Side conversations are spaces in a ticket where agents can have a side conversation with a specific group of people, or discuss a specific area of concern or course of action. You can use them to organize information about a ticket.
This feature is only available if it has been enabled by the administrator.
The Collaboration add-on is required for side conversations. For more information about add-ons and light agents, see About add-ons (Professional and Enterprise).
Advantages of using side conversations
Problems often consist of multiple parts, and solving them often consists of conversations with different people. It gets confusing for everyone involved when all of the questions and answers are mixed together in one place without any kind of organization.
For example, let’s say you need to discuss something with your Legal team, but don’t need or want other people involved.
- Find, organize, and manage information about a specific part of an issue
- Have a conversation with the right people
- Find specific questions, answers, and replies. Ensure conversations happen outside of the main conversation with the requester
- Have multiple standalone conversations that are separate from each other
- Get outside help without pulling others into the main ticket directly
Recommendations about side conversations
- The assignee should create and manage side conversations in the tickets they're responsible for. This allows administrators to create triggers based on the assignee role, and enables easier handoff between agents.
- Set up triggers to take advantage of the side conversation event conditions in order to fully integrate them into your workflows and to keep agents on top of the activity within them. See Setting up trigger conditions for side conversations.
- Create trigger conditions for side conversations to make sure that assignees know when a side conversation is created, closed, replied to, and reopened. Without them, the agent assigned to the ticket (ideally, this person is also the creator of the side conversation) may have a hard time knowing what’s going on with a particular issue.
- Remember that the creator of the side conversation doesn't automatically receive email replies to side conversations. That’s not the default behavior. Also sending side conversations to your own support address is not supported and will result in those side conversations ending up in the Suspended tickets view.
Creating side conversations
If enabled, agents and light agents can create side conversations.
You can create side conversations on open or closed tickets. If someone replies to a side conversation on a closed ticket, triggers won’t be run on it even if they have side conversation conditions.
Any time someone creates a side conversation, a notification appears in the Zendesk Support interface for 60 seconds.
Side conversations must be enabled by an administrator.
To create a side conversation
- From the upper-left portion of a ticket, click the plus sign (+) next to Side Conversations.
- Enter the recipients, a subject, your message, and add attachments. You have these options:
- For agents (and light agents) that are already in the system, type their name. When you see the person you are looking for, click their name. Address autocomplete for agents and light agents include a badge to show they are agents.
- For everyone else, enter their email address. You only have to type or paste the full email address once. The next time you initiate a side conversion with that person, the address will autocomplete.
- An email address highlighted in red has incorrect formatting and needs to be corrected.
- When you add attachments, you can select a file from your computer or include one or more attachments that already exist in the ticket. Click the attachment icon (
) and select From computer or From ticket.
Tip: Instead of downloading ticket attachments to your computer to include them in a side conversation, you can add attachments directly from the ticket.
- For agents (and light agents) that are already in the system, type their name. When you see the person you are looking for, click their name. Address autocomplete for agents and light agents include a badge to show they are agents.
- Click the Send button.
All of the recipients on the side conversation receive an email notification with your message. This doesn’t automatically include the assignee of the ticket or the creator of the side conversation. See Recommendations about side conversations.
Viewing and replying to side conversations
Reply to side conversations from the Zendesk Support interface rather than from one of the email notifications generated by side conversations.
When someone replies to a side conversation notification created by a trigger, the reply becomes a public reply on the ticket, not a reply to the side conversation. This means that they are replying to everyone on the ticket, including any customers on the ticket, instead of a limited subset of people in a side conversation. This is especially important if your side conversations include sensitive information. Generally speaking, it’s a just a good idea to know who you're replying to.
Recipients of a side conversation can reply through email, just as they would to any other email. Side conversations retain the original formatting of incoming emails. The assignee on the ticket can also reply to a side conversation through the ticket from the Zendesk Support interface. Regardless of how a response was sent, it appears in the ticket for the assignee.
The people on a side conversation can be inside or outside of your organization.
You can create side conversations on open or closed tickets. If someone replies to a side conversation on a closed ticket, triggers won’t be run on it even if they have side conversation conditions.
To view and reply to a side conversation
- From the bottom portion of the ticket, click the View side conversation button for the side conversation you are interested in.
- Click the Side Conversations bar to see a list of side conversations. Click the one you are interested in.
- Scroll up to review earlier replies in the side conversation, if needed.
The conversation opens to the first unread reply for the agent viewing conversation. The most recent replies appear at the bottom of the side conversation.
- Update the list of recipients (if needed), add your reply and attachments, and then click Send.
Each message has its own set of recipients, which can be edited at reply time.
When you add attachments, you can select a file from your computer or include one or more attachments that already exist in the ticket. Click the attachment icon (
) and select From computer or From ticket.If you changed your mind and don’t want to send the message, click the delete icon (
). The delete icon () does not delete the entire thread. Once you start a thread, you cannot delete it.
All of the recipients on the side conversation receive an email notification with your message. The message being replied to is included as quoted content on outgoing emails.
This notification doesn’t automatically include the assignee of the ticket or the creator of the side conversation. See Recommendations about side conversations.
If you have an email signature set up, it is automatically inserted into the message. If you have personalized replies enabled, these settings are also included in your message. Conversations are sent from the support address associated with the ticket, and if configured, include the address name.
Closing and reopening side conversations
Closing a side conversation changes the status of the side conversation to Done. Closing and reopening side conversations does not result in any additional email messages to people on the side conversation. It’s also important to note that closing a side conversation does not prevent people from adding new replies.
Status information associated with a side conversation is meant only to help the agent. It is not for the benefit of the end user or other people on the side conversation. That's why closing a side conversation doesn't prevent people from adding new replies. They may have additional questions or comments later, even after the side conversation has been closed.
It is up to the agent to decide whether a reply to a closed side conversation requires reopening the side conversation.
You can create side conversations on open or closed tickets. If someone replies to a side conversation on a closed ticket, triggers won’t be run on it even if they have side conversation conditions.
Any time someone closes or reopens a side conversation, a notification appears in the Zendesk Support interface for 60 seconds.
To close and reopen a side conversation
- Open the side conversation (see Viewing and replying to side conversations).
- Click the Mark done button.
The side conversation status changes to Done.
If you want to reopen the side conversation, repeat step 1 and then click the Reopen button. The side conversation reopens and no longer includes the green Done label at the top of the side conversation.
Adding ticket comments to a side conversation
You can include one or more ticket comments as part of a side conversation. This prevents you from having to copy and paste relevant information.
To forward a ticket comment
- On a ticket, locate the comment you want to include, then select Start a side conversation from the drop-down menu.
A side conversation appears with the ticket title and comment already included, ready for you to add introductory text and include a forwarding address. You can start a side conversation from any comment in the ticket.
To include multiple comments
- Start a side conversation. You can start the conversation from an individual ticket comment or from the upper-left portion of the ticket.
- Click the comments icon (
) at the bottom of the message.
A page appears with a list of ticket comments to include.
- Select the comments you want to include. You can select each comment separately, or select Ticket comments to include all comments.
- Click Add.
The Support mobile app does not support side conversations
Side conversations is not supported on the Zendesk Support mobile app. You cannot create, view, or reply to side conversations from the Zendesk mobile app at this time. These tasks must be performed from Support on your computer's browser. However, you can still use the email client on your mobile device to receive and reply to side conversation notifications.
157 Comments
I've been playing with this new feature this week. I'd like to see a few more options for notifying an agent that there is a new conversation reply:
(1) A view column to indicate there is a new conversation or reply that an agent has not seen/read. I see that there is a indicator when I open a ticket that there is a reply that I have not seen - something along those lines that could be added to a view would be useful. Our agents often keep tickets open for days and weeks so it's not efficient to open each ticket to see if there is a reply to a side conversation.
Side note, I would love to see this for tickets too - a visual indicator in a view that a ticket has an update since I've last looked at the ticket.
(2) A trigger placeholder with an indicator that a side conversation has been updated. The agent is notified via a trigger if there is an update to the ticket, which includes a side conversation update. Without a placeholder, I have to manage two sets of triggers for updates - one set for conversations and one for other updates to the ticket directly. If I could just indicate that there is a new side conversation or what the last reply to a side conversation was in the existing trigger for ticket updates, I wouldn't have to manage more triggers for side conversations.
In general, we like to have notifications for our agents in Zendesk views since tickets are often moving back and forth between teams and email is not as efficient for managing their day. We consider triggers and email as a back up option to make sure you didn't miss an update from a customer, so they are useful but we prefer notifications in views.
@Hillary thanks for the feedback!
Improving notifications for side conversations is a focus for us and I appreciate the ideas!
@Toby, right now we have a trigger to send updates to the ticket assignee if the ticket is updated, the status is not closed, and the assignee is not the current user (and a few other form specifics for my teams needs). The email body contains the last comment:
As the assignee of this Zendesk ticket, you are receiving an email notification to inform you the ticket has been updated.
{{ticket.latest_comment_formatted}}
Ticket: {{ticket.id}} - {{ticket.title}}
Ticket link: #{{ticket.id}}
I noticed when a side conversation had a reply, my trigger sent me an email, but it doesn't have any indication that the update was because of a side conversation. Ideally I would add some information to the email body similar to the last_comment_formatted for last_side_conversation_reply.
@Toby Correct windows 10 windows +shift + s for screenshots and paste directly into a ticket or ideally a side conversation. We'll never want to save screenshot attachments slows down the workflow. Typically we might have 2-3 images and want some formatting capability to make headings or dot points.
It would also be useful being able to set up automations for Side Conversations.
Thanks @Hillary and @Steven.
@Pedro what do you envision doing with automations and side conversations? Can you provide some examples of your ideas?
+1 for Slack integration and +1 for Guide integration and +1 for inline images and attachments on a side-conversation (needed for when contacting a vendor to give them more info about the ticket)
Side conversations are great for two things that happen all the time in support:
1) chat discussions with colleagues regarding a ticket
2) conversations with vendors regarding an issue
Having a chat log of discussions about a ticket is really handy. Right now we manually copy internal slack conversation into the ticket as a private note all the time.
However, we need some way to surface side-conversations that were last updated by not-the-assignee (and are thus awaiting a response from the assignee). Maybe a "side-conversation updater" view field, to mirror the "Updater" ticket view field. It would be "you" and "not you" instead of "agent" "end-user", so that you could surface any side-conversations you are a part of that were last touched by someone else.
Also, having a chat log of discussions about a KB article is also really handy.
The killer-est feature would be @mentions that open a Slack conversation between the assignee and the @mentioned person in the side-conversation, which shows up in Zendesk as a side conversation. Being able to get instant chat help from a colleague on a ticket and having that information stored in the ticket as a side-conversation would be huge. This also applies to KB/Guide articles.
Hi guys,
We just love this new feature!
I a bit curious of what happens on the other side when someone replies to a Side Conversations, because we are experiencing that if we start a Side Conversation with person 1 and that person decides to forward to e-mail to person 2 who replies to the e-mail, then the reply end up as a new ticket in Zendesk instead of a reply in the Side Conversation.
This also happens when people start to add other people into cc.
I guess this has something to do with security etc. but wouldn't it be possible solve somehow?
Looking forward to hearing your take on this.
Br. Mie
Hey Mie,
That behavior is indeed expected, because the Side Conversation notifications aren't sent using the normal trigger method.
Since the forwarded messages come into your account unassociated with any ticket, they aren't added to the ticket thread or the side conversation.
We recommend adding a person into the side conversation within Zendesk to prevent any confusion like this!
Using placeholders in Side Conversations.
Hi guys,
I would love to be able to use placeholders and macros directly in Side Conversation.
I see that you have now added the ability to show the signature in Side Conversations but since we are using a placeholder (dynamic content) in our signature it only shows the placeholder instead of the actual signature.
Also it would be nice if we could use the macros directly in the side conversation. Right now I have build a workaround with regular macros creating a new side conversation with som default text, but this only works when you want to start a new side conversation. If you want to use a text template in an existing side conversation this is not possible.
Thank you in advance.
Br. Mie
Hi guys,
I really need to add another comment here.
We have been working with Side Conversations for a while now and one major problem that we experience is that if a new agent takes over the Siden Conversation the conversation history will not be a part of the reply to the receiver of the Side Conversation.
We are having a lot of conversations back and forth with our partners and if a new agent takes over a ticket where a side conversation is already initiated and replied to the side conversation then the receiver will only see the latest reply ad not the whole history. That is not logic. To me this should work as a regular e-mail client.
Ant takes on that?
Br. Mie
@Toby Sterret,
we started using side conversations last week with one of our third parties and we fell at the first hurdle.
They use a support system and the emails are received as being from collaboration@company.zendesk.com so when they were replying it was going to that email address and not the collaboration+convid email address that is required.
Is there any update on the first comments about improving this as unfortunately a great addition to Zendesk we cannot use at the moment?
@Toby Sterrett, really appreciate the improvements that have recently been made to Side Conversations; auto-populating email addresses and an inclusion of agent signature are great. Any update on being able to embed the original ticket comment, or a specific public comment from the ticket, into the side conversation? Thank you!
Hello Mie,
Thanks for sharing your feedback! This product is continuing to grow and evolve, as we work with users to gain insight. I saw that the product manager for this feature, Toby Sterrett, addressed a similar feature request in the comment linked here.
Please continue to share how this feature can meet your needs, and keep an eye out for updates!
Hi team,
Not sure if this has been mentioned... but including side-conversations in macro's at the moment... when it is added with everything else (I tend to use macro's to fill out all ticket fields)... the side-conversation does not actually trigger (and get created/prompted)[!]
When creating a macro specifically just for side-conversations though, that does work.
It would be very helpful if it worked in the first instance, so I have one macro that does everything for the agent... instead of them having to use two, and I am forced to split them up.
Use case:
Customer asks for ETA on a product - where is it? It has been shipped with tracking. Agent uses macro "ETA Update" (in this macro this fills out every field, including comment response)... it is also meant to create a side conversation - w/ email template to the Courier Company.
Generally speaking, everything gets populated, except the side-conversation does not appear or get actioned.
Any ideas?
The option to embed comments is working great, thank you for your hard work on improving this feature!
@Toby
We are testing using the Side Convo feature for escalations to internal agents and/or light agents, as well as end users. Here are some items that are big limitations for us, specifically the lack of usage on placeholders. Do you have an update on feature changes related to any of these?
Turned this on and used it yesterday for the first time. Was able to have a side Convo with another party who worked for the same company re the ticket opened by the requester. This happens often with permission/role related questions, and previously required a very complicated setup using a 3rd party hack called fork in order to have two separate but linked conversations. Bravo on this feature and Light Agents too!
That's great! Glad to hear it Rob.
Thanks for letting us know!
As I commented on the JIRA integration page, but also relates to this feature:
Hi team,
Read most comments, could not see an answer. Re: collaboration (side conversations) and JIRA integration.
Essentially - we have a macro that creates a side conversation for our agents, to contact the finance team (who use JIRA). It has a template for the agent to fill out.
This sends to an email, which creates the ticket in JIRA. The finance team respond - but at the moment, this response - goes nowhere? collaborations@[url].zendesk.com gets lost in the ether via JIRA.
I can't see it in suspended tickets, and it doesn't come through anywhere else. We've attempted to adjust JIRA & ZD but nothing works it seems.
What would be the solution here? *We have the JIRA and Zendesk integration app - but it requires a real crummy work around for both parties, when the collab would be so much better (if their responses in JIRA came back to that side-conversation).
I don't think many are aware - we had to ask why there was no response to our side-conversations, and the finance team advised us they had, and that we had not responded to their follow ups! Bit frustrating.
Cheers
@Conza - v similar use case to us.
We have a convoluted workaround to be able to use side conversations with a third parties support system.
Originally their response was not received as where does a reply to collaborations@[url].zendesk.com go?
Then everytime we replied we created a new ticket in their system.
Luckily we don't have to use side conversations a lot but if we did this would definitely be a pain
It would be super cool if you add red spot near to ticket number in the list of tickets in folder view. This red spot can show to agent that there are unread replies in the side conversations.
Thanks for all the improvements on this feature so far!
Maybe I am missing the obvious or this has been discussed before but if I include ticket comments in a side conversation, I'd like to have the email address of the requester included.
Sometimes, non-Zendesk colleagues want to take over a forwarded ticket and it seems like I need to add the email address of the customer manually.
We have just started using the Side Conversations feature, and have benefited from all of the above improvements. Thanks.
I would be great if the conversations could be color-coded, and not white. This will would be especially helpful when you have multiple conversations with different parties, each thread would be colored differently.
Is there a way to track how many side conversation an agent is having? I cannot see a metric or attribute related to this.
Hello Anthony,
It does not appear that there is currently a native way to count all active conversations. However with a couple of triggers and a view you could filter for these tickets.
Trigger to add a tag to filter for active conversations:
Meet All: Status is less than Closed
Meet Any: Side Conversation is Created
Side Conversation is Reopened
Action: Add Tags > example_tag
Trigger to remove tag when conversation is closed
Meet All: Status is less than Closed
Side Conversation is Closed
Action: Remove Tag > example_tag
Once these 2 triggers are created, you can create a view to filter for these tickets, or a report in Explore/Insights to return all tickets with that tag
I hope this helps!
Hi all
Sounds like a very interesting feature. Being a bit careful, we did what we expect to be the safe option: Check it in Sandbox.
Guess what:
Production configuration:
Sandbox configuration
Too bad.
@Patrick Bosmans:
The trigger you describe adds the tag for the first side conversation that is opened, and removes it for the first side conversion that is closed.
If you have multiple side conversations, you will stop noticing all of them after one of them is closed.
You would need a counter to keep track of the number of conversations, or assume that you have a max number of side conversations, add a separate tag for each one, and remove them in reverse order.
P.
@Peter Hochstrasser
I have a similar issue with sandbox. Every time support adds side conversations in sandbox, it's only available temporarily.
I'll test something and a couple of weeks later it disappears.
Hi, I'm not sure whether someone has asked this question before... Is anywhere in the Insights I can see how many side conversation an agent has send out in a daily basis ?
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