At Naked Cat Plugins, we love helping our customers. Quica, our in-house Sphynx support specialist (who naps on the job), and her apprentice Maria (who prefers attacking shoelaces to debugging) are always nearby while we read your support tickets. But here’s the thing: the better your support request, the faster we can help.
This post is mainly for our customers, but the tips here can help you anytime you’re reaching out to a plugin or theme developer. Writing clear, complete support requests saves time for everyone and helps avoid unnecessary back-and-forth.
Let’s look at how you can make your next ticket purr-fect.
Tell us what’s going on, where, and what you expected
You don’t need to write a novel (Maria tried once, it was just “meow” repeated 5,000 times), but we do need some details. Try to cover:
What you were doing
For example, instead of saying “Coupon not working,” tell us something like:
I was testing a coupon using your Advanced Coupon Restrictions for WooCommerce plugin.
I restricted it to logged-in users only, but the coupon was still applying for guests.
That gives us a much better starting point.
Where it happened
On the checkout page? Cart? My Account? Mobile browser? Staging site? Let us know where you saw the issue.
What went wrong (or right)
Was there an error? Did a field disappear? Or did something work differently from what you expected? Details help us spot the problem faster.
Also, let us know if anything changed recently, like plugin updates, server moves, or new extensions added. Even small changes can trigger issues that were hiding under the rug.
Do not include logins or credentials
We know it might seem easier to just send us a temporary admin login or a magic link, but please don’t.
For your safety and ours, we can’t accept login access through support tickets. Here’s why:
- Security: Shared logins are a risk. Even if intentions are good, things can go wrong.
- Liability: If something breaks while we’re logged into your site, it’s hard to tell who did what.
- GDPR and data protection: If your store collects personal data (which it likely does), giving third parties access to that data is a legal risk.
If we ever need hands-on help to resolve your issue, we’ll invite you to book a remote session using AnyDesk. It lets us see your screen, guide you and even interact with your website, but you remain in control the whole time. We don’t access your site directly and you can stop the session at any moment. It’s safe, transparent, and easy.
Show us what you’re seeing (screenshots or screen recordings)
A picture really does save a lot of explaining.
- If something looks broken, take a screenshot, and use a tool like Snipboard.io to share it with us.
- If a behavior is hard to describe, record a short screen capture. Tools like Loom or a phone recording work just fine.
- Got a browser console error? A screenshot of that can be very helpful too.
The more we can see what you’re seeing, the easier it is for us to understand and fix it.
Help us help you
You don’t have to be a developer to send a great support request.
- Bullet points are great. (see what we did here?)
- No need to list every plugin you’ve ever installed unless you think it’s relevant.
- Avoid vague phrases like “nothing works” unless, well, nothing works.
- And maybe don’t copy-paste a 500-line error log unless we specifically ask for it. Quica once tried to read one and fell asleep on the keyboard.
Bonus tip: Use meaningful subject lines
“Plugin not working” doesn’t give us much to go on. But “Coupon restriction not applying to guest users” points us in the right direction right away. It’s like naming a cat: you want something specific enough that it doesn’t answer to everyone on the street.
TL;DR
Here’s your quick checklist before sending a ticket:
- What were you doing?
- Where did the issue happen?
- What did you expect, and what actually happened?
- Did you attach screenshots or videos?
- Did you avoid sending login credentials?
- Is your message clear and to the point?
If yes, congratulations, you just made our job easier, and your support experience faster.
Now if you’ll excuse us, Maria is chasing the mouse cursor again. On our support dashboard.