Stopping the reopening tickets by a ' Thank you ' response.
Hello,
What I mean by this is what we all experience. A customer creates a ticket and you solve the ticket like a boss and put the status on ' Solved '.
Now the customer will see that you made a reply in her/his email. With the correct answer.
Ow Goodie! This worked I shall thank the agent who helped me!
The customer will now reply to the email ' Why thank you for your help it worked! '
This is all awesome and epic but on the backside of the the issue will be reopened and it's more work for the agent to close it again.
Yes you can make a trigger function which would allow any ticket that has the words ' Thank you ' in it to be solved but this isn't a viable option.
' Thank you for your help but I still need more help with this issue '
Ticket has been automatically solved and none would ever notice the poor customer that lacks help.
The ultimate way to solve this, is where the customer actually goes to the helpcenter and tags on ' Problem is solved ' and makes a reply. But we all know that this will not happen since many customers will reply on an email, which works way quicker.
So here is my suggestion for a feature request.
I'm not sure what can be done to avoid this situation so I was kind of hoping for idea's of you guys!
If something can be done or created that avoid this issue. It would make the agent-life a lot easier and flexible.
Some kind of detecting way for a ticket to see if another question has been asked including ' thank you '
Then again not all customers write a ' question-mark ? ' at the end since it all has to go fast fast fast!
PS: Pretty sure I'm not the only once experiencing this issue! ;D
This issue occurs a lot and with a lot I mean 60-70% of the time.
Kind regards
Kristof
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+1 this issue needs to be addressed by the zendesk team. It's crazy that 90% of tickets get re-opened because of a thank-you message.
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I would just like to see an option/setting to control "Replies to solved tickets will reopen tickets" - yes or no checkbox. We use Spiceworks for internal IT tickets and that is exactly how they handle it - an we have it set to not reopen tickets on replies due to the Thank you situation or other out of office messages, etc.
I am most worried about the reopens affecting our SLAs - would hate for a Thank You reply reopen to affect our SLA reporting that we must deliver to customers.
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Yeah, I know that problem. It is kind of annoying when those reopened messages start to pile up. You can use this app on Zendesk's marketplace: https://www.zendesk.com/marketplace/apps/support/470124/thank-you-gpt
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I think the best way to handle this is to prevent end-users from automatically updating tickets with a Solved or Closed status. If an end-user sends an email response for one of these tickets, it should be placed in a holding area. Then agents can review these comments and decide whether to: 1. Update the ticket (Thanks for your help, but it didn't work...); 2. Delete comment (Thank you! Everything is perfect!); or 3. Create new ticket (Thank you for fixing that problem. Can you help with this problem now?)
I'm all for automating as much as possible. But I think the best solution for this is to semi-automate it.
Any thoughts???
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Zendesk customers have been waiting three years or more for this.
Sweet baby Jesus, I pray that this year's Christmas Miracle would be Zendesk gets some brains and implements a solution to this problem - here's a simple suggestion:
1. Agent has the ability to submit a ticket as "Solved" with an added criteria of NO AUTO RE-OPEN
2. If any further conversation is made the agent can use their discretion to re-open the ticket -
Another suggestion for ZenDesk would be to stop the auto re-opening of solved tickets when replied to.
Make re-opening a ticket a purposeful action, add a button to the email or a link that would allow the user to re-open the ticket by purposely choosing this action versus just replying to a solved ticket.
In our environment 95+% of all replies to solved tickets are thank yous or something similar and making re-opening a ticket a purposeful action would eliminate the need for special triggers, automationa, tags, etc that leave room for error.
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This is a complicated topic with some "hidden dangers" (see Heather's comment here, for example).
As Heather notes, the main problem with automatically resolving tickets based on words or expressions is that we could potentially risk ignoring a legitimate request for assistance.
Some ambiguous examples of customer replies/reopens:
- Thanks a lot! but I still can't see the invoice
- Have a great day, thanks for nothing!
- I really appreciate your help! and how can I (...)
This sort of automatic resolution could be a viable solution if the current comment's character length existed as a business rule condition, for example (e.g. if comment contains "thank" + if comment length less than 10 chars = solve ticket).
A suggestion for a different flow:
- Tag tickets when they're Solved for the first time (e.g. first_solve)
- Trigger for reopens would check (ALL conditions): if current user is end user + tag contains "first_solve" + reopens = 1 + comment is public; and (ANY conditions): words contain "thank appreciate ..." = set ticket to on hold + optionally add another tag (e.g. first_solve_reopened)
- Edit your SLA policies so that tickets with first_solve/first_solve_reopened won't have an SLA policy
- You can also create a specific view for these tickets
Any suggestions or corrections to this workflow are most welcome -- I'm sure this is an inconvenience we all share!
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I see this a lot. I have created a macro for my agents that allows them to fully close the ticket when they see this but of course the re-solve count has increased as a result which mucks up statistics. I have toyed with the idea of adding a large button (or hyperlink) in the solved email we send out allowing the customer to click that which would take them to a webpage on our site instead. We would then use the api to insert their comments as an internal comment on the ticket and force the ticket closed.
I am just not sure that customers would take the hint :(
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@Kristof, there really is no easy solution to this as you mentioned, the best you can do is to put the power in to the hands of the customer. You could add text such as this to your solved emails:
"If you do not agree that this matter is resolved, please simply just reply to this email with your comments. Alternatively I would be grateful for your views on the support I was able to provide you, please click here to provide any feedback."
Still not ideal.
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I used to hate the "thank you"..."no thank you"...."oh no thank you" stuff...
then I decided to use it to my advantage....my response to anyone who replies with the simple Thank you stuff..
"No problem ...that's why we're here. We love to hear from you!"
and that pretty much shuts down the conversation...but let's them know it's still a human on the other end of the computer.
I'm ready to create the macro for that one :)
my satisfaction scores have jumped "you're folks are sooo friendly"..."everyone is so helpful and polite"..."you use a ticketing system? I thought I was emailing with real people" (love THAT one!!!)
Diane
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We tried rolling out a solution to check for the words thank and thanks that would auto-close the ticket. It works, but our first hit was a false positive. I was hoping that I could use regular expression to limit the filter, but it doesn't appear to be supported in the Comment text... option of the trigger.
Ideally, if I could tell it to auto-close thank you emails that had less than ~15 characters, I think it would be perfect for us. The issue we have is that someone will write a paragraph and say thank you at the end and there is no distinction when it is just looking for a keyword.
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Here is some logic to help:
If ticket = resolved
If client's next reply is "thank you" (ignore any sent from iPhone, iPad, Windows Mobile, Android forced signature)
Set status to resolved, again.
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Thus the check. Probably need API interaction somewhere.
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IF ticket = solved by an agent
IF next ticket reply = from requestor, comment = "ty" OR "thanks" OR "thank you" OR "n1 dogg" (or whatever strings you have in your excessively polite customer dictionary)
Then set back to solved.
It's risky. It may help or torpedo your SLAs.
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Your method works but the majority of our people just reply to the emails and don't touch the web interface.
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Another less risky thing could be a single button somewhere in the agent interface (after the ticket is solved the first time) or in the "re-opened notification" email that is sent to the agent that is a one click close for "Post-solved thank you". For people in SLA land, Zendesk would subtract the time from solved to the agent closing it again.
Go figure support is the one area where we don't really want to be thanked!
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My idea:
When I Solve a ticket with a comment, the email that's sent to the customer should clearly state the ticket is closed and any reply would be added to the ticket history but not reopen it. If they want to reopen the ticket they need to click a button/link.
"This ticket is considered resolved. If you need additional assistance or feel this ticket was closed prematurely, please _reopen it_."
A simple reply to the email will not reopen the ticket. It could potentially put the ticket into a queue of some kind but not reopen it by default.
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That's why I suggested putting the emails into a separate queue. The point is to not re-open solved tickets unless they need to be reopened. The dedicated queue would be checked just like any other queue.
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Perhaps I'm missing something here but it would seem to me that the problem has nothing to do with what the customer is saying in their 'Thank You' response. Rather the issue is that Zendesk allows an email into the system to change the status of the ticket.
Why not simply change the logic so that:
IF Ticket = "Closed"
Subsequent emails ARE written to the ticket BUT status is not changed. The email will still be in the ticket, it will still get sent to the agent and any persons CC'd on the ticket but a simple email sent to a closed ticket cannot change the status of that ticket. If the user has said Thank You, but I need more assistance, then the agent assigned to that closed ticket is the only one who can open it back up.
That should not be hard to do at all.
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How would something like the following work:
1) Customer replies to issue marked as "Resolved", status is _not_changed (issue is still resolved)
2) Agent notices that it isn't a simple "thank you" but instead a request for more help
3) Agent replies to issue which is now re-opened
In other words, only agents' replies trigger solved issues to be reopened.
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It would not work for us. Our agent views are filtered to excluded all solved tickets therefore we rely on the ticket status changing when customers reply.
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Hey,
I would like to add some note from the other side. We have a great support team at our company. I recently found out that when I try to thank them when they help, I actually cause trouble for them with reopening the ticket again.I really hope that Zendesk can solve this with something simple as a Like button or whatever. It might sound silly but I beileve the positive feedback is crucial at these stressful support jobs.
Thanks,
Panna
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This issue is bugging us at our company too. My idea is to offer a feature that includes a "Thank you!" button in the email after a ticket has been resolved, possibly side by side an accompanying friendly reminder that replying back to the email will only reopen the issue (and whatever other words are appropriate) and instead a "click will do the trick".
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Just adding my 2¢. Created a trigger that replies to any email with "Thank You" or "Thanks" in the comment on a solved ticket. The reply has [Reopen] in the subject and asks them to resubmit if they do indeed need additional support. If a [Reopen] reply is received, it reopens that ticket. Seems to be working well.
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The answer seems pretty simple to me, that is if Zendesk would do this question due diligence. Just have an option to now allow tickets to be re-opened by anyone but an agent. Once closed, closed for good and only can be re-opened by an agent. Also have a response sent to the customer, editable at best, but at least "you've attempted to re-open a closed ticket...." etc etc.
Done, fixed, time to move on. Now, will Zendesk respond by adding this feature?
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We found a solution that works well for us. Here is the process:
1) Agent solves a ticket.
2) Customer must use "#reopen" in their reply and explain why they still need help to reopen the ticket. This is communicated to the customer in the solved email.
3) If "#reopen" is not included in the text, a trigger will fire to automatically push the ticket back to Solved and email the customer as to why their ticket was not reopened.
4) The trigger also adds a tag to the ticket called "false_reopen" so you can filter these false reopens out of your reporting.
Trigger setup:
We are still in the beginning phases of testing this out, but it seems to do the trick! Hopefully this helps out some folks! :) -
This sure is an issue. Many many tickets stay alive and couse extra work because of this. Please tackle this.
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@Charley Yup and it happens more often every day! ;P
@Theo tackling this won't be easy ;P
@Colin I see what you mean, that button or hyperlink would be nice but what if for example in our case we ( the support team ) mostly put the ticket on the status solved + providing feedback to the customer .
Example: You can find that here and check this box ' ON '
Status --> SolvedThen the customer gets an email.
I guess we could still work with a hyperlink in the email; but only if the status = solved.
Hmm might look into it later myself if I find some time ^_^
Anyways if you find something to tell us! ;-DKind regards
Kristof -
If you have a closed helpdesk then in theory you have more control (although in practice as you say, customers do not always follow the guide). You could, for example, send the email from a non-reply address which would almost force the customer to respond in a manner that suits you. Just bouncing ideas.
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@Colin , what are the consequences of sending an email from a no-reply email address. What if the customer still thinks that he is not helped and needs more feedback.
Our customers have no issues with replying to a no-reply@company.com address though, as we experienced before ;/I like that you are bouncing ideas.
About the button again ;P
What if we could create an illusion button. A fake one. Shiny but no benefits.
We create a button saying ' Thank you this helped ' or something.
But on the background, it won't do anything at all then there is no need for the API either.
It's absurd but it can work or can it?Will customers fall for it? As our customers mostly don't even understand what a browser is, I feel like we should try it. We could eventually add a hyperlink on the button if needed.
Perhaps a drop down could come from the button when it's clicked ' We appreciate your feedback thank you'.
That way they won't think like: Did it work? Better click it 10 more times ;P
Spam is also avoided by this.Just thinking ' out loud ' again ^_^
Kind regards
Kristof -
@Tim well I'm all for automating aswell but when an agent has to review it, it's not automating ;P
Tbh, I haven't looked into the button template yet due to being busy/holiday.
Your 2e mark will not work due to not being able to delete comments yet xDBut I do see where you are going. It's not something easy to deal with.
Kind regards
Kristof -
Hey guys. Wanted to jump in with a simple question. Implementing something that tries to automate this can, and likely will, cause false positives. Zendesk may end up re-solving a ticket based on a response when it should not have.
How do you see yourself dealing with the situation when that happens?
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@Jake, bad ofcourse.
Then again if we could add some kind of satisfaction rating system into ' Solving tickets '
But instead of ' Good / Bad ' ---> ' Thank you / I need more help 'Wouldn't that be an option?
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