FAQs: Ticket Management
What is a ticket and where does it originate from?
Tickets are support requests that are submitted by your customers. They contain the support conversations, as well as other properties, such as priority, category, and status. Tickets can be problems, feature requests, questions, or even thank you messages.
Below is a list of ways your customers can connect with you:
- Send an email to the help desk-monitored support mailbox
- Submit a ticket from your customer-facing web interface
- Fill out a support contact form from your website
- Call you on your customer service telephone number
- Ping you through a live chat widget
- Post on your community forum
- Send you a tweet
- Post on your Facebook page
- Send in an SMS or text message
- Start a conversation on an instant messaging (IM) app
These communication options are collectively called channels in Zoho Desk. You can add or remove a channel to meet your needs as per your business requirements. Requests submitted through these channels will quickly turn into tickets in Zoho Desk.
How can I hide tickets from help center users?
The Help Center in Zoho Desk consists of the Knowledge Base, Community, and Tickets. These modules are aimed at helping customers learn, find solutions, and raise support tickets whenever there is a need.
It provides them with a self-service platform where they can:
- Refer to the articles in the knowledge base and learn more about the respective product, application etc.
- Find solutions to their issues on their own.
- Discuss problems, share ideas, or ask questions with fellow customers via the community.
- Raise tickets for issues that require support agents' assistance.
These customers are also referred to as help center users or portal users. They can create a ticket, add comments to the ticket, reply to a ticket, and check the status of their tickets.
At times, organizations may have the need to hide certain tickets for reasons such as internal audits, internal reviews and reference, and processes related to organizational strategies.
One such example is when an insurance company needs the tickets to be hidden at the time the insurance claim is checked by the claim settlement team. The tickets are then moved to hidden departments and, once the claims have been settled, they can be moved back to their respective departments.
To hide tickets from help center users, you need to do the following:
- Hide a department from the Help Center.
- Move the tickets under the hidden department.
- Disable the display of tickets under a private department.
The steps below will give the details:
- Go to Setup.
- Click on Departments in General.
- On the Departments setup page, click on the department you want to hide.
- Click on the edit button corresponding to the department name and hide it by disabling the option "Display in Help Center" for department settings.
- Go to Setup > Channel > Help Center > Access Settings.
- Disable "Display Tickets from private departments in the Help Center."
The tickets from the private department won't be visible to the customers or help center users anymore. You can also move tickets from any department to the hidden department in case you want to hide them.
Can I view the tickets I follow?
No, you can't. This is because Zoho Desk doesn't provide the filter criteria that are required to filter out tickets followed by you. Currently, you can only view updates of tickets that you follow in the Notification Center. You can access the same by clicking the Notifications icon ( 
) in the top bar.
How to star a ticket list view?
Views help you to filter out tickets based on your preference so that you don't have to go through all the tickets in your Zoho Desk. You can go a step further and star certain views so that you don't even have to go through the hassle of going through all the ticket views. When you star a view, it stays at the top of your left panel so you can quickly launch them.
To star a view, follow the steps mentioned below:
- Go to the Tickets module.
- Click Views in the sidebar, then select a ticket view from the list.
- On the ticket listing page, click on the Star icon displayed alongside the view name.
The view will be starred instantaneously. - The view will also be listed under the Starred Views listing, on the left panel.
You can click on the Star icon from the same location to unstar a view.
Notes:
- You can star a maximum of 15 list views per department.
- In the All Department view, you can star upto 15 views.
- The views that you star are marked only for you.
How to set display preferences for tickets?
Alter the display preferences and see only those tickets that you would like to see by filtering them by age, sort them based on created time or due date and also define the maximum number of tickets that you think should be visible on a single page.
To set the display preferences, follow the steps mentioned below:
- Click the More icon (
) on the top right corner of the tickets List page.
- Use the Filter option to filter out tickets by agent, status, priority, channel and due date.
- Select the Show Oldest First to see the oldest tickets at the top of the list.
- Sort the tickets based on Ticked ID, Created Time, Recent Thread or Due Date.
- Filter tickets received during specific time periods. You can view those that were created during the last 15 days, 30 days or 3 months.
- Select the Records per page drop-down and choose the number of records to be displayed on a single page. You can view a maximum of 50 tickets per page.
How to set up email alerts for tickets I follow?
You can add yourself as followers on tickets so you can keep up to date with them, without needing to be assigned to the ticket. Such updates can be viewed in the Notification Center that opens on clicking the Notifications icon ( 
) in the upper-right corner of the top bar.
That said, there is no provision in Zoho Desk to set up email alerts for tickets followed by you. There are also no workarounds at this point in time.
How can I respond to tickets?
Now that you've received an open ticket, you must reply to it. You should have noticed that the person who has sent the ticket initiates the conversation. Just above the conversation is the Reply All link which can be used when there are multiple recipients for the ticket and you want to respond to all of them. Click the Reply All icon to open the editor window.
If there are multiple recipients involved and you want to reply to just the person who has sent the ticket, hover the mouse on the Reply All dropdown and click Reply (from inside the editor).
Within the editor, compose your response for the ticket. When you're done composing, click the Send button at the top of your editor window. This will complete your action of responding to a ticket. You can also click Send & Close to send a reply and close the ticket simultaneously.
Your recent response will now be listed just below the title of the ticket. You can view the date and the time at which you sent the reply.
How to manually log a ticket in Zoho Desk?
Most businesses today serve their customers over the telephone. So, once an agent has heard what the customer wants over the phone, he should eventually log a ticket to acknowledge the problem.
Zoho Desk provides an intuitive Add Ticket interface that allows you to quickly log a ticket. Here are the steps to add a ticket:
- From the Tickets module, hit the
sign located in the top toolbar.
- Specify the appropriate Department (if you've more than one), where the ticket should belong to.
- Enter the requestor's Contact Name. You can select from the suggested contacts if the requestor is an existing user.
- Enter the requestor's Account Name. The account name field is auto filled when you've chosen, a suggested contact that has an account associated with it.
- Enter the requestor's Email Address and Phone. The email and phone fields are auto-filled when you've chosen, a suggested contact that has these details.
- Enter the Subject of your ticket besides, other ticket properties that add context to the customer's request.
- Click Submit.
The customer will receive an email acknowledgment with their ticket ID and other related information.
Note:
- The system will add a new Contact (with the name, email and other relevant details) when a ticket is raised for/by a requestor who doesn't exist yet. The same applies to Accounts and Products as well.
- You can add attachments while you create a ticket. Though you could upload multiple files, make sure that each of that file is within the size of 20 MB.
- When an agent creates a new ticket, it defaults to the agent/submitter as its owner.
How do I create a test ticket by myself?
If you've signed up for a free trial of Zoho Desk, you are ready to create your first test ticket. Before that did you notice that we'd sent you a welcome email that was added as a ticket? Here is an excerpt of it -
Hello,Welcome to Zoho Desks new Unified Ticket Screen. Here, you have complete context of the ticket. Now that you had received your first ticket, did you notice that it has been assigned to you? To respond to this ticket smartly, check out the Auto-Suggested Solutions in the pane to your left.When you're done composing your response, you may send it and close the ticket.Whatever action you perform, be rest assured that you can always track them under the ticket's history. With that, you're one step closer to delivering top-notch customer service!Cheers,Team Zoho Desk1 888 900 9646
This sample ticket helps you learn the baby steps before you take the plunge. Now, getting back to creating your own test ticket, here are the steps:
- Imagine you are a customer and have questions about a product or a software. You will ideally write to the technical support team to find a solution. Similarly, from one of your personal email address (that wasn't used to signup for Zoho Desk) send in an email to your support mailbox. Your default support address will be support@<portalname>.zohodesk.com, where you should replace the <portalname> with that of yours. You could also refer to the sample ticket for your default support address.
- Now in your Zoho Desk account, you should find the email added as a ticket under 'Open Tickets' or 'Unassigned Open Tickets' view.
- Click the subject of the ticket you'd just sent to view its details.
You can either write a response (to check out the editor), visit the ticket properties (to assess flexibility) or close the ticket.
How to permanently close a ticket?
At this point, Zoho Desk does not allow you to close tickets permanently without allowing your customers to reopen it.
However, we're actively working on a feature that enables you to lock the status of tickets that was closed. While we do not have a clear timetable for when this feature might come to production, we would recommend that you watch our forums and announcements for when it is available.
How do I move tickets between departments?
When customers send emails to specific support email addresses for different departments, support administrators can set rules to automatically generate tickets and route them to the right department. However, it is possible for a ticket to end up in the wrong department due to user error. In these cases, it's important to move the ticket to the correct department quickly, so customers can get the help they need.
Let's look at an example. When a customer submits a ticket for a product replacement, it is imperative to route the ticket to both the pertinent product team and the logistics team. This ensures a seamless process for getting the replacement to the customer in a timely manner.
If the All Departments view is selected, and:
- The selected view is Classic View.
Click the Department displayed in the ticket
Select the appropriate department to move the ticket
- The selected view is Compact View.
- Click on the Department displayed in the ticket
- Select the appropriate department to move the ticket
Note: Table view will not appear while in All Departments view.
If a particular department is selected, and the Ticket View is either Classic, Compact, or Table View.
- Hover on the required ticket and click Ticket Peek
- In the Ticket View page, click More Actions
- Click Move
- From the Department list, select the appropriate department to move the ticket.
Note:
- You can also choose to move a bunch of tickets between departments using Bulk Actions.
- Moved tickets will have their status automatically set to "Open" in the receiving department.
Can I associate more than one product with a ticket?
No. Currently, Zoho Desk allows you to associate only one product with a ticket using the Products field.
Can I change the starting number on ticket IDs?
By default, each ticket gets assigned with a unique ticket-id when it gets created in Zoho Desk. This ticket ID will start at 101, then increase. This ID can be changed to begin at another number as per your need. However, it is not something that you can do from within the user interface.
If you want your ticket IDs to begin at another number, kindly drop an email to our team mentioning the starting number for the ticket ID counter. One of our customer success executives will make the change and updates you about it.
Notes:
- You cannot include character prefixes in ticket numbers.
- The ticket ID should contain at least three digits.
- You can only change to a number that is not already taken by a ticket.
- Changing ticket ID does not affect any current tickets existing in your account.
What's the difference between moving and sharing a ticket?
While both Ticket Sharing and Ticket Moving feature provide the ability for your agents to access tickets that are beyond their scope of viewing/editing, there are subtle differences between the two as described below:
Moving a Ticket | Sharing a Ticket |
Will entirely transfer the ticket to a new department. | Will allow both departments to work on the same ticket at the same time. |
A ticket can be moved to only one department. | A ticket can be shared with multiple departments. |
It provides agents with complete access to tickets in the moving department. | You can set the level of access an agent has in the shared department. |
Once moved, agents lose control over the ticket in the source department. | Once shared, agents have full access to the ticket in the parent department. |
What is the difference between ticket comments and team feeds?
Comments and Team Feeds are two different features developed for the same purpose, i.e., collaboration. However, their use case may vary depending on the way you would want to collaborate with other agents in Zoho Desk. The major differences between comments and feeds are the following:
Comments | Team Feeds |
Comments can be accessed on records like tickets, activities, articles, etc. | Feeds can be accessed under the Team Feeds section of the Tickets home page. |
Comments are used to add extra information about a record. | Feeds is where you can share your views or discuss about records with co-workers to speed up the customer support process. |
Comments can be either private (viewable by you and your coworkers) or public (added by you or the customer). | Feeds is strictly for internal team collaboration that helps teams ideate, discuss, and work together. |
You can mention other agents in a comment, and that agent will receive an email notification of your mention. | You can start a private conversation with other agents by sending a direct message. |
Comments do not trigger any automated notifications or offer real-time updates. | Feeds provide real-time updates on the records that you follow or owned by you. |
How to prevent certain email IDs from creating tickets?
It is not uncommon for businesses to send newsletters, promotions, and greetings to your support mailbox. There are also situations where your support email address would be in cc of a conversation, or you receive notifications from 3rd party apps, firewalls, etc. These emails will spam your queues with unreal tickets, which in turn hurts your productivity.
At this point, it is not possible to block a specific email address from creating tickets. This is because your support mailbox, will by default, forward all emails received at your primary inbox to Zoho Desk as tickets. Nevertheless, here are three solutions we have found to work well.
- Mark the unwanted tickets as spam a couple of times so that all future tickets from that contact will eventually be moved to the Spam folder without any need for manual intervention.
- Set up a server-side email inbox rule that filters the emails received from the addresses in question, and then forwards them to Zoho Desk.
- Create a workflow rule under Setup >> Workflows >> Create Rule, and include a custom function (using this, API) that automatically deletes tickets received from specific email addresses.
How can I delete tags in tickets?
Tags are words or phrases that can be added to tickets to provide additional context, categorize, and help make it easy to find tickets. For instance, you can tag tickets related to a service outage as "outage." Occasionally, multiple tags might be assigned to the same issue. However, it can become confusing if tags are left on a ticket after the relevant issue has been resolved. To keep tickets organized, it's essential to manage your tags by editing or deleting those that are no longer needed.
- To remove a tag from a particular ticket, you have the option to open the ticket and remove the associated tag
- Choose the desired ticket within the Tickets module
- On the Tickets Detail page, navigate to the side bar and select the tag(s) you wish to remove
- Hover over a tag, and you will notice a delete (X) icon appear
- Click the (X) icon to delete the tag
- To remove a tag from all tickets in a particular department, please refer to the video.
To delete a tag, follow the steps below:
- Select the Tickets module
- On the Tickets List page, select Tags from the left panel
- You will find tags listed under Recent and All Tags
- Hover over the tag you wish to edit and click the (...) icon.
- Select Delete. An alert stating the results of the action will pop up
- Click Delete. The tag will be permanently deleted
- Click Save.
Note:
- Tags will be accessible for a specific department in the Tickets module on the home page under the All Views section. They won't be available for All Departments since each department has its own unique set of tags.
- Editing and deletion of tags is available only for New UI.
For more information, refer to the help doc: Editing and Deleting Tags - New UI
How do I merge tickets in Desk?
When users encounter issues or require assistance, they often feel the need to communicate urgency when reaching out to their support team. Consequently, they often create multiple tickets for the same problem across various communication channels. It's also common to receive tickets from multiple users addressing the same issue.
When responding to these tickets, agents may have already provided assistance on one of the duplicates, which may be located on a different page in your Tickets module. To mitigate confusion and streamline resolution, we recommend merging similar tickets received from a single user into a consolidated ticket. This practice enhances clarity and optimizes response time by avoiding redundant replies to identical issues.
Key facts to remember before merging tickets:
- Once the tickets are merged, they cannot be un-merged.
- Tickets that have been merged with the master ticket can be found in the Recycle Bin [Setup (
) > Data Administration > Recycle Bin.]
- Email exchanges and other records, including comments, replies, and attachments, will be saved within the merged ticket. They'll be organized chronologically based on their creation time.
- Only tickets from the same department can be merged.
- Since merging of tickets is department specific it cannot be done from the All Departments view.
- You can merge up to five tickets at a time.
- Users require Find and Merge permission to merge tickets.
To merge tickets, follow the steps below:
- Go to the Tickets module and select a Department in the top bar.
- Choose the tickets that need to be merged. You can search for tickets by user name, email, or creating a Custom View.
- Once the tickets are selected, click Merge from the mass actions list.
- The first ticket created will become the master ticket by default. You can also manually select a master ticket.
- Review the tickets and select the fields from which you want data to be retained in the master ticket.
- Click Merge in the top right corner.
- Click Yes, Merge.
Why can't I find the merge option for tickets?
Scenario 1: An agent wants to merge several related tickets but, after selecting the tickets, they can't find the merge icon.
The ticket-merging option is department specific. The Merge icon will appear only if a particular department is selected. The user has to change the All Departments view to a specific department.
To change the All Departments view, follow the steps below:
Go to the Tickets module in the overhead panel
Select a particular department from the dropdown in the overhead panel
Scenario 2: An agent cannot find the merge option, even after selecting a department.
To allow an agent to use the merge tickets option, follow these steps:
Go to Setup (
) > Users and Control > Permissions
Under Permissions, click Profiles
In the Profiles setup page, click the agent's profile to bring up the agent's permission page
Within Tickets Permission, toggle on the Find and Merge permission.
Why are my tickets' timestamps showing incorrect time?
The timestamp displayed on tickets is governed by the time zone set for your Zoho Desk account. Typically, the time zone is auto-set based on your location when you first signed up. However, if this UTC time is set incorrectly, it can skew the timestamps, as this is the base time that is used within Zoho Desk. In this case, you can go to your account settings and choose another time zone.
To modify the time zone:
- Click the Setup icon (
) in the top bar.
- Click Personal Settings under Customization.
- Click the More link on the My Information page.
- From the Time Zone drop-down menu, select a default time zone.
- Click Save.
Check whether the timestamp on the ticket is reflecting the correct time.
Why am I unable to view closed tickets in the "All Tickets" view?
If you cannot view closed tickets in the "All Tickets" view, it is likely that you are viewing tickets in one of the work modes. The work modes such as Countdown mode, Handshake mode, Status mode, and LIFO mode are designed to display only tickets that are greater than Closed.
To view past closed tickets, you are advised to switch to either Classic, Compact, or Table view under the Tickets tab.
Why does the account-contact relationship change when I update the ticket's account name?
Contact is the primary identifier of a ticket. You cannot create a ticket in Zoho Desk without associating it with a contact. Besides tickets, contacts are also associated with their respective accounts.
Keeping the above factors in mind, when you update a ticket's account name without changing its contact, you will be linking that ticket to contact and account that were not associated earlier. In which case, the system dissociates the contact from the previous account and links it to the new account that you have updated on the ticket. This is why you will notice that the account-contact relationship changes when you update the ticket's account name.
What's the difference between moving and sharing a ticket?
Move ticket
What is it?
When a customer submits an issue to a specific support email address, the system should be configured to send their emails to the right support team. However, it is possible for an issue to land in the wrong department. When this happens, the email must be moved to the right team, so the customer gets the help they need.
When a customer submits an issue to a specific support email address, the system should be configured to send their emails to the right support team. However, it is possible for an issue to land in the wrong department. When this happens, the email must be moved to the right team, so the customer gets the help they need.
When is it needed?
Picture a big online store with teams for "Order Inquiries" and "Product Returns." If a customer complains about getting the wrong product, and that email ends up in "Order Inquiries" instead of "Product Returns," the support manager needs to move it to the right team. This makes sure the customer's problem gets fixed quickly and correctly.
Picture a big online store with teams for "Order Inquiries" and "Product Returns." If a customer complains about getting the wrong product, and that email ends up in "Order Inquiries" instead of "Product Returns," the support manager needs to move it to the right team. This makes sure the customer's problem gets fixed quickly and correctly.
Share ticket
What is it?
Good customer support depends on teamwork. In companies with multiple support teams, sharing tickets is a key part of the process. It's like passing the baton in a relay race: One person gets things moving and then passes responsibility to the next team member at the right moment.
When is it needed?
Imagine a customer submits a ticket regarding a failed order and simultaneously notices an unprocessed charge on their credit card. In this scenario, resolving the customer's issue might require coordination with the department responsible for managing accounts receivable.
By sharing the ticket with this department and allowing their agents to provide necessary information, the company can efficiently reach a comprehensive resolution without complicating things from the customer's perspective.
The support administrator for your organization can set rules determining who can access tickets shared between departments, and what agents can do with shared tickets. This helps make sure the appropriate team handles the process and delivers effective support to the customer.
​
We hope that this list of frequently asked questions about Ticket Management is informative. If you still have questions that haven't been addressed, please let us know. We will be happy to discuss them with our subject matter experts and add them in the future. And please don't forget to share your rating below!Zoho CRM Training Programs
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