Support ticket tags: examples and a simple system for small teams
By The Roper team · Published · 3 min read
The short answer
Tag each support conversation with one topic tag, such as billing, bug, login, how-to or idea, so you can see what customers need most. Keep the list under twelve, name tags in lowercase single words, add tags as you answer rather than later, and review the top two each week. Tags are for finding patterns and deciding what to fix, not for routing.
What tags are for
Tags answer one question: what are customers writing to us about? Statuses say where a conversation is in its life; tags say what it is about. A few weeks of tags will show you which article is missing, which screen confuses people and which bug costs the most replies.
A starter list
| Tag | Use it for | What it usually leads to |
|---|---|---|
| billing | Charges, invoices, plans, refunds | A billing article; a clearer pricing page |
| bug | Something is broken | A fix; a status-page update |
| login | Passwords, sign-in links, locked accounts | A better sign-in flow or article |
| how-to | "How do I do X?" | A help article |
| setup | First install or configuration | Onboarding copy or a setup article |
| idea | A feature request | The feedback board |
| account | Email changes, deletion, data requests | A self-serve option |
| integration | Questions about connecting other tools | An integration article |
Rules that keep tags useful
- Keep it under twelve. More than that and nobody remembers which to use.
- One main tag per conversation. Add a second only when it truly spans two topics.
- Lowercase, one word, with a hyphen if you must (
how-to). Consistent names make search work. - Tag as you answer. Tagging later never happens.
- Describe the topic, not the person or the mood. Tag "billing", not "angry".
- Rename or merge instead of adding. If two tags mean the same thing, pick one.
A weekly review in ten minutes
- Look at the last seven days of tags. On Roper's Team plan, Analytics shows top tags; on any plan, the tags appear on each conversation in the list, so you can scan and count.
- Find the top two tags by count.
- For each, ask: what article, copy change or product fix would make this go away?
- Do the cheapest one now. Write the article, change a label, or log the bug.
This is the loop in how to reduce support tickets: answer, tag, spot the pattern, remove the cause.
Tags, statuses and priority
Do not mix them. Status is where a conversation is (open, pending, resolved; see ticket statuses). Priority is how urgent. Tags are the topic. Roper has all three on every conversation, so a billing question can be urgent and pending at once.
Questions
Common questions
- What are support ticket tags?
- Short labels you attach to a conversation to record what it is about, such as billing, bug or how-to, so you can filter and count them later.
- How many tags should a small team use?
- Eight to twelve is plenty. A short list gets used consistently; a long one gets ignored.
- Should tags decide who handles a ticket?
- In a help desk, tags may drive routing rules. In a small shared inbox, they mainly show patterns. Roper does not route by tag; see help desk vs shared inbox.
- Can I tag conversations in Roper?
- Yes. You can add tags, set priority and change status on any conversation, and tags show on each conversation in the list. The Team plan's analytics page lists your top tags.
Sources and how we wrote this
Roper is made by the team that wrote this post. Figures for other tools come from their own public pages, listed under Sources, and are list prices in US dollars that can change. If something here is out of date, tell us on the feedback board and we'll correct it.