How to organize B2B support tickets with visible SLA
A step-by-step guide to turning support and quote requests from multiple sources into a single AI-triaged queue, with SLA visible to the whole team.
At a consulting or IT company, support and quote requests arrive through several channels at the same time — WhatsApp, email, website form. Without a triage system, everything falls into the same shared inbox: an urgent request from a client in production ends up behind a simple question just because it arrived later.
This guide shows how to set up a triage and SLA flow in three steps, using WhatSMS's automation builder.
Step 1 — Centralize every channel into a single ticket queue
Connect the channels your clients already use to contact your company — WhatsApp, SMS, Email, Web Widget, and more — to the WhatSMS Unified Inbox. Every request, regardless of origin, automatically generates a ticket, instead of staying scattered across separate inboxes managed by different people.
Step 2 — Let AI triage classify intent and urgency
Configure the AI agent to classify each incoming request by intent (question, quote request, technical incident) and declared urgency. The request is routed to the right queue and team before a human touches it — and escalation to a person only happens when the request exceeds what the AI can safely answer, always with the full conversation history.
Step 3 — Set the SLA per queue, with alerts before the deadline
In the Kanban Pipelines, configure custom stages with the deadline you have already negotiated with each type of client or service. The SLA timer runs visibly on the dashboard, with automatic alerts before a deadline is exceeded — so no one discovers a delay only when the client complains.
Why this changes how the team works
Every request gets an owner and a deadline visible to the whole team, not just whoever received it first. There is no longer a need to triage requests manually every morning, and an urgent request no longer gets stuck behind a simple question just because of arrival order.
You can create this ticket queue for free with the WhatSMS free account and test it with your B2B support team's real requests before any commitment.
Frequently asked questions
Does AI triage decide on its own what is urgent?
The AI classifies the intent and urgency of each request and routes it to the right queue, but escalation to a human colleague happens whenever the request exceeds what the AI can safely answer — it arrives with the full conversation history, not just a generic alert.
Is the SLA a fixed deadline imposed by the platform?
No. The SLA timer and dashboard alerts follow the queues, teams, and pipelines your company configures — the deadline is decided by you, based on what you have already negotiated with your clients.
Can I connect this to the CRM I already use?
Yes, through API and webhooks. WhatSMS connects to any CRM or internal system via the API v3, without depending on a connector specific to any vendor.
Can an urgent request get stuck behind a simple question?
That is exactly what automatic triage prevents — every message, regardless of the channel it arrived from, is classified as soon as it arrives and enters the queue matching its real urgency, not its arrival order.
How do I know how many requests are stuck and for how long?
The SLA runs with a visible timer on the dashboard, with alerts before a deadline is exceeded — whoever manages support sees the team's real response time, not an estimate.