Understanding Priorities
Priorities indicate how urgently a ticket needs attention. Higher priority tickets:- Appear at the top of sorted lists
- Can trigger shorter SLA targets when priority-based SLA policies are configured
Default Priority Levels
Serval includes common priority levels out of the box:| Priority | Typical Use |
|---|---|
| Critical | Complete outage, security incident, or blocker affecting many users |
| High | Significant impact, workaround not available, time-sensitive |
| Medium | Moderate impact, workaround available, standard timeline |
| Low | Minimal impact, convenience request, no deadline |
Configuring Priorities
Add a Priority
Configure the priority
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Priority level name (e.g., “Urgent”) |
| Description | Criteria for when to use this priority |
| Examples | Real-world scenarios that warrant this priority |
Writing Good Descriptions
Include specific criteria in your priority descriptions: Good description:Use for issues affecting more than 10 users, causing revenue loss, or blocking critical business processes. Examples: Payment processing down, login system unavailable, data breach.Poor description:
Very urgent issues.
Detailed descriptions help both team members and Serval’s AI assign priorities consistently.
AI Priority Assignment
Serval automatically assigns priorities to incoming tickets based on:- Message content and urgency signals
- Number of affected users mentioned
- Keywords like “urgent”, “ASAP”, “critical”
- Your priority descriptions and examples
Improving AI Accuracy
Add examples
Include 3-5 real examples in each priority description
Use specific criteria
Define measurable thresholds (e.g., “affects >10 users”)
Review and correct
Regularly review AI assignments and correct mistakes
Update descriptions
Refine descriptions based on patterns you observe
Priority and SLAs
You can create separate SLA policies for different priority levels so that higher priority tickets have shorter resolution targets. For example, you might configure a 4-hour SLA for critical tickets and a 72-hour SLA for low priority requests.Configure SLA policies and their auto-attach criteria (including priority) in Team Settings → SLAs. See the SLAs guide for details.