Manage Multiple Queries from Single Customer using Parent-Child ticketing
Business scenario:
In the e-commerce industry, it’s common for customers to raise multiple requests related to a single purchase. For example, a customer may first request an update about an order, then follow up with separate requests to cancel the order and get a refund. Although each request addresses a different aspect of the transaction, they are all related to the same purchase and often handled by the same department.
Problem:
When such related requests are treated as independent tickets:
- It can lead to inconsistent communication and inefficient service that frustrates customers.
- Multiple agents may work on the same case without context, leading to redundant work.
- Generating multiple tickets for the same issue creates clutter in the support queue, causing delays and reduced team productivity.
Solution:
When a customer raises multiple tickets related to the same order number, agents can manage the interaction more effectively by marking the first ticket as the parent ticket and linking the subsequent ones as child tickets.
For example, a customer places an order, and order number #45678 is generated. A few days after placing the order, he sends an inquiry, which lands as a ticket.
Customer: “Can you please confirm where my order #45678 is right now?”
Agent: Here are the tracking details.
- Order no: #45678
- Status: Awaiting dispatch
- EDD: 12th Feb
- Payment status: Paid
Two days after another inquiry is sent.
Customer: “I just received a text saying delivery is delayed. Why is there a delay in my order #45678?”
This new ticket is assigned to a different agent. The agent spends time reviewing the customer’s history and searching for context, resulting in a delayed response. Without immediate visibility into the earlier interaction, the agent may ask repetitive questions or provide incomplete information, further frustrating the customer.
The next day, the customer raises a third ticket, escalating the issue:
Customer: “This is getting frustrating. I was expecting the order yesterday. If this delay continues, I’ll have to cancel the order #45678.”
By this point, three separate agents might be handling three different tickets related to the same issue, with limited awareness of each other’s responses. This leads to inefficiencies, slower resolution, and inconsistent communication.
Handling the tickets individually fails to show the context and increases the agent's response time. Rather than handling this separately, the agent marks the first ticket as a parent ticket and links all the subsequent tickets from the customer as child tickets.
By grouping all these tickets as parent-child tickets:
- The agent gains a complete view of the customer’s issue and can deliver faster, more informed responses.
- This consolidated approach improves efficiency by eliminating the need to search through multiple tickets to understand the complete context.
- It also enables better internal collaboration, in this case with the logistics team, to prioritize the delayed delivery.
- The agent is better positioned to provide proactive support, address concerns before they escalate, and help improve overall customer satisfaction.
- To streamline the resolution process, the administrator configures department-level settings to automatically close child tickets when the parent ticket is closed.
To enable parent-child ticketing:
- Navigate to Setup > Customization > General Settings > Tickets.
- In General Settings for Tickets, go to Parent-Child Ticketing and click Configure.
- In the Parent-Child Ticketing Preferences page, click Select Departments to enable.
- Select the departments from the drop-down list and click Enable.
- Click on the department and set preferences from the following options:
- Automatically close child requests when the parent ticket is closed
- Allow agents to close a parent ticket only when all its child tickets are closed
- Automatically close the parent ticket when all the child tickets are closed.
- Click the Close icon to save the changes and exit the configuration page.
To link tickets as parent-child tickets:
- Navigate to the Tickets module.
- Open the first received ticket.
- Click on the Parent-Child subtab.
- Click Associate Child Tickets.
- Click Associates existing tickets.
- Select the relevant tickets with the same order number and click Associate.
Also Read: Understanding Parent-Child Ticketing System
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