Responding to a request
Triage gets the right request in front of the right person. This is what happens next: actually helping the student and closing the loop.
The lifecycle of a request
A request moves through four states, and the inbox tracks where each one is:
New → Acknowledged → In progress → Resolved
- Pick it up
Assign it to yourself (or the right colleague) and acknowledge it, so the rest of the team can see it's being handled and isn't sitting unowned.
- Reply to the student
Send a reply from the ticket. The student gets it by email and in their in-app help inbox, and the thread stays attached to the request.
- Keep team-only notes
Add internal notes for context or handover. These are staff-only. The student never sees them.
- Resolve it
When it's handled, mark it resolved. The full timeline (who did what, when) stays on the ticket.
The SLA clock
Each request is measured against a first-response target, so nothing quietly ages out: 30 minutes for crisis, 4 hours for urgent, 24 hours for normal.
The clock stops when you send the student your first reply. Acknowledging the ticket, assigning it or adding an internal note does not stop it, because none of those reach the student. If you have picked something up but cannot solve it yet, send a short reply saying exactly that. It counts, and it is what the student needs anyway.
Once you have replied the pill freezes and becomes a record of what happened rather than a live timer. Reading the SLA has the full set of pills and what each one means.
A crisis-priority request pins to the top of the inbox with a red border and a "please respond now" banner, regardless of sort order. The alerting that fires the moment one is detected is covered in what fires when a crisis is detected.
The timeline
Every action on a request (creation, status changes, assignments, replies, internal notes, handoff notes) is recorded on the ticket in order. That history is what lets a colleague pick up a request cold and know exactly where it stands.
Common questions
Does the student see my internal notes?
No. Replies go to the student; internal notes are staff-only. Keep candid context in notes and student-facing wording in replies.
What if a request isn't mine to handle?
Reassign it to the right person or team. You can only see and act on requests within your scope.
Can a student reply back?
Yes, and in two ways. They can reply in the app, and they can reply straight to the notification email your reply generates. An emailed reply is written into the same thread and looks identical there, so you may see a message from a student who never opened the app. Either way it threads, and either way it is on the record. Attachments sent by email are not carried across: if a student sends one, the thread says so and you can ask for it another way.
Related
The fastest answer is usually one question away.