Side conversations and ticket reminders

A side conversation is an email thread you start from a ticket with someone other than the customer, for example a supplier, a vendor's support desk or another team. The customer never sees it. Reminders are private notes that bring a ticket back to you at a time you choose. Both come with the Ticketing module.

You will find them in two places:

• On each ticket, in the Side conversations and My reminders sections.
• On Ticketing → Follow-ups, which lists every side conversation across your tickets and all of your own reminders.

Starting a side conversation

1. Open the ticket and click New next to Side conversations.
2. Fill in To. You can add up to 10 addresses, separated by commas. Cc is optional and also takes up to 10. Your own support addresses are left out, so a thread cannot email itself.
3. Subject is optional. Leave it empty to use the ticket subject with the ticket number.
4. Write your Message.
5. Under Include, choose what to quote from the ticket below your message: The ticket description, The latest customer message, or Nothing from the ticket.
6. If you have more than one mailbox, pick one under Send from. Otherwise the Default mailbox is used.
7. Tick Set the ticket to Waiting on 3rd party until they reply if the ticket cannot move until they answer.
8. Send. The email goes out at once, and an internal note on the ticket records that the conversation was started.

A ticket can have up to 20 open side conversations at a time. A single conversation holds up to 200 messages; after that, start a new one.

When they reply

Replies are matched to the right conversation from the email headers, so they arrive in the thread, not as a new ticket. Within about a minute of the reply arriving:

• The reply is added to the ticket as an internal note.
• The conversation is marked New reply on the ticket and on the Follow-ups page.
• The people assigned to the ticket, and whoever started the conversation, get a notification that opens the thread.
• A reply to a closed conversation opens it again.

Waiting on a third party

If you ticked the waiting option, the ticket moves to Waiting on 3rd party. When the other side replies, the ticket goes back to the status it had before, so it shows up in the right queue again. This only happens while the ticket is still in Waiting on 3rd party. If someone has moved it on in the meantime, the reply is still added to the ticket but the status is left alone. Resolved and closed tickets are never moved.

You can also choose to wait when you reply in an existing conversation.

Replying and closing

Open a conversation to read the whole thread. Type in Reply to everyone on this thread to answer; the last message they sent is quoted below your reply, and the email threads correctly in their mail client. Use Close conversation when you are done; closing adds an internal note, and a ticket that was waiting on this thread will no longer go back to its old status by itself, so move it on by hand. Reopen brings the thread back.

Reminders

Reminders are private. Only you see your own, and no one else is told about them.

1. On a ticket, click Remind me under My reminders.
2. Pick a time: In 1 hour, In 4 hours, Tomorrow 9:00, In 3 days, Next Monday, or any date and time in When. It must be at least a minute ahead and no more than a year ahead.
3. Add an optional Note, such as "Chase the courier".
4. Tick Remind me sooner if the customer or a side conversation replies if you want to be told as soon as anyone answers.

When a reminder is due you get a notification that opens the ticket, and the reminder moves to Due now on the Follow-ups page. From there you can Snooze it to a new time, mark it Done, or cancel it. You can have up to 500 reminders waiting at once.

The Follow-ups page

Ticketing → Follow-ups has two tabs.

• Side conversations — tiles and tabs for Open, New replies, Awaiting reply (a ticket is waiting on the thread), Started by me and Closed, plus a search by subject. Click a conversation to read and reply without opening the ticket.
• My reminders — Upcoming, Due now and Done, with snooze, done and cancel on each one.

Good to know

• Side conversations are sent through your connected mailboxes. If a send fails, check the mailbox's outgoing (SMTP) settings under Settings → Mailboxes.
• Everything stays on the ticket as internal notes, so the ticket history shows who was contacted and what they said.