Working with Tasks
A task is a specific piece of work required to be completed within a given time frame. They can either be stand-alone, such as giving product demos or sending follow-up documents, or associated with the tickets.
A ticket often requires a lot of groundwork, collaboration, and sometimes approval before it is resolved and closed.
Consider a ticket on failed renewal of subscription where the customer was charged but the subscription wasn't renewed. The agent would perform the following activities:
- Check with the purchase department about the subscription plan that the customer renewed.
- Collaborate with the payments team to find the reason for an unsuccessful payment.
- If the issue was specific to the payment method, then find out the complete details.
- Get approval for a refund.
- Discuss about re-initiating the renewal process with the subscription team.
- Reply to the customer with the collected details, explaining the issue, and providing the necessary steps to complete the renewal.
Now, it would be much easier for the agent to keep track of the progress and prevent slippage if all the above to-dos are associated with the ticket.
Tasks are important actions that the agent performs in order to resolve a ticket. It provides them with clarity, streamlines the process of ticket resolution, and also helps support managers identify underlying reasons for overdue tasks. Another benefit is that for every task you can set reminders, priority, due date and more to stay on top of your project at all times.
Creating Tasks
Agents can create tasks for themselves or support managers can create and assign them to the respective agents. While adding tasks the following details must be included:
Department under which the task is been created
- Task owner
- Ticket for which the task is created
- Due date to close the ticket
- Contact who raised the ticket and is thus related to the task
- Priority level that is highest, high, normal, low, and lowest
- Status of the task such as yet to start, on hold, completed
- Reminder to notify the task owner about the days left to complete the task before it gets overdue.
Selecting the Department
Like tickets, activities are also department-specific. When tasks are created the first step is to select the right department, based on this the agents and teams that have access to the specific department can then be assigned as the task owners.
Assigning Task Owner
The person who creates the task automatically becomes the owner. Alternately, the tasks can be assigned to other agents or teams either manually or automatically through workflows and macros.
Consider the above scenario where the agent has to collaborate with the payments team for refund. They can create a task and directly assign it to the payments team, that can be taken up by the right person. This saves time and effort and also streamlines the process.
Setting Status, Due date, and Priority
Status: While working on multiple tasks, it is important to update their status as they progress from one stage to another. It gives a clear idea to the agent and also helps them prioritize and track their daily activities.
The different statuses of a task are: Not Started, Deferred, In Progress, Waiting on Someone, Canceled, and Completed.
Note:
- By default, admins can change the task status.
- Agents with the permission to edit, update, create, view, or delete can modify the task status.
Due date: A due date can be set for the tasks to let the agents and others know when the task should be completed. This will also help them prioritize their activities.
Priority: The priority level of a task will help agents identify which tasks need prior attention. The following priority levels can be chosen: Highest, High, Normal, Low, and Lowest.
Setting Reminders
Reminders help the task owner stay on top of their project by prioritizing those tasks that are approaching the due date. Notifications can be sent to the agents or the entire team based on the task assignment. These notifications can be set to be send on or before the due date. There are three channels through which reminders are sent:
- Alert through Pop-up
- Alert through Email
- Alert through SMS
Selecting a Contact
If the task is created for a customer whose record is already available in Zoho Desk, then you can select the contact.
Note: As the task progresses, based on the completion state you can change the due date, status and priority.
For example, in the above scenario the agent can create a task for the refund issue and assign it to the payments team and also give the contact details so that the concerned person can look up other important details while working on the task.
Assigning a Category
Depending on the type of activities, you can ascribe a category to every task. It helps in identification and sometimes transferring the task to the right agent or team, if needed.
For example, if your org collects customer testimonials, then a task that requires the agent to call the customer can be ascribed the right category. This will help the agent quickly identify the groundwork they may have to perform in order to collect the testimonial before they get on a call with the customer.
Likewise, if the task is assigned to the support team while the customer testimonials is managed by the marketing team, then the task can be transferred to the appropriate agent or team for immediate attention.
Mapping with Tickets
Tasks can be mapped with the tickets to give complete context. Agents can get more information on the task that is assigned to them by checking the ticket. From customer information to the issues that have been resolved and the responses from other agents can help them gather details that will add more value to their understanding and help them complete their task on time.
Tickets can be mapped to the task during creation or later. There are two ways in which tasks can be mapped with the tickets:
- From the Activities module
- From the Tickets module
Note
- All the tasks that are created are listed on the Tasks home page, as well as within the corresponding tickets.
- Tasks will only be closed when the Status is updated as Completed.
- A task will be considered as Completed and closed only when the system-defined field "status" is updated. An alternate custom field with the same field name will not close the task automatically.
To create tasks
- Go to the Activities module.
- In the Activities Home page, click Tasks from the left menu.
- Click Add Task from the top bar.
- In the Task Information page, enter the following details:
- Select a Department from the drop-down list.
- Enter Subject (eg., follow-up on refund).
- Choose the Due date.
- Select the Ticket.
- Choose the Contact.
- Select Status, Priority, and Category from the drop-down list.
- Select a Task Owner, either Agent or Team.
- Enter Description, if required.
- Toggle Set Reminder, and specify on/before; number of days; minutes/hours/days; and the notification method email/popup/SMS.
- Click Submit.
To edit task
- Open a task to view its details.
- From the More (…) option, click Edit.
- In the Edit Task page, make the necessary edits and click Save.
You can also edit a task from the Task List View page. In the list view, hover over a task and click Edit.
To map tasks from the Activities module
- Click the Activities module.
- In the Activities Home page, click Tasks at the bottom of the left menu.
- Click the Add Tasks icon (
) from the top bar.
- In the Add Task page, search and map the desired ticket using the Ticket field.
- Click Submit.
To map tasks from the Tickets module
- Open the desired ticket from the Tickets module.
- In the Tickets View page, click the Activity tab.
- In Add Activity, select Task.
The associated ticket will be mapped directly into the Add Task page. - Click Submit.
Viewing Tasks in List Views
Once the tasks are created they can be viewed within the task list views. Zoho Desk provides a predefined list of views that cannot be edited.
- All Tasks
- Canceled Tasks
- Completed Tasks
- My Open Tasks
- My Overdue Tasks
- My Tasks
- My Team Tasks
- Next 7 Days + Overdue
- Open Tasks
- Overdue Tasks
- Spam Tasks
- Today + Overdue
- Today's Tasks
- Tomorrow's Tasks
The view can be narrowed down by filtering the tasks by agent, department, and due date. Likewise you can also sort the tasks based on category they belong, priority, status, created time, and more to view them as per the requirement.
To view tasks
- Go to the Activities module.
- On the Activities Home page, click Tasks from the left menu.
- Select a standard list view from the left menu to view the tasks underneath it.
The All Tasks view will be displayed during your first access. In subsequent access, the system will remember and display your most recent view.
Aside from the predefined list views, you can create custom list views by defining criteria of your own. The custom views created by an agent will be listed on the left menu, along with the standard views.
Adding Attachments to Tasks
Once the task is created, you can add relevant information to it as an attachment. For example, you can attach user manuals, service documents, screen shots, or video of an issue that will help the support agent get better clarity and resolve issues faster.
You can attach files either from cloud storage, such as Zoho Workdrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, OneDrive, or Box, or from your computer.
To add an attachment to task
- In the Activities module, open the desired task.
- In the Task Details page, click the Attachments tab.
- Select Attach From Cloud or Browse Files to upload a file.
- Hover on an attached file to Delete or Download.
Marking a Task as Complete
The support agent who is handling the task or an admin can update the status of a task as completed in order to close the task.
If a task is associated with a ticket, then the agent or the support admin must manually notify the customer once the task is completed.
Note
- Only those users who have the permission to access the Task module can mark a task as completed.
- A task will be considered closed only when the Task status field is updated as "Completed".
To mark a task complete
- Go to the Activities module.
- In the Activities Home page, click Tasks from the left menu.
- Open the desired task to mark the status as completed.
- In the Task Details page, click the Status field.
- Select Completed from the drop-down list.
Reopening completed tasks
Tasks that are marked completed are considered closed. In some cases, you may have to reopen a closed task. For example, if the customer reports that the issue is not resolved, then the support admin or the agent can reopen the task.
Note: Users who have the permission to access the Task module can reopen a task.
To reopen a task
- In the Activities module, open the desired task.
- In the Task Details page, set the status of the task to anything other than Completed.
- You can also close or reopen a task using the Edit option from More (…) in the top-right corner of the task details page. In the Edit Task page, select the desired task status from the drop-down and click Save.
Deleting a Task
You can delete tasks that are outdated and not needed anymore by your team.
To delete tasks
- Open a task to view its details.
- From the More (…) option, select Delete.
- Click Delete to confirm.
- The deleted task will be moved to the Recycle Bin.
To permanently delete a task
- Go to Set up (
) > Data Administration > Recycle Bin.
- Select Tasks from the drop-down menu on the top bar.
- Select the tasks that you want to delete permanently and click Delete in the upper-right corner.
- Click OK to confirm the selection.
Restoring deleted tasks
You can restore a task that was deleted inadvertently.
To restore the deleted tasks
- Go to Setup (
- Select Tasks from the drop-down menu at the top bar.
- Select the tasks that you want to restore and click Restore from the upper-right corner.
- Click Proceed to confirm the selection.
Note
- Restoring the selected records will also restore all the data associated with them.
- Tasks that are permanently deleted cannot be restored.
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