TL;DR:
Triage means sorting, not solving: read each ticket once, decide its lane, tag it and send a short first reply where you can.
Urgency is how soon it hurts. Importance is how much it matters. Handle urgent and important first.
Time-box the pass so the sorting finishes before the solving starts.
You open the support inbox and there are 40 new tickets. If you start at the top and answer each one in full, the person with a locked account at 9:00 waits behind a question about invoice formatting. Triage is the pass you do first so that does not happen: you read, sort and acknowledge everything, then work in order.
When this routine fits
Use it at the start of a shift or whenever the queue has grown past what you can scan at a glance. It works in any inbox or ticket tool that lets you label, tag, star or move messages. You do not need special software.
Before you open the first ticket
Decide your lanes in advance and write them somewhere visible. Four is enough.
Have your short list of tags ready (see the tagging article linked below).
Set a timer for 20 to 30 minutes. The pass is for sorting, so do not reply in depth until it ends.
Know what counts as an emergency for your team, such as customers unable to pay or sign in.
Step by step
Read each ticket once, top to bottom: Get the gist from the first few lines. Do not research yet.
Place it in a lane: Ask two questions: how soon does this hurt (urgency), and how much does it matter (importance)? The answers choose the lane.
Tag it: Give it one topic tag, such as billing or login, so you can find and count it later.
Send a first reply when it is quick: If you can answer in a sentence or two, or confirm you have it, do it now.
Flag anything that needs another person: Pass it along with the facts they need, not just "can you look?".
Sweep at the end: Check that nothing is left unsorted. Then start on the lane you chose to do first.
Urgency and importance are different
A customer writing in capital letters about a typo is urgent in tone and unimportant in effect. A customer quietly mentioning that a payment failed twice is not shouting but is important. Use a small grid with four lanes and fill it in from the content, not from the tone.
Lane | Urgent? | Important? | What you do |
|---|---|---|---|
Do now | Yes | Yes | Work it first, or hand it to the right person at once |
Schedule today | No | Yes | Reply that you have it and give a time; do it after Do now |
Quick reply | Yes | No | Answer briefly in the pass |
Low priority | No | No | Tag it, send a short acknowledgement, and answer later |
Worked example: sorting 40 new tickets
These numbers are an invented example of one morning. After the pass the 40 tickets sit in lanes like this:
Lane | Tickets | Typical examples | Time estimate each | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Do now | 5 | Cannot sign in, double charge | 10 min | 5 × 10 = 50 min |
Schedule today | 9 | Export is missing rows, billing question | 8 min | 9 × 8 = 72 min |
Quick reply | 14 | Where is a setting, how do I rename something | 3 min | 14 × 3 = 42 min |
Low priority | 12 | Feature ideas, thank-you notes | 2 min | 12 × 2 = 24 min |
Check the totals. Tickets: 5 + 9 + 14 + 12 = 40. Time: 50 + 72 + 42 + 24 = 188 minutes, about 3 hours and 8 minutes of actual work. That is a number you can plan around: you know before you start that the Do now lane takes under an hour, so the double charge is fixed before lunch.
The first replies matter as much as the lanes. For the 9 Schedule today tickets you send a two-line message: you have it, what you will check, and when they will hear back. That takes about a minute each and turns an anxious wait into a known one. Make sure the time you promise matches the 188-minute estimate, not your hopes.
At the end of the pass, spend one minute on the lanes themselves. If the Do now lane has more than you can handle, tell your lead rather than quietly letting some slip into Schedule today.
Mistakes to avoid
Solving during the sort. One deep ticket can eat the whole morning while 30 others sit unread.
Judging by tone. Read for the effect on the customer, not for how loud the message is.
Too many tags. Pick one topic tag per ticket from a short list, or your reports become noise.
Promising times you cannot meet. A late answer after a specific promise is worse than a vague but honest one.
Leaving tickets unlabeled. Anything not placed in a lane is invisible at 2 p.m.
Doing it faster
Saved replies for the common first messages save the most time; keep them short and edit the first line each time. If you want to talk through a tricky ticket while the inbox stays open, DuckyHelper sees your screen and answers out loud, so you can ask about wording without leaving the app. Replies still go out under your name, so read them first.
Frequently asked questions
What if everything feels urgent?
Ask what happens if it waits until the afternoon. If nothing changes for the customer, it is not urgent. If money, access or data is at risk, it is.
Should I reply to every ticket in the first pass?
Only where a sentence will do. A brief acknowledgement is useful, but a long answer belongs in the work phase after you have sorted everything.
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