Your agents reply to customer tickets by adding comments to them. They can do this either through the Zendesk Support web interface, or by responding to the ticket using email or another messaging channel.
This article includes these sections:
About public and private comments
You can configure ticket comments in one of two ways:
-
Public: Ticket comments can be seen by the customer. Public comments are written on the Public reply (or messaging channel) of the ticket comments field. For example, here's where agents can add public replies from the ticket interface
-
Private: Private comments (known as internal notes) can be seen by agents, but cannot be seen by the customer. These are great for discussing tickets internally with your team without having to involve the customer. For example, here's where agents can add private comments from the ticket interface:
Making agent comments private by default
By default, when an agent adds a comment, the comment becomes public. For example, if the agent wants to add a private comment to the ticket from the ticket interface, they must first select Internal note. If they forget, the customer will see what they write.
If you prefer, you can configure ticket comments from agents to be private by default. Then, when an agent adds a comment from the ticket interface, they will need to select a public channel (such as email or chat) instead of an Internal note if they want the customer to see the comment.
If CCs are enabled, you can also change the default comment privacy for end user CCs (see Configuring CC and follower permissions).
To configure private ticket comments as the default
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Settings > Tickets. - On the Tickets page, deselect Non-email comments are public by default and Agent comments via email are public by default.
Using public-by-default settings in the Zendesk Agent Workspace
Here's how public by default settings work in the Zendesk Agent Workspace:
- For tickets created by email channels, when Agent comments via email are public by default is enabled, agent comments by email are public by default. When the setting is disabled, agent comments via email are private. This setting doesn't impact any other channel types.
- For the Non-email conversations are public by default setting, the behavior varies depending on what channel was used to create the ticket and whether the setting is enabled or disabled. See table below.
Ticket created by Setting Default Support (For example, SMS, Web, or API)
Enabled
- The default reply channel is SMS/Public.
Support
Disabled
- The default reply is an internal note.
Chat
Enabled
- When the chat is active, the default reply channel is chat.
- When the chat is no longer active, but there's an email address associated with the chat, the default reply channel is email.
- When the chat is no longer active and there's no email address associated with the chat, the default reply is an internal note.
Chat
Disabled
- The default reply is an internal note.
Messaging channels (for example, WhatsApp, WeChat, or other messaging types)
Enabled
- The default reply is the corresponding messaging channel.
Messaging channels Disabled
- The default reply is an internal note.
34 Comments
Hi,
We have this scenario- Agent A gets notified when Agent B from the same team makes a private comment and cc agent A, then Agent A replies to that e-mail and it is saved as public comment in the ticket and it gets sent to the user.
What we want to happen is agent reply via e-mail should be made public if they are replying to a public comment (from a user or other agents) and it should me made private if they are replying to a private note from agents.
I'm not sure how feasible this is but i hope you have a suggestion or workaround for me :)
Thanks
Indhu
Agents can control the public\ private status of their comments when replying by email. Use the command #public as the first line of the email body for public comments or #note to make the comment private.
See the following article for other commands and examples:
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203691006-Updating-ticket-properties-from-your-inbox
Can I make all the email replies send by CC (Agent and non-agent) Internal Notes?
We sometimes add an employe not linked to our zendesk instance in CC to ask them a question ineternaly, but when they reply it is always as a public note, which means that the customer can read that answer befor it is edited by our Agents. That is wy I want to set All CC replies as internal notes to make sure no proprietery info gets out by accident.
Is this possible? And if yes, how?
I see that you're on the Plus plan, so you'd need to switch over Professional for this, but the easiest way to do this would be to get the Light Agents add-on, and add your non-agent employees to that role in your Zendesk. All Light Agent comments are internal automatically.
Disclaimer: I'd recommend going over the differences between Plus and Professional with your account manager or a support advocate before switching, to make sure you know exactly what that change is going to mean.
If you don't want to go that route, I'd recommend putting together a workflow using our Linked Ticket app, or the Project app. Each of these apps allow you to create a brand new ticket that's linked to the original in a parent/child type relationship, but your end user can't see any of the conversation in the child ticket.
Hi Jessie,
Thanks for the suggestion, we are using the project app, but it is not mandatory and creates a big extra load on tickets and mails... and they can still accidentally add someone in CC in the main ticket and have the internal answer mailed to the customer.
Light agents is what we are going to use, but that's a workaround that’s also not fool proof. It means I need to add all our internal users as light agent (a lot of people) and have their normal flow as customer changed to that of an agent... not an Ideal situation... Hence my question to be able to have all CC comments as internal...
PS: Why is a CC different from another requester or user?
Would enabling public by default (in web) also apply to macros when an agent creates a ticket? We have a macro that is supposed to set the comment to private, but when you create a new ticket, the macro applies as public and there is no option to change it to public.
Hey Jeremy!
The first comment when a ticket is created is always public; as of now there's no way to change that. It's not actually related to the public by default setting.
If you need to apply a private macro right off the bat, your best bet would be to tweak your workflow so that the macro is applied after the ticket has been created and submitted (instead of at the same time).
Can I make specific agents not be allowed to make public comments or replies to the customer within the ticket?
Hey Allison!
If you're on the Professional plan or higher, you can purchase the Light Agents add-on. Light Agents are agent roles that are limited in what they're able to do in your Zendesk, and that includes only being able to post private comments on tickets.
If you're on the Enterprise plan or higher, you already have custom roles available. This means that you can edit existing roles or create new roles to have the exact permissions you want.
Hey everyone!
We're really excited to announce that, after a huge effort from our developers and Product team, we're finally live with this feature! You can enable it in your account by clicking the Gear icon, and going to Settings > Tickets > Comments.
Hi,
Would it be possible to have different settings for ZD desktop and for the ZD app. On desktop we prefer by default public comments for our support team. We have another team working remote using the mobile app and they would benefit having the comments as private by default.
thank you!
Hi Ellen -
The desktop and mobile versions both operate via the API, so those can't really be set differently.
Any idea why this setting has no effect on our Zendesk?
Hey Andy! Welcome to the Community, and apologies for the delayed response!
Can you go into more detail about the problem you're experiencing here? We're going to need more information to identify the issue.
Never mind. Looks like the page was cached and by the next day the setting started to work.
Hello,
Is there a way to not print internal notes when i "Print ticket"?
Hello Denise,
Unfortunately, there's not a way to exclude the Internal Notes when printing a ticket within the User Interface. You would have to manually remove those notes after generating the file.
Hi,
recently I changed the default, but now there are some users who prefer the old setting again. Without a user property that can overwrite the global default, it will be difficult to satisfy both camps. Since a global default setting usually doesn't match the preference for all users, I am wondering whether there is a way for a user to set an individual default of the visibility for notes?
Hi,
Is there a way so that if an Agent created a Private Note and it goes to another agent's email via CC, that when that email agent responds it remains an 'internal note'?
The way it is setup today, is that an agent responding via email to an internal note will post a public reply. I'd like the email response from the agent to reflect the type of comment (public or private) that they are responding to.
The global settings are of no help in this matter; they are ALL or NOTHING. The system should be intelligent enough to be able to make email replies to private notes also private and vice-versa.
If there is a way to do this with triggers please advise.
Thank you!
Ben
Ben
Agents can control the comment type using the Mail API.
In your case Agents can place:
#note
..as the first line on an email to make a private comment.
Graeme,
Thanks for the great recommendation!
Ben,
Hope that was the information you were looking for!
Good Evening! :)
This might be slightly off-topic, but one of my agents told me that in their old organisation using ZD they had the public reply and internal note fields stacked rather than tabbed.
I was wondering if that is an App or a ZD standard feature. If its an App does anyone know of an App to achieve this.
Current process for us: agent types public reply, updates ticket, agent types inter note with documentation and links to POs, updates ticket
From time to time agents would forget to select "internal note" and send documentation to the customer which is not ideal.
Also if they were stacked, the agent could type out the public reply and do their documentation simultaneously and update/solve the ticket in one go.
Thank you!
Simon
Hi Zendesk team,
After the recent update, the default comment type is still Public. Please help!
Hey Isabel,
Can you confirm you hit save at the bottom of the page after you've toggled this option and then do a browser refresh? Let me know if you continue to experience issues as I'm happy to create a ticket on your behalf.
Cheers!
Yes, I hit save at the bottom. I also tried making all default comments public, saving, then switching back to not public. Not sure if I'm missing something.
Hey Isabel,
I'm going to create a ticket on your behalf so we can dig into this further. You'll receive an email shortly stating your ticket has been created.
Cheers!
Brett, having a similar issue here with one of our agents related to notes. The settings for public notes as a default is off, but our agent is reporting that his default is still a public note. Furthermore, their notes are sometimes erased when they save a ticket (as in it does not save).
I'm not quite sure how to demonstrate this for a ticket, but has anyone else reported instances like these? Problems started with the most recent layout change on tickets ~a week ago.
I upvote August Acker. Sometimes while I'm typing a public reply or internal note, the content suddenly disappears. I have to leave the ticket and reenter to be able to type again.
Also, when I assign a ticket to myself, not change my comment from Public Reply to Internal Note, and submit as open, Zen will send a blank email from me to the requester with my automatic signature.
Hey August,
Thanks for the heads up! I'm starting to see more reports of this so I will be creating a ticket on your behalf as well. You'll receive an email shortly with your ticket #.
Thanks again!
Hi, is there any way to make this agent-level setting, not company-level?
Some agent (possibly newbies) may prefer private comments by default but others may prefer public by default, so company-level change could be a bit controversial.
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