How best to create tickets as an agent to request a response from the client?

How best to create tickets as an agent to request a response from the client?

In my business I have two ways of using the ticket system:

1) The "normal" way where my clients generate a ticket about some issue they have. This is the standard way all ticketing systems work. No problem here.

2) If I find an issue with the client's property, then I need to report it to them and request their response or approval to do something about it. This is kind of like reversing the roles of the ticket where the agent is now requesting or creating a ticket that the client must respond to.

I'm unsure how best to do this. Ticketing systems are not designed so that agents "create tickets for clients" and then wait for clients to respond to them, it's always the other way around. 

What I would want, ideally, is to create a ticket as myself, and "assign" it to a client, basically requesting their response. I'll fill in the details, and the client would be notified that there is a ticket for them to respond to.
In Zoho when I create a new ticket, we put in the contact (the client) and the ticket owner (myself). Which means I would be creating a ticket on their behalf essentially "speaking for them."

The problem with this is that I'm not creating a ticket for my client, I'm creating a ticket as if it came from the client TO me. But this is wrong because it would be expecting the reply to be myself. In other words, I create a ticket manually from Bob to myself. Bob does not get notified, because I'm the owner of the ticket, it's really a ticket for myself that I'm making on behalf of Bob.

What's odd is that I can't do this and pretend to be Bob. I can't create a ticket on Bob's behalf to report an issue that I found and need to report to Bob, while creating a ticket that essentially looks like Bob reporting the issue to me. It's backwards!

I hope any of this makes sense. If Bob reports issues to me, he can create tickets all day long. But if I find issues and need to report them to Bob to get his feedback, the whole ticketing system breaks to pieces, it's just not meant to work that way and is really lacking useful features to do this kind of thing.

For example, I would create this ticket "for" Bob, and ideally Bob would get auto-notified of his unread ticket every few days until he deals with it and gets me the info I need. 
If I am putting out dozens of requests across dozens of clients, I will eventually have a large list of pending issues/tickets that clients need to respond to, I don't want to manually have to send reminders on all these if they don't reply. Ideally I want to "set it and forget it" and let the ticketing system bug them until I get an answer.
So again, Zoho doesn't work this way, pretty much no ticketing system does.

My question is, is there any way to use Zoho so that I can work this way?

And I have the paid Standard plan BTW.

Note that without a ticketing system, the only real way I can try to make requests to clients is send them emails. "Hey I found an issue...." But I have the same problem, dozens and dozens of pending issues that clients don't respond to, and no easy way to track them all and send reminders and receive info and approvals and track completed tasks etc. There is a gap in the market for this kind of thing!

    Access your files securely from anywhere

        All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.






                              Zoho Developer Community




                                                    • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                    • Digest


                                                    • Functions


                                                    • Meetups


                                                    • Kbase


                                                    • Resources


                                                    • Glossary


                                                    • Desk Marketplace


                                                    • MVP Corner


                                                    • Word of the Day


                                                    • Ask the Experts



                                                              • Sticky Posts

                                                              • 2024 Email Authentication Standards: Elevating Security with Google and Yahoo

                                                                In contemporary email communication, email authentication plays a pivotal role in mitigating email fraud, spam, and phishing attacks. Brace yourself for a new level of security. Starting February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo will be implementing robust email
                                                              • Using Agent Email Address as From Address

                                                                Currently, while replying to a ticket, it is possible for agents to choose their own email addresses as 'from' addresses. Although we built this just for that little extra flexibility, in hindsight, it hasn't figured much in conventional usage.  Almost all businesses prefer that responses to their customers' tickets be sent from the common support/service email address and NOT from those of individual agents. During personal interactions at events, some of you have even made passing mentions about
                                                              • Edit and Delete options in Comments

                                                                A lot of teams have been using ticket comments extensively to collaborate everyday. Notification Center further improved this experience by bringing real-time updates. As we continue to build more improvements to this experience, we've shipped a small-yet-important
                                                              • Webinar 2: Supercharged customer support for growing business

                                                                Join us for this webinar and learn how to step up your support game using a real-time communication platform to generate happier, more successful customers. In this live webinar, we will will discuss the importance of SalesIQ for your support team and how it can help you:  Understand your customers better and their journeys to proactively support and engage them even before they ask for help.  Integrating real time conversations into Zoho Desk’s Support, providing a conversational customer service
                                                              • Customize Colors of your Customer Self Service Portal

                                                                You asked for it. We heard you. We're happy to roll out the most sought after feature request, Customizing the Colors of your Customer Self-service Portal. Now you can set the color of your customer portal to mimic your company's web site, so that your customers visiting the portal will not feel alienated by the default theme.  Go ahead and configure the color of the header, tabs, fonts and background according to your needs. You can either choose between default color themes like Blue, Grey, Green


                                                              Manage your brands on social media



                                                                    Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                        Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                          Zoho Books Resources


                                                                            Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                              Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                                Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                  Qntrl Resources


                                                                                    Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                        Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                        • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                          CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                        • Kaizen

                                                                                          Kaizen

                                                                                        • Functions

                                                                                          Functions

                                                                                        • Meetups

                                                                                          Meetups

                                                                                        • Kbase

                                                                                          Kbase

                                                                                        • Resources

                                                                                          Resources

                                                                                        • Digest

                                                                                          Digest

                                                                                        • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                          CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        • MVP Corner

                                                                                          MVP Corner







                                                                                            Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                            Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                            Get Started Now


                                                                                              Zoho Show Resources

                                                                                                Zoho Writer

                                                                                                Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                                Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                  Zoho CRM コンテンツ




                                                                                                    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                        ご検討中の方




                                                                                                                • Recent Topics

                                                                                                                • What is the best way to convert MSG file to Word format?

                                                                                                                  The best way to convert MSG files to Word format is by using a reliable and professional tool Aryson MSG file Converter. Manual methods are often time-consuming and may not preserve email formatting, attachments, or metadata accurately. In contrast, Aryson
                                                                                                                • Address Typeahead Extension for Zoho Books

                                                                                                                  I installed the Address Typeahead extension for zoho books but when I went to configure it, it said that that version was deprecated. Is there a newer version somewhere?
                                                                                                                • Zoho Projects : Task should auto-update to 'In Progress' if timer started

                                                                                                                  Namaskaram. Right now, if a Task's timer is started, the Task stays in 'Not Started' status. One has to manually update it to 'In Progress'. From a #uxdesign standpoint, it is an unnecessarily two step process to start working on a task. It would be better that, if I start the timer on a task, it should automatically change to 'In Progress' status. Crafted with ❤️ Zoho Gurus | Zoho One Practice Team @ CubeYogi Zoho Authorised Partner | 7+ Yrs | 200+ Projects | 100+ Customers
                                                                                                                • Invoice template with sales tax totals

                                                                                                                  Hi everyone,  I am trying to edit my invoice template so that only the total sales tax collected for my tax group shows up. Right now, under by sub total, each individual tax shows up and that takes up a lot of unnessary space, so I just want the one
                                                                                                                • Zoho Delayed Posting & Loss of Article Thumbnails on BlueSky

                                                                                                                  Hello! I am wondering if anyone else has had the either of the following issues when posting to socials via Zoho and if there is a fix? 1. Post says it is scheduled or it is live when sent off via Zoho but it doesn't show up on socials till some time
                                                                                                                • Connection Not Secure (Certificate Mismatch) Error

                                                                                                                  Hi, Just a fyi, when you go to https://bigin.zohocloud.ca/bigin/Home you get a "Your Connection Is Not private" error. (Certificate mismatch to domain.) I get to that page after I have signed up and signed in as a customer and select the Access Bigin
                                                                                                                • Recording the Investment

                                                                                                                  Hello, - One Investor Invested to our company, So how do we record investment which we received in our bank in the Zoho books ? - How do we record if we provide shares to the investor in the Zoho books? Thanks
                                                                                                                • Export Invoices to XML file

                                                                                                                  Namaste! ZOHO suite of Apps is awesome and we as Partner, would like to use and implement the app´s from the Financial suite like ZOHO Invoice, but, in Portugal, we can only use certified Invoice Software and for this reason, we need to develop/customize on top of ZOHO Invoice to create an XML file with specific information and after this, go to the government and certified the software. As soon as we have for example, ZOHO CRM integrated with ZOHO Invoice up and running, our business opportunities
                                                                                                                • Client and Vendor portal at the same time

                                                                                                                  We have companies that serve both as clients and vendors and they are linked. However, we have a problem giving them access to the vendor/client portal. If they accept the invitation from the client portal, when we try to invite them to the vendor portal
                                                                                                                • Integrate Multiple ZohoBooks organization with zoho projects

                                                                                                                  We have successfully connected our Zoho Books with Zoho Projects for synronizing timesheet data. Our Business specialty is, that the staff of the Main company (A) is working on several projects, but the Clients are sometimes contracted and paying to a
                                                                                                                • Ways to calculate the difference form two years or months

                                                                                                                  Hi to everyone I have this request: I need to show the difference or variation from two periods (years or months) whether using a Pivot View or a graph, in this is case is better in a Pivot view. In the pivot view I will have the amount or results from
                                                                                                                • Career site URL - Suggestion to modify URL of non-english job posting

                                                                                                                  Hi, I would like to suggest making a few modification to career sites that are not in english. Currently, the URL are a mix of different languages and are very long. It makes for very unprofessional looking URLs... Here is an example of one of our URL
                                                                                                                • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

                                                                                                                  Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards
                                                                                                                • Introducing Contract Settings & Backdated Contracts in Zoho Contracts

                                                                                                                  We are rolling out updates that give you more control over how contracts are created and managed in Zoho Contracts. From defining default workflows with Contract Settings to aligning agreements with real timelines using Backdated Contracts, these enhancements
                                                                                                                • Celebrating our customers on International Client's Day

                                                                                                                  Hi everyone, Every customer is part of our Zoho Desk family, and we wouldn’t want to miss celebrating you on this special day. This International Client's Day, we’d like to take a moment to appreciate every customer who has helped us grow and build meaningful
                                                                                                                • Zoho Books | Product updates | February 2026

                                                                                                                  Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From Advanced Reporting Tags to the ability to mark projects as completed, explore the latest updates designed to improve your bookkeeping experience. Introducing Advanced Reporting
                                                                                                                • Faster Ticket Response with use of Snippets in comments

                                                                                                                  Hello everyone, Responding to tickets often involves repeating the same messages, whether it is sharing updates with customers or leaving notes for internal collaboration. To make this easier and more consistent, we are allowing agents to use snippets
                                                                                                                • Improving Zoho Creator's email deliverability

                                                                                                                  Hi all, We're pleased to announce updates to email handling in Zoho Creator to improve the deliverability of the emails sent from the Creator platform. These updates have been designed keeping in mind the fact that emails from domains with strong sender
                                                                                                                • What's New in Zoho Billing | February 2026

                                                                                                                  February brings a powerful set of updates to Zoho Billing, from smarter subscription management and flexible payment options to better reporting and more control over your hosted pages. Here's everything that's new this February. Create Subscriptions
                                                                                                                • Reassign Partially Saved Entries

                                                                                                                  Hi, I would like to be able to go to Partially Saved Entries and like the option to delete them I would like the option to multi-select and be able to reassign them to another user to complete (Such as when a user has left the company). Thanks Dan
                                                                                                                • Can we rely on order of returned ids when inserting multiple records?

                                                                                                                  Hello! API https://www.zoho.com/crm/developer/docs/api/v8/insert-records.html does not mention that the response array will match the input array*, keeping this important information implicit and someone might have doubts to rely on it. (*the response
                                                                                                                • Displaying only unread tickets in ticket view

                                                                                                                  Hello, I was wondering if someone might be able to help me with this one. We use filters to display our ticket list, typically using a saved filter which displays the tickets which are overdue or due today. What I'd really like is another filter that
                                                                                                                • What is a realistic turnaround time for account review for ZeptoMail?

                                                                                                                  On signing up it said 2-3 business days. I am on business-day 6 and have had zero contact of any kind. No follow-up questions, no approval or decline. Attempts to "leave a message" or use the "Contact Us" form have just vanished without a trace. It still
                                                                                                                • Best Way to Manage Approvals Within Blueprint Stages?

                                                                                                                  Hi, I am working on a requirement involving Blueprint and approval logic in Zoho CRM and would appreciate some guidance. I understand that approval processes do not trigger when a record is currently within a blueprint, which makes it challenging to implement
                                                                                                                • Zoho Books: tax is not automatically pulled from product-data anymore - why?

                                                                                                                  Hi, until a short time ago, you could set a default taxrate for each product/item. This taxrate automatically appeared each time the item was chosen in an invoice or quote. Why does this not work anymore? The field is still there at the product record,
                                                                                                                • Issue creating a YTD report with last years numbers

                                                                                                                  I am looking to create a widget to compare the YTD leads we have in 2023 to the YTD leads we had in 2022. I'm having issues with the aggregate formula creation to gain access to the 2022 Leads YTD data point. Feeling like this is a common view of data
                                                                                                                • Brand Studio Projects in Analytics

                                                                                                                  Hi All, Currently pulling my hair out over trying to link together some social media posts for a reporting dashboard in Analytics, so I thought I'd see if anyone on here had a solution. Our Marketing Team created a LinkedIn campaign in Zoho Brand Studio,
                                                                                                                • Manage Testing Process in Zoho Sprints

                                                                                                                  Agile framework supports a robust quality assurance system that incorporates continuous testing throughout the development lifecycle of the product. The agile testing team focuses on planning the testing around the development, identifying defects early
                                                                                                                • Announcing the Zohotshots of the ZDC Hackathon 2025

                                                                                                                  Hey everyone, The wait is finally over! After weeks of building, experimenting, and pushing creative boundaries, we’re excited to announce the winners of the second edition of the ZDC Hackathon. This edition brought together an incredible community of
                                                                                                                • ZOHO CRM Button Integration

                                                                                                                  Hi Team, I’m currently working with Zoho CRM along with a custom application where I fetch deal details from the CRM and use them based on my requirements for each deal. Now, I want to enhance this setup. I plan to create a button on the Deal Detail page
                                                                                                                • Major journey crash and not loading. Zoho Marketing Automation

                                                                                                                  Hi all. Last night (19MAR, 2026) Marketing Automation for a specific journey completely crashed, and since the crash the specific journey has failed to load at all (blank journey canvas, no journey appears, no menu accessible) but other separate journey's
                                                                                                                • Candidate Assessments, no workflows.

                                                                                                                  I have an issue where I would like to trigger a workflow based on a candidate assessment being completed. Sometimes a returning candidate will complete a second assessment, on completion the status of the candidate will be updated to "Unqualified" if
                                                                                                                • Mail Merge in Zoho Desk

                                                                                                                  Hello Team, Do we have an option of mail merge within Zoho Desk like we have in Zoho CRM? We have a requirement to generate some pdf file in the form of mail merge doc from the ticket.
                                                                                                                • Workdrive backup and default storage selection

                                                                                                                  Hi community, I have been informed by Zoho that workdrive will be the default storage mechanism for crm and projects. These 2 Apps seem to have different design on how they interact with workdrive for storage. 1. Crm: seems to have files saves at the
                                                                                                                • Zoho vault filling in a form it's not supposed to fill in

                                                                                                                  Hey there, I have a problem with ZOHO Vault autofill. In a software package, we have these options: For some reason zoho vault always replaces what's in the top option and fills a 2fa password in there, and then saves that value.. Meaning whatever was
                                                                                                                • Zoho Booking Integration with Desk

                                                                                                                  Just wanting to share something in case it helps someone else who may run into a similar use case as we did. Issue: Currently, the Zoho Booking integration with desk will drop a comment into the ticket when a customer books a time, however it won't change
                                                                                                                • Let us view and export the full price books data from CRM

                                                                                                                  I quote out of CRM, some of my clients have specialised pricing for specific products - therefore we use Price Books to manage these special prices. I can only see the breakdown of the products listed in the price book and the specialised pricing for
                                                                                                                • Syncing calendar with Google Calendar doesn't work when events are sent to auto repeat

                                                                                                                  Hi... The ZOHO CRM -- GOOGLE CALENDAR sync is broken. If I create a single event on either side, sync works, but if I create an event with auto repeat on either side it doesn't work. Furthermore, events created before the sync don't show up in the calendar.
                                                                                                                • Organization wide Account and Contacts Visibility/Sharing Capabilities?

                                                                                                                  Has anyone figured out a way to make visibility or sharing of Accounts and Contacts to be available across the entire organization without having to have every individual user edit their Sharing permissions? For our sales folks they need to be able to
                                                                                                                • Notification of Interaction Assignment

                                                                                                                  If a user is assigned an interaction, they should be notified via email. These are almost useless because if I assign an interaction for someone to respond to, they dont know that I assigned it to them without me telling them or them logging in and discovering
                                                                                                                • Next Page