The fastest tickets are the ones an engineer can act on straight away. A request that says "the website is broken" usually needs two or three rounds of questions before work starts, and each round pauses the ticket while it waits for you. A few extra lines up front often save hours.
The checklist
| Include | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| The site and exact URL | Many organizations have several sites and environments |
| What happened | The symptom, in your words, plus any error message exactly as shown |
| What you expected | Tells the engineer what "fixed" looks like |
| When it started | Matches the problem to logs, monitoring, and recent changes |
| Who is affected | Everyone, editors only, one person, one browser? This sets the severity. |
| Steps to reproduce | Lets the engineer see it for themselves |
| Screenshots or recordings | Often quicker than a description |
| Recent changes | A publish, a plugin update, a DNS change, a new integration |
| Business impact and deadlines | "Applications close Friday" changes priorities |
| Severity | Your view of P1 to P4; see severity levels |
Copy-and-paste template
Site / URL: What happened (include exact error text): What I expected: When it started: Who is affected (everyone / editors / some users / just me): Steps to reproduce: 1. 2. 3. Recent changes we know of: Business impact or deadline: Suggested severity (P1 / P2 / P3 / P4): Best contact and phone:
A weak request and a strong one
Weak: will be answered with questions
Subject: Website issue
The site isn't working, can someone look?
Strong: can be worked on the moment it arrives
Subject: www.example.gov: payment form returns error after submit
Since about 10:15am ET today, submitting the utility payment form at www.example.gov/pay shows "Error 502" instead of the confirmation page. It happens for everyone we have tested, in Chrome and Edge.
Steps: open the page, fill in the form, submit.
Recent change: we updated the forms plugin yesterday afternoon.
Impact: payments are due Monday, so this is urgent.
Suggested severity: P2. Screenshot attached.
Contact: Jane Doe, 555-0100.
The strong request answers every question an engineer would otherwise have to ask, so work starts immediately.
Quick tips
- One issue per ticket. Separate problems are tracked, prioritized, and resolved separately.
- Copy exact error messages rather than paraphrasing. Small details matter.
- Try a private window or another device first, and say what you found. It rules out your browser cache in seconds.
- Say what you have already tried. Nobody wants to repeat it.
- Never include passwords or other credentials. Engineers arrange access securely when they need it.
- CC the right people on the original request so they receive every update.
Platform-specific details
Each article in our platform guides ends with a short list of what to include for that topic, such as the Cascade publish report for publishing problems or response headers for caching issues. If your issue matches an article, include those details too.
Ready? Email support@ewaycorp.com or open a ticket in the portal. See how to request support for all the options.
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