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.
- Advantages of using side conversations
- Recommendations about side conversations
- About side conversation channels
- Rich text editing in the side conversation composer
- Creating side conversations
- Viewing and replying to side conversations
- Closing and reopening side conversations
- Adding ticket comments to a side conversation
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.
About side conversation channels
When you create a side conversation, you can choose to have the side conversation in one of these channels:
-
Email—Creates an email-based side conversation as described in this article.
-
Slack (if enabled)—Creates a Slack-based side conversation (see Using Slack in side conversations).
-
Ticket (if enabled)—Creates a side conversation child ticket (see Using side conversation child tickets).
Rich text editing in the side conversation composer
The side conversation composer is a rich text editor that includes a toolbar with options for editing and formatting your text. Rich text editors are sometimes called WYSIWIG (what you see is what you get) editors.
The formatting options in the composer vary a little depending on the side conversation channel involved (Email, Slack, or Ticket). For example, these are the formatting options for email:
The composer for Email and Ticket side conversation includes a full array of formatting options because email supports full HTML display. The composer for Slack side conversations includes fewer formatting options because Slack uses a subset of Markdown for formatting. With Slack side conversations, you can also use Markdown-style shortcuts while typing in the composer, and they will be converted to rich text. For example, if you type bold, bold is applied to the text in composer.
This table lists the editing options that are available with different side conversation channels.
Formatting option | Email & Ticket side conversations | Slack side conversations |
Bold | Available | Available |
Italic | Available | Available |
Bullet list, Numbered list | Available | Available |
Quote | Available | Available |
Code span | Available | Available |
Code block | Available | Available |
Heading | Available | --- |
Outdent, Indent | Available | --- |
Link | Available | --- |
Note the following limitations with the composer:
- The composer doesn’t support inline images. You can, however, add images as attachments.
- If you paste complex rich text into the composer, you will likely lose some formatting.
- Rich text and Markdown formatting is not supported in email signatures that appear in side conversations.
Creating side conversations
If enabled, agents and light agents can create side conversations.
You can create side conversations on open or closed tickets. When someone replies to a side conversation on a closed or archived ticket, triggers won’t be run on it even if they have side conversation conditions, but a follow-up ticket is automatically created (see Understanding follow-up tickets for side conversations).
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 an email-based side conversation
- From the upper-left portion of a ticket, click the plus sign (+) next to Side Conversations and then choose Email.
For information about using side conversation channels other than Email, see Using side conversation child tickets and Using Slack in 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 conversationsViewing 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
- Using Slack. See Using Slack in side conversations
- By creating a child ticket. See Using side conversation child tickets
To forward a ticket comment
- On a ticket, locate the comment you want to include, then select Forward via email from the dropdown 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.
Creating macros that generate side conversations
When the side conversation feature is enabled, macro actions are added that allow you to create side converstions in a ticket. There's a macro action for each side conversation channel option you have: Side conversation via email, Side conversation via Slack, Side conversation via child ticket.
Email-based side conversations can be sent to one or more email addresses. When you create a side conversation macro for Slack, you chose a Slack channel to send the message to. For child ticket side conversations, you select a group to assign to the macro-generated side conversation child ticket.
194 Comments
Thanks Toby Sterrett - It would be great if it the button could be customizable - without worry about logic (only when Tickets are enabled, etc.) to have it worded differently.
Jason Fouchier and Toby, we are also struggling with bouncebacks with Side Conversations as well as for regular email notifications from the ticket itself. We have no way of knowing whether the email was received; for instance, if an agent creates a requester profile on a ticket, there's a chance the new email will be mistyped. In Outlook, that agent would receive immediate feedback of the bounceback. However, in Zendesk, that email with the mistyped email would not be sent, and other agents might potentially add the same mistyped emali on other tickets (speaking unfortunately from experience).
Hi Toby,
That's what I thought. Thanks.
Re: "If this isn't working for you then we can take a look in the ticket you're submitting."
= Have submitted with documentation. Cheers.
Hey Toby Sterrett,
Yes, this is only an issue with side conversations. Regular ticket communication works just fine.
Thanks,
Jason
I know how to expand the side convo window...is there a way to set it to open expanded by default?
Hi John
Thank you for leaving a comment to our community.
As of the moment, there is no native way to set it expanded as default. I understand your need for this functionality so I'm marking your comment as Product Feedback. We truly value customer feedback and your voice and votes in the product feedback topics in the community help influence future Zendesk functionality.
All the best
Hi - Is there any way to add a footer to all side conversation emails? I just received one accidentally (they should have created a side conversation ticket) and it was very hard to track down which ticket it originated from. I'd like a simple "re: Ticket ID XXXX" or something similar in the body. Thanks!
Hi Naomi Watnick
You need a macro like the following, or do these actions manually:
AFAIK there is no trigger to update a side conversation before it is sent, thus, there is no way to enforce this 100%.
Thanks - yes, unfortunately this is great, but won't work for us. It would be great to have a base template like the emails that are currently sent out that we could configure.
Hi all,
I'm trying to figure out the best way to solve something that I believed was quite straight forward to solve.
We receive emails on a occasion that shouldn't be handled with in Zendesk at all, these emails we need to forward to other people in our organisation that don't use Zendesk, that isn't going to change as these emails are occasional and we don't want to train these employees in a new tool for only these occasions, that is dangerous, expensive and inefficient and all that ...
The most straight straight forward option that I can see and that works for most of the part is to use the "Forward via email" option from the message context menu.
That works for the most part, even sends attachement along with the forward, but the reciever doesn't get the original requestor email address, that is a major issue.
Can I change something to fix this?
Are there any other ways to achive this?
Best regards
Oskar
Hi Oskar, Are you forwarding the email from your email to Zendesk or from Zendesk to an external email? If you are pertaining to the latter, the sender will be your default Zendesk email, since that is the designated email associated with your Zendesk Account. Unfortunately, there is no option to change it yet.
Hi Cheeny Aban thank you for your input, to confirm, yes the case I'm talking about is when a Zendesk agent has to forward a email from Zendesk to another employ via email.
To clarify my issue is that the receiving employee doesn't get the requestor email address, that means that this hasn't been successfully forwarded as there are no means for the employee to contact the requestor.
Here is a test ticket and how the original email is forwarded.
And this is the resulting email received by the employee, as you can see only the internal name of the requestor as set in Zendesk is displayed.
Personally if I would be responsible for this feature as a product manager I would put this down as a bug as the result or at least a must-have feature request, as this heavily affects this feature.
Best regards
Oskar Omarsson
Hi Oskar,
Thank you for sending in the screenshots. We'd love to take a closer look at your account and the email transmission of your tickets. Would you please initiate a chat with us or send us an email at support@zendesk.com.
All the best
Hi Cheeny Aban,
Thank you for your response to this, I've sent an email to support@zendesk.com as per your request.
Thank you.
Best regards
Oskar
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