To write a support ticket a plugin team can answer, say what you were trying to do, what happened instead, and the steps to see it. Then add what you already tried, your site details from Site Health, and how urgent it is.
That is the whole answer. The rest of this page explains each part, shows a weak ticket next to a strong one, and covers what never to put in a ticket.
We wrote it for two readers. If you are a customer with a broken form, read it top to bottom.
If you answer plugin tickets, the last two sections are for you, and you can link your customers to the rest.
What a good support ticket includes
A support ticket for a WordPress plugin or theme needs seven things:
- A subject line that names the problem.
- One problem per ticket.
- What you were trying to do, and what happened instead.
- The steps, starting from a page the team can open.
- What you already tried, and what changed.
- Your site details, copied from Site Health.
- How urgent it is, and why.
Most general guides list the first five. The site details are the part that matters most on a WordPress site, because the same plugin behaves differently on every combination of versions, theme and other plugins.
Write a subject line that names the problem
The subject is the first thing the support team reads, and often the only thing they see in a list of fifty tickets. "Need help ASAP!!!" tells them nothing.
A good subject names the plugin, the version if you know it, and the symptom:
- Weak: "Plugin broken"
- Better: "Formwise order form not sending"
- Best: "Formwise 3.4.2: order form not sending in Safari"
It is easier to write the subject last, once you know what the rest of the ticket says.
Keep one problem per ticket
If the form does not send and you also want to change its colors, send two tickets. They are different questions, and they may go to different people.
One ticket with two problems usually gets one answered. The other one waits for a follow-up that nobody remembers to send.
Say what you were trying to do, and what happened instead
"It does not work" can mean an error message, a blank page, a spinning button, or an email that never arrives. Each one points the team to a different part of the plugin.
Write both halves in plain words:
- Trying to do: "Submit the order form on our Contact page."
- What happened: "The button spins for a few seconds and stops. No email arrives and nothing shows under Entries."
If there is an error message, copy it word for word. A screenshot of the message is good; the text pasted into the ticket is better, because the team can search for it.
Give the steps, starting from a page the team can open
List the steps as you would explain them to someone at your desk. Start from a page address, not from "go to the form".
1. Open https://example.com/contact/ in Safari.
2. Fill in Name and Email.
3. Click "Send order".
4. The button spins, then stops. No message appears.The address here is an example. Put your real page in, if the site is public.
Say whether it happens every time or only sometimes. "Only in Safari" or "only when logged out" is often the most useful line in the whole ticket.
Say what you already tried
This saves a full round of replies. If you already cleared your cache, say so, and the team will not ask you to do it again.
Write what you tried and what changed:
- "Cleared the site cache. No change."
- "Works in Chrome on the same computer."
- "Turned off our caching plugin for ten minutes. Still broken."
Say also when it started. "It worked last week, and we updated Formwise on Monday" can narrow the search to a single release.
Paste your site details from Site Health
WordPress collects your site details for you. In the dashboard, go to Tools > Site Health > Info, click "Copy site info to clipboard", and paste it into the ticket.
That one paste includes your WordPress and PHP versions, your active theme, and every active plugin with its version. It answers the questions the team would otherwise ask one at a time.
If your plugin team asks for something more specific, they will usually say exactly where to find it. Our bug report template post shows the questions a plugin team typically asks and why.
Say how urgent it is, honestly
Urgency helps the team sort tickets, but only when it is specific. "URGENT" in capitals reads the same on every ticket.
Say what the problem is costing you: "Our order form is the only way customers order cakes for the weekend. We are losing orders until it works." That gets read first, for good reason.
Stay calm in the ticket even when you are not. A clear, polite ticket is easier to act on than an angry one, and the person reading it did not write the bug.
A weak support ticket and a strong one
Here is the same problem written twice. The example customer is Dana Whitfield at Northwind Bakery, who uses the Formwise plugin.
The weak version:
Subject: HELP
Your plugin stopped working on our site. We need
this fixed today. We paid for the Pro version.The strong version:
Subject: Formwise 3.4.2: order form not sending in Safari
Hi,
Trying to do: customers submit the order form on our
Contact page.
What happens: in Safari, the "Send order" button spins
and stops. No email arrives and no entry is saved.
In Chrome it works.
Steps:
1. Open our Contact page in Safari.
2. Fill in Name and Email.
3. Click "Send order".
It started after we updated Formwise to 3.4.2 on Monday.
We cleared the site cache. No change.
Urgency: this is how customers order for the weekend,
so we are losing orders until it works.
Site Health info is pasted below.
Thanks,
Dana Whitfield, Northwind BakeryThe second ticket can get a real answer on the first reply. The first one can only get a list of questions back.
What not to put in a support ticket
Some things should never go in a ticket, even when you are in a hurry:
- Passwords. Do not paste your admin login into a ticket or a forum post. If the team needs access, they will tell you how they handle it safely.
- License keys in public. A WordPress.org forum thread is public, and anyone can read it.
- Your customers' personal data. Describe the problem with a test entry, not a real customer's name and address.
- Several problems at once. Send one ticket each.
Should you use the forum or a private ticket?
If the plugin is free on WordPress.org, its support forum is often the right place. Everything you post there is public, so leave out anything you would not want to see in a search result.
If you bought a Pro version or a license, use the developer's own support form or email. Questions about licenses, billing and paid features belong there, not on the public forum.
After you send it
Reply in the same ticket when you have news, and keep the ticket number. A reply that says "on ticket #412, it now also fails in Chrome" keeps the whole story in one place.
Starting a new ticket for the same problem splits the history in two. The next person to read it has to piece it back together.
For support teams: how to get tickets like this
Customers write tickets the way your support form and your replies teach them to. You can make the strong version the easy one:
- Link to a page like this from your support form and your auto-reply.
- Ask for the Site Health paste on the form itself, with the menu path written out.
- Label form fields in the customer's words: "What happened instead?", not "Actual result".
- When a ticket is thin, ask for the one missing piece that would change your answer, not all seven.
Our canned response examples include a saved reply for asking for Site Health info. Our post on first response time covers why a fast "please send more details" reply is not the same as a useful one.
Where Repile fits
Even good tickets need someone to read the Site Health paste, set up the same versions, follow the steps and check the code. That is the work Repile does on each plugin ticket.
Repile picks up new tickets from Help Scout, FreeScout and your WordPress.org forums, and sorts each one. For a bug, it reads your plugin's code and can test the customer's steps in a sandbox.
Then it leaves an internal note with the verdict and a reply draft in the ticket. When something is missing from the ticket, you can tell it, in each project's instructions, exactly what your team asks for first.
Repile is not a helpdesk, and it does not send replies on its own. A person on your team reads the draft and presses send.
See how it works for plugin companies, or compare the plans on the pricing page.