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Issue-to-Resolution (I2R) process

Process documentation sample

Shows how I document a customer support process, from case creation to resolution, returns and credits. It mirrors the structure of my real process documentation at Nutanix, with company-specific details made generic for confidentiality.

Item Details
Process owner Customer Support Operations
Systems CRM / service cloud (Salesforce), Knowledge base, Integration platform (Boomi), ERP (NetSuite), Billing (Zuora)
Audience Support engineers, support operations, finance users, business analysts
Version 2.1 · Published
Approvers Process owner, lead business analyst
Last reviewed Quarterly

Overview

Issue-to-Resolution covers how a customer issue is logged, triaged, worked and closed. It also covers the follow-on steps when the fix needs a hardware replacement (RMA), a credit memo or a billing adjustment, so support, operations and finance work from the same record.

Scope

In scope: case creation, entitlement check, triage and priority, troubleshooting and escalation, return material authorisation (RMA), credits and billing adjustments, case closure and knowledge capture.

Out of scope: new sales and renewals (see Campaign-to-Order) and project-based services (see Delivery Apps).

Process flow

flowchart TD
    A[Customer reports issue<br/>portal, email, phone] --> B[Case created<br/>CRM]
    B --> C{Valid entitlement?}
    C -- No --> D[Route to renewals]
    C -- Yes --> E[Triage and<br/>set priority]
    E --> F[Troubleshoot]
    F --> G{Resolved?}
    G -- No --> H[Escalate to<br/>engineering]
    H --> F
    G -- Yes --> I{Replacement or<br/>credit needed?}
    I -- RMA --> J[RMA created<br/>ERP ships part]
    I -- Credit --> K[Credit memo / billing<br/>adjustment]
    I -- No --> L[Case closed]
    J --> L
    K --> L
    L --> M[Knowledge article<br/>created or updated]

Roles and responsibilities

Role Responsibility
Support engineer Owns the case, troubleshoots and communicates with the customer
Escalation engineer Handles complex or high-priority issues and engages engineering
Support operations Maintains queues, entitlement rules and SLA settings
Logistics / supply chain Ships replacement parts and receives returns for RMAs
Billing / AR team Issues credit memos and billing adjustments

Process stages

1. Case creation and entitlement

  1. Cases are created from the customer portal, email-to-case or by phone.
  2. CRM checks the customer's entitlement (active support contract and asset) and sets the SLA.

2. Triage and priority

Priority Definition First response target
P1 – Critical Production down, no workaround 1 hour
P2 – High Major function impaired 4 hours
P3 – Medium Minor impact, workaround available 1 business day
P4 – Low Question or cosmetic issue 2 business days

3. Troubleshooting and escalation

  1. The engineer searches the knowledge base and similar cases before troubleshooting.
  2. Unresolved P1/P2 cases are escalated to engineering with logs and reproduction steps.

4. RMA, credits and adjustments

  1. If hardware is faulty, the engineer raises an RMA. It syncs to ERP, which ships the replacement and tracks the return.
  2. If the customer is owed money, a credit request is created and approved; finance issues the credit memo or adjusts the subscription in billing.

Common issue

An RMA can't be created for an asset that isn't linked to the account. Ask support operations to fix the asset record first.

5. Closure and knowledge capture

  1. The case is closed when the customer confirms the fix or after the agreed waiting period.
  2. If the solution isn't already documented, the engineer creates or updates a knowledge article.

Controls and KPIs

  • First response time and time to resolution against SLA by priority
  • First contact resolution rate
  • Customer satisfaction (CSAT) after case closure
  • RMA cycle time – from RMA creation to part delivered