patterns, and affected product versions separately. A small support sample without a buyer or usage denominator cannot establish a defect rate or general customer satisfaction.
Ready when the intended task, stage, impact, evidence category, and next owner are clear. Unknown information stays unknown; do not diagnose a defect merely from a screenshot of a disabled control.

Your decision
Which issue categories need different responses?
My answer: [ ]
Source and date: [ ]
Still to check: [ ]
Next action, owner, and due date: [ ]

Before you start
- Support examples: [Source or notes]
- Known limitations: [Source or notes]
- Escalation owner: [Source or notes]

What you will make
A support workflow that diagnoses issues without collecting unnecessary data.