3. Ticket views

The Header

The header on top of the page stays the same as the home page of the helpdesk so you can easily navigate out of a ticket.

Tabs

There are six tabs available to you. They include: Display Thread, Properties/Ticket Fields, Manage Requesters/Fields, Anti-Spam, Batch, and Log.

Display Thread

This tab is the main view of any ticket. It shows the, Ticket Properties at a Glance, Ticket Vital Signs, Customer Support History, Company/Service Level Agreement Details, Ticket Audit Log (Last 5 Actions), and the Ticket Thread.

Ticket Properties at a Glance

This section of the display thread allows you to quickly view and/or change a tickets owner/status without needing to scroll through the entire thread itself. You can see/change the Ticket ID, its Status, the Ticket Owner, the time worked, the Ticket Priority, and the Queue which the ticket is in. Here you also have the Spam Probability Rating and Training button.

Ticket Vital Signs

The ticket vital signs section shows the date/time which the ticket was created, the due date/time of the ticket, the number of requesters (e-mail addresses) in the ticket, and the Ticket Users. Pay close attention to the Ticket Users portion, as it displays if another technician is already reading or perhaps replying to that ticket.

Customer Support History

The customer support history will show the ticket number, subject, queue and date of any tickets associated with the specific customer of the ticket you are currently working.

Ticket Audit Log

The ticket audit log shows the last 5 actions that were performed on the ticket. It shows the date, time, and the action that was performed.

Company/Contacts

If you have companies already set up in your Contacts page, the requesters address may already be assigned to a company. If the address is not assigned, you can view or search through the contacts, or create a new contact for that requester.

Ticket Thread

The ticket thread itself shows the entire dialogue sent in by the requester and any comments, replies, or forwards done to the initial ticket. As a technician you have a multitude of options ranging from Reply to Print Thread. A more in depth look into these options will be later on in the manual.

Properties/Ticket Fields

The properties and ticket fields tab allows you to change the Subject, Status, Owner, Queue, and Priority of that ticket.

In the manage requesters and fields, you can change and add requesters to the ticket. You may also suppress certain requesters so that any replies will not be sent to a particular requester.

In the Merge ticket fields, you can combine the correspondence, comments and requesters of multiple tickets into a single ticket id. This can be used in a variety of ways, including consolidating multiple related tickets from a single user or company. When merged, this newest ticket will disappear and all future correspondence will be handled through the oldest ticket.

Anti-Spam

The anti-spam tab shows the spam probability, the training of that ticket as spam/not spam, and the words that factored into the probability rating.

Batch

The batch tab shows any tickets that you have added to your batch queue. In this tab you can do a batch comment or a batch reply to all the tickets in your batch queue.

Log

The log tab is just an expansion of the Ticket Audit Log. Instead of the last 5 you see on the Display Thread tab, you see all actions taken on the ticket.

Reply

The reply button will bring you to a new blank e-mail screen for you to type in your message. You can see the From address which the requester will see who the e-mail is from, the requester's e-mail address that you are replying to, a section in which you can CC (Carbon Copy) the reply to, yet another status section in which you can manipulate the ticket upon working on it, an update type (typically you won't use this unless you change your mind on just replying), and a box in which in you can enter how much time you worked on this ticket.

Another Ticket Users line appears, remember to note if someone else is already replying or browsing that same ticket to avoid multiple replies.

Above the text box in which you will be typing the body of your message, there are a few buttons to note: Quote, Insert Signature, Use E-mail Template, Spellcheck, Take Ticket, and Set Resolved.

Quote

The quote button automatically inserts the [quote] and [/quote] tags so you can quote text from one of the replies in the review panel. Use this in case you changed your mind from just replying to wanting to reply and quote.

Insert Signature

Depending on your preferences from the dashboard, clicking this button will automatically insert your signature at the top or the bottom of your message body.

Use Template

If you have a response already set up for the ticket you are replying to, click this button to bring up the list of available E-mail Templates your company has set up. You may insert a template at anytime in your message and it will insert itself to the bottom of your message.

Spellcheck

We all know that spelling errors are abound while typing. Use this button to spellcheck your message and ensure you have all the correct spellings!

Take Ticket

If you want to automatically assign this ticket to you after working on it, click the Take Ticket button and it will set the Owner to your username.

Set Awaiting-Reply

The set awaiting reply button automatically sets the status of the message to "Awaiting-Reply."

Set Resolved

The set resolved button automatically sets the status of the message to "Resolved." Upon submitting the final changes to the ticket, the ticket will already be resolved.

Send an Attachement

Located below the text box you may also attach or remove any attachments to the ticket you are replying to. Clicking the Add/Remove attachment button brings up a browse window for your computer's hard disk.

Finally, you will see a Next Step, Go To: drop down item. From here you can tell the system to take you back to the same ticket thread you just replied to, the ticket listing of the current Queue you are in, the last search you performed, the Batched Tickets page, or back to the home page.

If for any reason you need to refer back to the thread details, the ticket thread review is located at the very bottom of the page.

Quote and Reply

The quote and reply button functions the same as the reply button, however the message you are replying to gets automatically quoted and inserted into the message body area.

Quote and Forward

Quoting and forwarding is similar to quote and replying, however it is used to send the thread response to a 3rd party not listed in the requester fields. You have the same abilities in reply/quote and reply, and no response is sent to the original requester.

Comment

Comments are used for adding information to the thread without actually replying back to the original ticket requester. You have the same abilities as reply and quote and reply, however the message gets added to the thread and no response is sent to the requester.

More Options

Selecting more options will display the remainder of the ticket options you may select from to include:

Forward

Forwarding a message will send off a copy of the message to another address with no chance to edit the message itself.

Bounce

The bounce feature allows you to send an e-mail directly to another address if it is mistakingly sent to you. It will act as if the original e-mail was "bounced" to the destination address to be taken care of.

Strip HTML

In the case that someone sends you an HTML message, you can have the system strip the message of all HTML and save the ticket in its raw form. After hitting Strip HTML, you can preview the change and either Accept or Reject the changes. Note that the system will automatically attempt to strip HTML code from inbound e-mail as it comes in.

Print Message

If you would like to print the ticket thread out for hardcopy purposes, clicking the Print Thread button will bring up a new window and display the printer friendly version of the thread. You may then Print or Close the window.

Add Time Worked

If you are tracking the time a ticket has been worked, you may add the entry by selecting add time worked.