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We are opening this feature on request basis. You can raise your request through the Early Access Form. More information on Parent-Child Ticketing in this announcement. A ticketing system allows businesses to manage customer requests and support enquiries efficiently. In some organizations ticketing systems are also used to manage internal processes, such as HR, IT requests, and employee grievance, to ensure things stay streamlined.
In most cases it is common to see tickets for a similar issue or related query from one or many users.
For example:
- You may receive multiple tickets from customers during an outage
- A request to replace a faulty product from many buyers
- Order enquiry, return, and refund requests from a customer
In the above cases, the person who is handling the request will have better context if the related tickets are interlinked. They can easily refer to the relevant ticket and understand the issue before replying. Moreover, it will allow them to maintain a well-organized database where information can be found easily.
Zoho Desk facilitates parent-child ticket relationships. It provides an option to select one ticket as a parent and associate a similar ticket to it as its child.
Business scenarios
Here are some scenarios that businesses come across routinely where parent-child ticketing can simplify the issue management.
Lapse in critical transaction due to unplanned system outage
Sudden interruption in service can make the day tough for customer support teams. Tickets pour in from all channels making it difficult for the support agents to reply and close them individually. One of the tickets can be marked as a parent ticket, and the related ones as its child tickets. This will establish a parent-child relationship, allowing agents to close only the parent ticket, which will automatically close all the child tickets saving their valuable time.
Seeking no dues clearance for employee exit
When an employee resigns from the organization, most departments are required to issue a No Due certificate or letter to ensure there are no outstanding dues. Tickets created in each department can be considered as child tickets and linked to the parent ticket created in the HR department. The parent-child relationship will ensure that HR can close the ticket only when all the child tickets are closed. In other words, an employee's exit process can only begin after No Due has been received from each department.
In some cases, if a child ticket is reopened, the parent ticket will automatically reopen acting as a checkpoint to prevent any oversight.
Order, replacement, and refund enquiry for a product
In the ecommerce business, it is common to receive multiple enquiries from a customer for a single product. For example, if a customer raises a request to enquire about an order and subsequent requests for replacement and refund, these three tickets can be linked through parent-child ticketing.
The parent ticket about the order enquiry can be automatically closed once the child tickets on replacement and refund are closed. Automatic closure will ensure that tickets do not remain open needlessly by reducing dependency on agents, and preventing inadvertent delays due to manual intervention.
Availability
Permission Required
- Users with administrative privilege can configure parent-child ticketing
- Users with permission to update and create Tickets can link tickets as parent or child.
- Professional and Enterprise editions
Configuring parent-child ticketing
Zoho Desk allows admins to enable parent-child ticketing for the required departments. While setting up, they can select the preference based on the support process and ticketing system followed by the organization. The ticketing preferences you can choose are:
The relationship type through which each ticket is associated to other ticket is displayed next to the subject line in the ticket list view. This helps agents quickly identify if a ticket is linked to another and understand whether it is a parent or child ticket without going to the detail page.
In a parent-child ticketing system, when there are multiple child tickets associated with one parent ticket, all the child tickets are considered as peer tickets to each other.
Under the parent-child subtab the agent can view the other child or peer tickets helps which can help them get a better context of the issue, even when they are only working on isolated child tickets.
For example, if a parent ticket tracks updates for various education loans, multiple child tickets are associated to it which track the interest rate for different types of education loans. An agent can refer to peer tickets that are about interest rates for different types of education loans for reference and get a better understanding of interest calculations.
The purpose of associating multiple child tickets with a single parent ticket is to group related tickets together under one subtab. This provides agents with better context and complete visibility that helps them resolve issues faster with with more efficiency.
While agents can update individual tickets, such as changing ticket status or assigning an owner from the child ticket subtab, performing other actions typically requires opening each child ticket in the ticket detail view. This process can be tedious and prone to error.
Enabling mass actions on child tickets addresses this challenge. The Parent-Child subtab lists all the associated tickets, the agents can select multiple tickets and perform an actions, which reduces redundant work, maintains consistency, and eliminates chances of inadvertent errors.
Agents can select up to 50 child tickets at a time and perform the following actions:
Dissociate the child tickets from the parent
If a parent ticket is tracking an issue, but some child tickets no longer need to be associated with it because they are unrelated, agents can select multiple child tickets and dissociate them from the parent ticket.
For example, a parent ticket that is tracking an issue related to interest rate updates in different loans has multiple tickets from the different loan services associated to it as child tickets. However, if one of the loans is no longer being offered or processed, the child tickets related to that loan can be dissociated from the parent ticket using this mass action. This would ensure that those child tickets are no longer tied to the ongoing issue of interest rate updates, but can still be managed independently.
Assign the child tickets to an agent or team
If a parent ticket is assigned to a specific team member, but the child tickets need to be handled by a different agent, those child tickets can be reassigned to the appropriate team member without affecting the parent ticket's assignment. This allows a team to distribute work based on expertise and workload without changing the parent ticket's assignment.
For example, if a customer requests a home loan and subsequently enquires about education and related updates, these can be linked as child tickets since all of them belong to the same person. However, if the education loans are handled by a separate department, then it's best to assign the tickets to them to maintain appropriate conversation. In such cases, all the child tickets related to education loan and related interest rates can be bulk assigned to the respective team.
Update field value in child ticket
When a parent ticket progresses to a new stage, agents might want to update the status of the child tickets at the same time, particularly if the child tickets are closely linked to the same resolution flow.
For example, before the beginning of a financial year, the bank revises their loan interest rates. The update on revised interest rates will be on hold until the board approves the new rates. Once approved, instead of manually updating each ticket, the agent can use a mass update to automatically apply the revised interest rate to all related parent and child tickets. This ensures that the updated values are consistently applied across all tickets, reducing the chances of errors and saving time for the agent.
Sending a reply for child tickets
Mass reply in parent-child ticketing allows agents to send a single reply to multiple child tickets at once. Let take the above case; if the revised interest rate is not applicable to a car loan, then agents can select all the child tickets for car loan and send a mass reply to everyone about the exemption.
Close
In the parent child ticket associated, the agent can select and close a bunch of child tickets.
For example, a parent ticket is tracking a software update issue, and each child ticket associated is the individual issues reported. After troubleshooting, while some users have reported that the issue has been resolved, some users are still facing the same problem. In this case, the agents can select all the child tickets for which the problem is resolved and mark them all as Closed, without affecting the status of unresolved child tickets or the parent ticket.
Delete child tickets
If certain child tickets are duplicates or irrelevant, agents can delete them in bulk. This helps clean up the ticket queue without affecting the main parent ticket.
Apply macro to child tickets
When a parent ticket is resolved, and several child tickets need a standard response or action, agents can use a macro to apply the same message or action to all child tickets in the selection.
For example, a parent tickettracking employee onboarding process can associate individual candidates as child tickets. Once the tasks such as sending the welcome email, completing the IT request form, enrolling in the ID card form, and finishing the mandatory compliance course are completed, the agent needs to update the status of all child tickets to "Completed" and assign a follow-up task to HR for final documentation.
The agent can create a macro that automates these actions across all relevant child tickets at once. This macro can:
- Send the welcome email to the new hire
- Update the status of all child tickets to "Completed"
- Assign a follow-up task to HR for final documentation
Note: A macro can be applied to the child tickets both before or after the parent ticket is resolved. Revoke blueprints from child tickets
If a blueprint is applied to a parent ticket and its child tickets, the agent can revoke that blueprint from multiple child tickets at once. This action could be used if the child tickets need to follow a different process than the one set by the parent ticket.
For example, an e-commerce platform recalled a product and created a parent ticket. All related tickets are linked as child tickets. While most tickets are for exchanges, some customers have raised tickets for returns and refunds. Agents can select all return and refund tickets and revoke the product exchange blueprint from them.
Update resolution
If the parent ticket's resolution is marked e.g., "Issue Resolved – Software Updated", agents can mass update the same resolutions in all the child tickets at once.
To mass update child tickets
- Navigate to the Ticket module.
- Open the required parent ticket from the ticket list view.
- In the Ticket detail view, click the Parent-Child subtab.
- Select the required child tickets.
- Select the desired mass action.
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