Ticket Nature and Severity The two fields that decide how a request gets handled, and how to set them honestly.

Two fields do most of the routing work. Both are editable at any time, and both are worth correcting as you learn more.

Nature: what kind of request this is

Eight options:

Nature	When to use it
Issue	Something is broken
Question	They need information or guidance
Billing	Invoices, charges, payment methods
Refund	They want money back
Complaint	They are unhappy with the experience
Suggestion	Feedback or a feature idea
Retention	They are at risk of leaving
Compliance	Legal, regulatory or policy

Retention deserves particular attention. Setting it says the relationship itself is at stake, not just this request, and that changes who should reply and how quickly.

Nature also feeds your reporting, so a queue where everything is left as Question tells you nothing later.

Severity: how urgent it is

Severity	Roughly
Critical	They cannot use the product, or money or law is involved
High	A key feature is broken, or the account is at real risk
Medium	Needs a prompt answer but nothing is blocked
Low	General enquiry, no time pressure

Severity drives the SLA clock, so inflating it is not free: if everything is critical, nothing is, and the breach count stops meaning anything.

Changing either

Click the field on the ticket row and choose. It saves immediately, and the ticket's history keeps the change.

Requests arriving through automated channels often land without a nature set. Fixing that as you triage costs seconds and makes the queue searchable.