Blueprint Overview - Online Help | Zoho Desk

Blueprint - An Overview

Blueprint is a series of steps that must be performed in a sequential order to achieve a goal. Organizations often have multiple teams and departments handling different types of queries, many of which need to be addressed in a particular order. Missing out on a step in the process can lead to inefficiencies and confusion within the team. By creating a blueprint for the tasks that follow the same steps regardless of who is performing them, organizations can reduce the time required to complete tasks, minimize manual intervention, and eliminate potential errors.

Benefits of using Blueprint

Blueprint provides the following benefits:
  1. Process Standardization - Ensures all agents follow the same predefined process.
  2. Guided Ticket Handling - Guides agents with the next step required before moving the ticket forward.
  3. Mandatory Data Capture -  Makes it mandatory for the agents to enter the required information at each stage before proceeding.
  4. Time-Based Process Control - Allows setting time limits and SLAs for stages and triggers escalation if there are any delays.
  5. Improved Process Visibility - Provides clear visibility into how tickets move through each stage.

Business Scenario

New feature request

When a new feature is requested from the customer, the following steps are involved.
  1. Support team discusses if the requirement is valid.
  2. Usecase document is created and shared with the PM.
  3. Once the PM review is done, usecase is approved and sent for development.

Refund request

When a customer initiates a refund request, the following steps are involved:
Validating the request:
  1. If the request is valid, approve the refund request and close the ticket,
  2. If the request is valid, but refund amount needs to be verified within 2 business days, then the ticket can be kept on hold and verified. 
  3. If the customer escalates that the refund is pending for a long time, then mark the status as 'Customer Escalated' and move it to Escalated state. Then the team lead can follow-up on the delay and bring it to closure.
  4. If the request is invalid, close the ticket, reject the refund request.

When multiple teams are involved in feature development, keeping a track of what has to be completed in order is often challenging as each team's requirements and dependency is different.
How could this intervention of multiple teams be streamlined, recorded, tracked without having any dependencies or followup?

Blueprint allows the users to monitor, record, streamline, and track every step while involving all the teams involved in a process. The steps could include defining a criteria, status, SLA, and the transition to be performed.

Understanding blueprint

Each blueprint is made of three key components:

Components

Definition

Purpose

Example

State

A state represents the status of a ticket at a particular moment in its lifecycle.

Helps track the state of a ticket - whether it’s new, being worked on, or resolved.
New – Ticket just created.

Resolved – The agent has resolved the ticket.

Transition

A transition is the movement from one state to another triggered by an action or event.

Defines how a ticket can move through different states.
Start Progress – Moves ticket from New to In Progress state.

Resolve Ticket – Moves ticket from In Progress to Resolved state.
Connectors
Connectors visually link states and transitions in the blueprint. They represent the flow of the process.

Makes it easy to understand the ticket lifecycle at a glance.

Start Progress -> [In Progress] -> Resolve Ticket -> [Resolved] -> Close Ticket -> [Closed]


Blueprint transitions

There are three conditions in a Blueprint: Before, During, and After. 

Before transition 

Check for criteria before making a transition available for agents. 
The criteria that can be validated before transition are:
  1. Transition Owners - Agents who can execute a transition.
    For example, when an agent is selected as the transition owner, the transition will be available only for that agent.
    If transition owner is not selected, then any agent from that department can perform the transition. 
  2. Transition Owner from a Different Department - Select a different department so that they can also perform the transition. The tickets are automatically shared with the selected department. Set the agent permission as either Full Access, Read Only Access, or Restricted Access.
  3. Criteria - Define the conditions to be met to perform the transition. 


During Transition

A set of actions such as updating a field value, adding comments, attaching files etc. can be mandated during transition. The transition owner must perform these actions in order to complete it and move the record to the next stage. 

In addition to actions such as adding a message, attachment, and comment, a lookup fields can also be added during a transition. For example, when a ticket is in Open state, the Subscription Renewed blueprint transition can be performed to update the ticket to the payment successful state. During this transition, the subscription record can be selected using the lookup field. This ensures the ticket is linked to the correct subscription details before it reached the final state.

For more information on creating lookup fields, refer to the document Creating Custom Lookup Fields in Zoho Desk.   

Let's look at the details that you can mandate in the During Transition:
  1. Actions - Actions to be performed such as reply all, comment, attach file, resolution, submit for approval, and share request can be selected.
  2. Fields - Select the required fields that must be filled during the transition.
  3. Message - Provide clear instructions to the transition owners so that they could execute a Blueprint process efficiently. You can include messages which refer to specific situations or general guidelines that should help them prepare for the next transition.
  4. Extensions - Adding extensions improves the support ticket process by choosing specific widgets that match the unique needs of the blueprint process. Blueprint-integrated extensions have multiple uses, including field updates, external service updates, step sequences, form data retrieval, and form data submission.

After Transition

Certain automated actions to be performed on completing a transition. Actions that can be automated in the After Transition section are:
  1. Alerts - Select an existing email alert or create a new one to send an email alert after transition.
  2. Field Updates - Select a field that must be updated after transition.
  3. Tasks - Select a task that must be performed after transition.
  4. Custom Functions (exclusive for Enterprise edition) - Select a custom function that must be performed after transition.

For more information on creating a blueprint, refer to :
  1. Help document on Creating a blueprint
  2. E-book on Streamline customer support process with Blueprint