Support Ticket Statuses: Open, Pending, Solved, Closed

Support ticket statuses tell everyone on the team, at a glance, what is happening with each customer request: whether someone needs to act, whether you are waiting for the customer, or whether the issue is done. Most help desks use four: Open, Pending, Solved and Closed. They look obvious, yet small teams use them inconsistently, and that is how requests get lost.

This guide defines each status precisely, shows when a ticket should move from one to the next, and explains how to keep the statuses honest so your backlog and response-time numbers mean something.

Why Support Ticket Statuses Matter

A status is a promise about who owns the next step. When it is right, a support lead can open the Inbox, filter by status and know exactly which conversations need attention today. When it is wrong, two problems follow.

Customers wait without anyone noticing. A ticket marked Pending when the team, not the customer, owes the reply drops out of sight.
Metrics lie. Backlog size, resolution time and SLA compliance are all calculated from statuses. If agents mark tickets Solved to make a number look better, the number stops telling you anything.

Status discipline is cheap. It takes a written definition, a short team briefing and a weekly check. Compared with buying more software or hiring, it is one of the highest-return habits a support team can build.

The Four Statuses Defined

Different tools use slightly different names, but the underlying states are the same. Below are the definitions we recommend, using the names Talkmio uses in its Inbox: Open, Pending, Solved and Closed.

Open: the team owes the next action

A ticket is Open when someone on your side needs to do something: reply, investigate, ask a colleague, or make a decision. New tickets start as Open. A ticket also returns to Open when the customer replies with new information.

The test is simple: if nobody on the team touched this ticket today, would the customer be waiting on you? If yes, it is Open.

Pending: waiting on someone outside the team

Pending means the next step belongs to the customer or a third party. You asked the customer for a photo of the damaged item, an order number, or confirmation that a fix worked. Or you are waiting for a courier, supplier or payment provider to respond.

Pending is not a parking spot for tickets the team does not want to deal with. If you are waiting on a colleague in another department, the ticket is still Open from the customer’s point of view, because your company owes the answer.

Solved: you believe the issue is resolved

Solved means the team has done what was needed and believes the customer’s problem is fixed. The customer can still reply, and if they do with a related problem, the ticket goes back to Open.

Mark a ticket Solved only after you have told the customer what was done. “We have refunded €42.90 to your card, it should appear within a few business days” is a solving reply. “Let me check” is not.

Closed: finished and archived

Closed is the final state. The issue is resolved and the conversation is no longer active. Teams typically close tickets some days after they were solved, once the customer has had time to respond. If the same customer writes again about something new, that is a new ticket.

The difference between Solved and Closed matters for reporting. Solved tells you the team finished its work. Closed tells you the case is fully over and can be excluded from active views.

Support Ticket Statuses at a Glance

Status	Who owes the next step	Counts as backlog?	Typical next status	Common misuse
Open	Your team	Yes	Pending or Solved	Left open after a final reply
Pending	Customer or third party	No, but monitor age	Open (customer replies) or Solved	Used while waiting on a colleague
Solved	Nobody, unless the customer replies	No	Closed, or Open if reopened	Marked before the customer was told
Closed	Nobody	No	None, a new issue is a new ticket	Closing to hide old tickets

The table is the core of a status policy. Print it, pin it in your team channel, and refer to it when someone is unsure.

How Tickets Should Move Between Statuses

Most tickets follow a short path: Open → Solved → Closed. Some take a detour through Pending, sometimes more than once.

Typical flows

Simple question: Open → reply with the answer → Solved → Closed.
Need more information: Open → ask for order number → Pending → customer replies → Open → resolve → Solved → Closed.
Third-party dependency: Open → contact courier → Pending (waiting on courier) → courier answers → Open → update customer → Solved.
Customer not happy with the fix: Solved → customer replies “still broken” → Open → further work → Solved again.

Rules worth writing down

Any customer reply moves the ticket to Open, unless it is a pure thank-you.
Pending needs a reason. Use an internal note to record what you are waiting for and when you will follow up.
Pending has a time limit. If the customer does not reply within a set number of days, send one reminder, then mark the ticket Solved with a message that they can reply any time.
Solved requires a customer-facing message describing what was done.
Closing is routine, not a judgment. Close solved tickets on a schedule, not ad hoc.

Statuses and Priorities Work Together

Status tells you who owes the next step. Priority tells you how urgent it is. You need both. A Pending ticket marked Urgent is a signal to chase the third party. An Open ticket marked Low can wait until the urgent ones are done.

In Talkmio, the conversation header lets you set priority from Low to Urgent and status from Open through Closed, assign a team member and convert a chat into a numbered ticket. If you have not defined priority levels yet, our guide to ticket priority levels gives a ready-made scheme.

Where SLAs come in

A service-level agreement sets how quickly you respond. Response targets usually apply to Open tickets, since those are the ones your team owes. Talkmio marks conversations without a first reply within your target time with an “overdue” badge, set under Settings → Response time target. That badge only works if new requests stay Open until someone has actually replied. For setting the targets themselves, see live chat SLA response targets.

Statuses in Live Chat vs E-mail Tickets

Statuses were born in e-mail help desks and issue tracking systems, where conversations last days. Live chat is faster, and that changes how statuses behave.

Most chats never need Pending. The customer is right there. If you need an order number, you ask and they answer within a minute.
A chat becomes a ticket when it cannot be finished in the session. The customer leaves, a refund needs approval, a supplier has to confirm. Convert it to a ticket so it gets a number and stays tracked.
Chats answered by an AI assistant may be resolved without a person ever touching them. Decide whether your team reviews those before they are closed, at least for a sample.

On Talkmio’s paid plans, forwarded support e-mails become tickets in the same Inbox, and replies go back to the customer by e-mail in the same thread. Using one status scheme for chats and e-mails means one backlog, not two. The difference between the two formats is covered in tickets vs live chat.

Reporting on Statuses

Once statuses are reliable, a few simple numbers tell you a lot.

Open count at the start of each day

This is your working backlog. Track it daily. A steady rise over two weeks is an early warning that demand has outgrown capacity.

Age of Open tickets

Count how many Open tickets are older than one, three and seven days. Old Open tickets are usually stuck on a decision nobody wants to make.

Pending age

Pending tickets are not backlog, but they still represent customers with unresolved issues. A long tail of old Pending tickets means your follow-up rule is not being applied.

Reopen rate

The share of Solved tickets that return to Open. A high reopen rate means tickets are being marked Solved too early, or answers are incomplete.

If the backlog is already out of control, our guide on clearing a support ticket backlog walks through the triage.

Common Status Mistakes in Small Teams

Everything stays Open

Some teams never change status. Every ticket is Open until someone closes it months later. The Inbox becomes useless as a to-do list, because you cannot tell which Open tickets need action.

Pending as a hiding place

Marking a difficult ticket Pending to get it out of the queue is the most damaging habit. The customer waits, nobody owns it, and the SLA badge never fires. A weekly review of Pending tickets with no note explaining why catches this fast.

Solving without telling the customer

An agent fixes the issue internally, marks the ticket Solved, and forgets to write to the customer. The customer writes again, and you now have a reopen and an unhappy customer.

Closing old tickets in bulk to clean up

Bulk-closing ancient Open tickets makes the dashboard look clean, but some of those customers are still waiting. Before a cleanup, send each one a short message, then close.

Different meanings per agent

If one agent uses Pending for “waiting on the customer” and another uses it for “waiting on the warehouse team”, reports mix the two. One written definition, shared with everyone, solves this.

Setting Up a Status Policy in One Afternoon

Write the four definitions in one paragraph each, using the table above as a base.
Add the five transition rules from the section on movement.
Decide your Pending time limit and reminder wording.
Decide when Solved tickets are closed.
Brief the team in a 15-minute call and walk through five real tickets together.
Review weekly for the first month: old Pending tickets, reopen rate, and any ticket with an unclear status.

After a month, most teams no longer need the review. The definitions become habit.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Solved and Closed support ticket statuses?

Solved means your team has finished its work and believes the issue is fixed, but the customer can still reply and reopen it. Closed is the final state: the conversation is archived and a new problem from the same customer starts a new ticket. Many teams close solved tickets automatically or on a schedule after a few days.

When should a ticket be marked Pending?

Only when the next step belongs to someone outside your team, usually the customer or a third party such as a courier or supplier. If you are waiting for a colleague in your own company, the ticket should stay Open, because from the customer’s point of view your company still owes the answer.

How long should a ticket stay Pending?

Set a fixed limit, such as three to five business days, and apply it consistently. When the limit passes, send one friendly reminder. If there is still no reply, mark the ticket Solved with a message saying the customer can reply any time to continue. Old Pending tickets with no note are a warning sign.

Should live chats have ticket statuses too?

Yes, but most chats move quickly from Open to Solved because the customer is present. A chat should be converted into a numbered ticket when it cannot be finished in the session, for example when a refund needs approval. Using the same status scheme for chats and e-mail tickets gives you one backlog instead of two.

Does marking a ticket Pending stop the SLA clock?

In most setups, response targets apply to the first reply on tickets your team owes, so a correctly used Pending status reflects that the customer, not your team, has the next step. That is exactly why Pending must not be misused. Hiding team-owned tickets as Pending makes SLA reports look better than reality.

How do I know if my team is using statuses correctly?

Check three numbers weekly: the age of Open tickets, the number of Pending tickets without a note explaining what you are waiting for, and the reopen rate on Solved tickets. If all three stay low and stable, your statuses are probably honest. A sudden change in any of them is worth a closer look.

The Bottom Line

Four support ticket statuses are enough for almost every team, as long as each one has a clear owner: Open for your team, Pending for the customer or a third party, Solved for finished work, and Closed for archived cases. Write the definitions down, set a Pending time limit and review old tickets weekly for a month. If you want chats and e-mail tickets under one status scheme with priorities and overdue badges, try Talkmio free.