Not every IT problem is an emergency, and treating them all the same slows everyone down. Here's how we prioritise support tickets, so you know what to expect when you log one.
Not every IT problem is an emergency, and treating them all the same slows everyone down. Here's how we prioritise support tickets, so you know what to expect when you log one.
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When you log a ticket with your IT provider, one of the first things we do is assign it a priority. It's not about how loud the problem sounds, or how frustrated the person raising it is. It's about how much impact the issue is having on your business. Getting priority right matters. It's how we make sure a company-wide outage gets attention immediately, while a request for a new desktop shortcut doesn't hold up someone who genuinely can't work. Here's how we do it.
Every ticket that comes into CloudTorque gets one of four priority levels: Critical, Serious, Moderate, or Minor. Each level has a target response time (how quickly we acknowledge and start working on it) and a target resolution time (how quickly we aim to have it fixed).
The priority we assign depends on two things working together: impact (how many people or business functions are affected) and urgency (how time-sensitive the issue is).
A complete outage or major issue affecting all or most of your users. Immediate response required.
Examples: No internet access for the entire company, meaning no one can send email or use Teams. The firewall is down. A core business server is offline.
If your business has effectively stopped, it's Critical.
A significant issue affecting a department, a site, or a critical business function. Some workarounds may exist, but the impact is still substantial.
Examples: The phone system is down. Wi-Fi has failed across the office (even if some staff can still hotspot). DNS isn't working for all users. A network switch has failed but Wi-Fi is still up.
Serious issues aren't a complete stop, but they're stopping meaningful parts of your business from operating normally.
A limited issue affecting an individual user or a non-critical service. The business can continue with minimal disruption.
Examples: One person's Outlook isn't sending email due to a corrupted profile, but they can still access their email through Outlook Web Access. A single user is having trouble printing.
The issue is real and needs fixing, but it isn't stopping the wider business from operating.
A minor issue, a service request, a cosmetic problem, or something with little business impact.
Examples: A user requests a desktop shortcut to be restored after a software update. Someone reports a typo on an internal SharePoint page. A general question about how a feature works.
Minor tickets still get handled, they're just not stopping anyone from doing their job.
Here's the part most IT providers don't explain well: the same technical problem can be a different priority depending on the situation around it. A CEO's laptop failing during a board presentation might be treated as Serious, because the business urgency is high, even though only one person is directly affected. The same laptop failing on a Friday afternoon for a staff member who's about to leave for the weekend? Probably Moderate. Same technical issue. Very different priority.
We don't just look at what's broken. We look at what it's breaking for you.
You don't need to guess the priority when you raise a ticket. That's our job. But it does help us if you include:
That context lets us prioritise accurately, and start work faster.
Standard help desk hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm NZDT. Outside those hours, on weekends, and on public holidays, a CloudTorque engineer is on call for genuine emergencies. Phone is the only way to reach the on-call engineer: 0800 273 239. Tickets and emails submitted outside standard hours will be picked up the next working day. After-hours calls are billed separately.
If your issue is genuinely critical and can't wait until morning, call. If it can wait, log it as normal and we'll pick it up when the help desk reopens.
"Critical" doesn't mean "annoying." It means the business has effectively stopped, or a critical function has failed. Understanding the difference means the right issues get the right attention at the right time, and your team stays moving.
If you're not sure what priority something should be, log it anyway. We'll figure it out.
