Using CCs, followers, and @mentions

Note: This article describes the new CCs and followers experience. This experience is available to all accounts, but some accounts have the experience enabled by default and others don't.

If enabled by your administrator, you can add CCs, @mentions, and followers to tickets. You might do this if you want someone else to be aware of a ticket or provide some feedback about it. You can only copy (CC) users that have a user profile in your Support account.

This article includes these sections:

• About CCs, @mentions, and followers
• Adding CCs from the ticket interface and ticket notifications
• Adding agents to tickets using @mentions
• Adding agents as followers from the ticket interface
• Replying with public or private comments
• Adding light agents as CCs and followers
• Changing the requester
• Viewing tickets that you are copied on or following

For more information about using CCs and followers, see these articles:

• Understanding when replies to ticket notifications become public and private comments
• Best practices for using email clients with CCs and followers

For a complete list of documentation about CCs and followers, see CC and followers resources.

About CCs, @mentions, and followers

You can use CCs and followers to bring internal users (agents and admins) and external users (your customers or end users) into a conversation about a ticket, and have control over who receives ticket notifications by email.

• CCs allow you to include end users and agents on ticket notifications. Internal and external users can add CCs (copied users) to tickets. CCs can respond to ticket notifications publicly, or they can remove the requester from the notification to submit a private response. A ticket can have up to 48 email CCs.
• Followers allow you to include additional internal users (agents or administrators) on ticket notifications. Internal users can add followers to tickets. There's no limit to the number of followers you can include on a ticket.

Copying internal and external users on tickets

Agents and end users with the proper permissions can use the CC line to add external end users to a ticket’s email thread. If the ticket is restricted to certain groups or organizations, agents can use the CC line to add internal agents who are not part of the allowed groups or organizations.

Both internal and external users can add CCs to tickets. Internal users are your company's agents and admins that are allowed to view the ticket. They can add CCs from the ticket interface or when replying to ticket notifications by email. External users are your customers or end users and can add CCs when replying to ticket notifications by email.

Copied users (CCs) can:

• Send and receive public replies to the ticket conversation.
• Send private notes to a ticket conversation, by removing the requester from the notification.
• Receive and respond to private notes in a ticket conversation, if they are explicitly included on that note.
• Add other external users to the conversation via the cc line.
• Remove themselves or other CCs from the ticket conversation.
• Be seen by other CCs and followers on the ticket, as their email address is visible in the ticket header.

Adding followers to tickets

Agents and administrators can use the Followers field in the properties panel of the ticket interface to add internal users to a ticket. Additionally, depending on your collaboration settings, agents and administrators can be added to the CC line in the ticket interface, and automatically added as followers on the ticket.

Internal users who can view the ticket can add followers to the ticket.

Followers can:

• Receive public replies and internal notes added to the ticket conversation.
• Ability to make a private and public comment.
• Replying to an internal note creates an internal note and likewise for public comment.
• Remove themselves from the ticket conversation.
• Remain hidden from end users copied on the ticket.
• Remain hidden from other followers.

Adding CCs from the ticket interface and ticket notifications

Agents can copy users by adding them to the ticket from the ticket interface or from the ticket notification.

To copy a user from the ticket interface

1. From Support, open the ticket in the agent interface.
2. In the comment stream, click Public reply.
3. Click CC, on the right side of the comment header. Or, if there are already other users copied on the ticket, click on the CC line.
4. Begin entering the name or email address of the user you want to copy. Registered users’ names will appear as suggestions.
5. If you see the user you want to include, click their name; otherwise, click Add user and enter the user’s email address.
6. Repeat as necessary.
7. Enter and submit your public reply. Copied users will receive a notification, and will be included in subsequent replies, until they are removed from the CC line.

To CC a user from ticket notifications

1. From your email client, open the ticket notification.
2. Open the CC line, per your email provider’s instructions.
3. Add the name of the user you want to copy. Repeat as necessary.
4. Add your comment and send the email. Copied users will receive an email notification, and will be included in subsequent replies, until they are removed from the CC line.

Adding agents to tickets using @mentions

Agents and admins can add other agents to the tickets using @mentions. To use @mentions, the rich content formatting option must be enabled. You can’t use @mentions if you've selected markdown as your formatting option (see Enabling formatting options for agents). If you aren’t using the rich text editor, have your admin enable it for you.

Some things to note:

• @mentions can’t be used in tickets created from the Facebook or Twitter channels, because these types of tickets, 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 (see Understanding and setting light agent permissions).

Here’s some more detailed information about how @mentions work, and what to expect with you @mention another agent. Results vary depending on what settings are enabled in your Support account, and whether you @mention someone in a public or private comment.

	In public comments (public reply)	In private comments (internal note)
If CCs and followers are enabled, and Automatically make an agent CC a follower is enabled.	@mentioned agents are added as CCs and followers. @mentioned end users are added as CCs.	@mentioned agents are added as followers. @mentioned end users are not added as CCs or Followers.
If CCs and followers are enabled, and Automatically make an agent CC a follower is disabled.	@mentions are added as CCs. @mentions are not added as followers.	@mentioned agents are added as followers. @mentioned end users are not added as CCs or Followers.
If CCs are enabled, and followers are disabled.	@mentions are added as CCs. There’s no Followers field, so @mentions are not added as followers.	@mentions are not added as CCs or followers.

To add an agent with the @mention feature

1. Begin writing a comment (either Public reply or Internal note).
2. 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".

3. Select the agent you want to add from the autocomplete menu.

   

4. 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.

Adding agents as followers from the ticket interface

If followers have been enabled by the administrator, internal users (your company's agents and administrators) can add followers from the Followers field from the properties panel in the ticket interface. Followers are internal users such as agents, light agents, and administrators that receive email notifications when a ticket is updated.

Note these things about using followers:

• Followers can add and receive public replies and internal notes.
• Followers can reply to a public reply with a public reply, and reply to a private comment (internal note) with a private comment (internal note).
• Followers can remove themselves from the ticket.
• Followers are hidden from copied (CC'd) end users and other followers on email notifications. Their name and email address don't appear in email notifications sent to other users. For more information about the email notifications that followers receive, see Best practices for using email clients with CCs and followers.
• If your administrator has enabled Automatically make an agent a follower, you can added internal users, such as agents and admins, to tickets as followers from ticket notifications by adding them to the reply as a CC. In this case, the agent becomes both a CC and a follower.

To add agents as followers from the ticket interface

1. Select a ticket from one of your views.

   The Followers field appears in the ticket properties panel on the left side.

2. In the Followers field, enter a user's name, email domain, or organization name and the relevant results appear.

   Internal users such as agents, light agents, and administrators can be followers.

   To quickly add yourself as a follower, click follow.

   

To remove a follower from the ticket interface

• Click the delete button (X) in the person's name box in the Followers list

  

  To quickly remove yourself as a follower, click unfollow.

To add agents as followers from ticket notifications

1. From your email client, open the ticket notification.
2. Open the CC line, per your email provider’s instructions.
3. Add the name of the user you want to add as a follower. Repeat as necessary.
4. Add your comment and send the email.

Replying with public or private comments

Agents can send private comments from the ticket interface and from email. Adding a private comment from the ticket interface is very straightforward.

Keep in mind that a private comment appears in the ticket interface as an internal note. Private comments and internal notes are the same thing. This article uses the term private comment to describe these types of comments.

Sending private comments from email is more complicated, but you can find complete information about how that works in Understanding when email replies become public or private comments. It's important that you understand what happens when different users (your end users, agents, CCs, and followers) reply from email. It's also a good idea to check out Best practices for using email clients with CCs and followers.

If you only want to send a private comment from the ticket interface for now, follow this procedure.

To send a private comment from the ticket interface

1. From Support, open the ticket from the agent interface.
2. In the comment stream, click Internal note.
3. In the Followers field, add (or remove) any user you want to include (or exclude) from the private comment (internal note).
4. Add your comment, and submit your reply.

   When you @mention agents in a private comment from the ticket interface, they will be added as followers.

   When you @mention end users in a private comment from the ticket interface, they will not be added as CCs or followers.

Adding light agents as CCs and followers

If allowed by your administrator, light agents can be copied (CC'd) on a ticket from both the ticket interface and from ticket notifications. However, they can't add or remove themselves as a CC—this must be done by another agent who has permission to do so (someone who isn't a light agent). They also can't @mention other users or add CCs to tickets.

Light agents can add and remove followers from tickets.

For more information about light agent permissions, see Understanding and setting light agent permissions (Collaboration Add-on).

Changing the requester

If allowed by your administrator, agents can change the requester on the ticket (see Configuring CCs and followers permissions and notifications). For instructions about how to change the requester, see Changing the ticket requester.

Viewing tickets that you are copied on or following

You can view all of the tickets that you are copied on or following from your user profile. For more information about your user profile, see Viewing your user profile in Zendesk Support.

You cannot use views to find out what tickets have CCs and followers. Admins cannot get a report of tickets that a group of agents are copied on or following.