If you have the correct settings, you can copy (CC) and @mention certain people on tickets. You might do this if you want someone else to be aware of the ticket or provide some feedback about it. You can only add users as a CC on a ticket if they have an account in your instance of Zendesk Support.
Though both of these actions add other people to the ticket, they have some basic differences:
- The CC list allows you to add both agents and end-users to a ticket, via the agent interface.
- The @mention feature allows you to add only agents to a ticket, using the rich text editor.
This article includes the following topics:
Adding agents or end-users to a ticket using the CC list
You can CC both agents and end-users, if you have the correct permissions. CC recipients are notified when a ticket update contains a comment. Agents are notified whenever new public and private comments are added to the ticket. End-users are only notified about (and can only add) public comments that have been added. If you add a support address, they will receive a notification containing the entire email thread. If agents do not want end users to be CC'd, they can open an email message with #note.
Keep in mind that light agents don't have the same permissions as other agents. As a result, they can't CC agents or end-users other than themselves, except for when they create a ticket. This is because they can't edit ticket properties for tickets they aren't the requestor on. For more information about light agent permissions, see Understanding and setting light agent permissions.
A CC recipient is not copied if any of the following conditions applies:
- the CC recipient added the comment
- the ticket is updated without a comment
- the CC recipient will get a trigger notification too
- the CC recipient is listed on the "CC" or "To" line of the email that generated the comment (or in the case of a new ticket, the email that created the ticket)
- the CC recipient is added to your blacklist (see Using the CC blacklist)
To add a CC to a ticket
- Select a ticket from one of your views.
The CCs field is displayed in the ticket properties panel.
- Begin entering a user's name, email domain, or organization name and the relevant results appear.
You can quickly add yourself as a CC by clicking cc me above the CCs field.
If you want to CC a user that doesn't have an account, you can add them by clicking +Add user at the bottom of the search results.
- Select the user. The changes you make to ticket properties are saved immediately.
To remove a CC from a ticket
- Click the delete button (X) in the person's name box in the CC list.
End users are not able to remove CCs, only add them.
Adding an agent to a ticket using @mention
Agents and admins can add other agents to the tickets CC list using the @mention comments feature. To use this feature, you must have the rich content formatting option enabled for your tickets, @mention cannot be used if you've selected Markdown as your formatting option. See Enabling formatting options for agents for more information. If you are not using the rich text editor, have your admin enable it for you.
@mention cannot be used in tickets created from the Facebook or Twitter channels, as these ticket types, and their comments are plain text only.
Light agents can't use the @mention feature because it adds a CC to the ticket, which they don't have permission to do. For more information about light agent permissions, see Understanding and setting light agent permissions.
To add an agent with the @mention feature
- Begin writing a comment (either Public reply or Internal note).
- In the body of the comment, type "@" followed by the beginning of the agent's name. For instance, if you want to include agent Jane Doe, type "@Jan".
- Select the agent you want to add from the autocomplete menu.
- Finish composing your message, and click Submit.
The agent mentioned is automatically CC'd on the ticket, and will receive all normal CC email notifications for that ticket. If they are logged in, the added agent sees a notification in the upper-right corner of the Zendesk Support interface informing them that they were mentioned on the ticket. This notification disappears after one minute.
43 Comments
We have customers who request to be CCed on any ticket opened by anyone in their Organization. Many other Zendesk customers have requested this ability here. If I'm reading this right, the reason it hasn't been done is that you can't figure out a user interface that works? Because right now the list of users in a drop down box and a drop down box with a list of all customer users would be too huge? Why not just use a different interface? instead of a drop box make it possible to just enter an email address. If the email address matches an existing user, then you're done, if it doesn't, then create a user for that email address and use that. You could probably even make it work better than that, but if not, at least this would work.
Using the targets is not an acceptable workaround. These people don't just want to be notified that the ticket exists. They want to be added as a CC so they become part of the conversation. Replies should not create new tickets.
When a CC replies directly to the ticket, I am noticing that every CC gets that message as well because the ticket was updated with a public comment.
I don't see a way to eliminate that though. This could be an issue in times when one Requester doesn't want the other to know what they are saying to the Agent.
It appears to be because of the default CC notification. Is there any way to manage this?
Hello Zach,
There are a few things to consider here.
The simplest way to manage this is to build the client's understanding of what happens when there is a CC.
Let me know if this helps.
Thanks AndrewJ!
That makes sense to me, and I agree. Does this sound like something that would be modified in the future?
Hello Zach,
I am not aware of any plans to change this, but of course I am just a client like you.
Personally I think changing this would not be likely. There will always be some functionality that is not 'exactly' what suits every situation, but the core function of CCs is very widely used and I would suspect any major changes would cause excessive grief for others.
There a a number of mods that can be done to alleviate specific issues - removing all CCs at a given point by trigger or automation, and as mentioned - displaying CCs. Removing or adding agent CCs.
For a limited number of CC recipients (ie, know regular users/agents/staff) you can create custom notifications using targets.
A lot of advanced functionality is possible using the more codey functions - though a true BCC isnt an option that I've found yet :)
Thanks Andrew
That make sense to me! The system is working as designed from the looks of it. Still it would be nice to distinguish between requesters and CC's with a placeholder or something.
Hi.
I've noticed a little problem on my account, maybe someone has the answer:
When I ad a public reply with a CC, the 'adres' in te CC is getting an email when I:
- Submit it as a new ticket,
- Submit it as an open ticket,
- Submit it as a Pending ticket
But not when i submit is as solved....
After 7 days my my tickets are closed automatically... Now i hear from my 'CC-er, that he receipted the mail not when CC-t hem in on the moment that I solved the ticket, but at the moment that Zendesk automatically closed it after these 7 days...
I also want that the adres in de CC receipt an update directly after solving the ticket with the public text.... How to....
Thanks!
Hi Erik! This actually sounds like unexpected behavior, so I'd like to take this into a ticket to troubleshoot with you. Meet you there!
When an agent @mentions another agent on a internal note, where do they get notified? It doesn't appear to show up under the 'updates to your tickets'. Is there any way to add these notifications to the dashboard?
Yes, I'd like to know more about @mentions also. Thanks.
Hi Nathan
The agent who was mentioned get's CC'd on the ticket.
Thanks Zach,
I'm trying to find some way to make these @mentions more obvious then sending agents looking for email notifications. I'd much prefer to have them staying within Zendesk.
I haven't found a way to make a view out of this, but I'm open to suggestions.
Hey Nathan!
There are a couple different notification apps in our app marketplace that might help here.
Are CCs supposed to work for internal comments as well? It does not for me.
@David - CCs only work for private comments if the CCed email belongs to an agent.
Possible Bug. Currently, if the CC email is the only person getting the notification, the email is failing because the ZD mailing code is generating the email headers with the "To" recipient as blank, only adding the "Cc" recipient. When the CC recipient is the only person getting the email notification, they should be set as the primary "To" recipient. Does that make sense?
Hey Daniel -
It looks like you already have a ticket open with our support team; they should be able to get this resolved for you, but let us know if you need anything else!
Use scenario;
On each users' profile there should be a checkbox next to each organization that says "auto cc on all tickets within this organisation"
That way an end user can be part of an org. as well as opt in or out of collaboration.
Hey Mart!
This is a really interesting suggestion. I did some poking around in our Product Feedback topic and didn't see anything exactly like this so I'd like to encourage you to head over there to share your idea and detailed use case. This allows other users to find and vote for your suggestion, and add their own use cases. It's also the best way to make sure our Product Managers see it!
@mentions seem to only add the first name to the ticket. Is there a way to use the full name, rather than just the first name?
example @John Smith should use John Smith.
When you have multiple people with the same name, using only the first name creates a confusion.
Hi Monika!
I can see where this could cause some confusion for other agents...so many of our Support Advocates are named 'Ben' that sometimes we call ourselves 'Bendesk'. So we understand that scenario. ;)
There isn't a way to set it up so first and last name both show up automatically. However, when you @mention someone in a ticket, they're added to the ticket as a CC, so if someone is unsure which Ben (for example) was @mentioned, they can check the CC field.
Otherwise, you always have the option to @mention to get the first name and subsequent CC, and then type the last name manually. It's not the most elegant solution, but it'll get the job done.
I checked our Product Feedback topic to see if anybody else has made a similar suggestion, but I didn't see anything other than the original @mentions thread. If you're interested in sharing your suggestion in Product Feedback, I'd recommend that you start a new thread rather than piggy-backing on the old one...posting your ideas and pain points in Product Feedback gives other users the chance to vote and add their use cases, and is also the best way to make sure our Product Managers see your suggestion. They're not able to respond to everything, but they do see it!
@Jessie - Is there any way to copy an agent or end-user on a public reply/comment without CC'ing them on the ticket? For example. There are times when we need to make an account manager aware of a specific reply to a customer, but they do not want to be CC'd on every future comment/update to the ticket. It's more of a validation/FYI process. Today, we have to send the public reply to the customer then copy/paste the comment and use our email to update the account manager separately - or add the account manager as CC and then remove them after sending the update. Not impossible to work around but very, very annoying.
Hello DJ, just popping in for Jessie here...
It is possible to email someone like this with a disclaimer that it has some limitations.
The solution I propose would be to have a TAG (or macro that added a tag), or some keyword that triggers the email.
Since you mention what sounds like a relatively finite number of recipients (account manager) - you should be able to do this without too much hassle.
Create an EMAIL TARGET going the intended recipient
Create a trigger that fires when your tag or keyword is present
The trigger should be set up to email the target with whatever message you want, and the last public message or messages etc... (you can only send private message content to an agent)
If you use a tag, the trigger will also need to remove the tag after firing once
How does that sound?
Thanks for jumping in, Andrew!
@Andrew - thanks for the thoughts. For added context, we have over 75 AMs, PMs and TAMs that would fit this use case. I'm honestly not super excited about maintaining that many triggers. Also many of them are light agents and I'd want to make sure they could get public updates. We have a similar solution in place to send text alerts to support escalation points after hours and that itself is already a lot to maintain. Thanks for jumping in though, I hadn't thought through that possible approach.
Hi,
We're experiencing issues at the moment where users are automatically CC'd in a ticket if they are mentioned (@name).
Our agents occasionally mention agents from other teams to clarify customer enquiries and we don't want to have the email address of the agent made public for customers to see.
Is there a thread for a feature suggestion that I can upvote?
Hey Van -
Thanks for asking. I would add your use case to the thread CC problem - it's become a bit of a catch-all for CC-related issues.
Hello Van, this tutorial pre-dates the new @mentions function and does not CC agents permanently. https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/203830606-Mentions-How-to-add-mentions-function-to-your-Zendesk
Hi everybody! Is it possible to mention a user in the Community so that they get an email notification when that happens, or do they absolutely have to be subscribed to the thread? The one thing I don't like about that is that everyone subscribed will get the notification, even if I'm not writing to them. Do you know what I mean? Let me know if this is possible.
- Brian
Hi Brian -
Unfortunately not. There is no kind of "@ mention" functionality in the community. As you said, the only way a user will get a notification is if they are subscribed to the thread, and then everyone subscribed to the thread will receive said notification.
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