Enabling side conversation child tickets (Collaboration add-on)

Fastpath: Settings > Tickets > Side conversations

If you are an administrator, you may want to enable side conversation child tickets, which allows agents to create separate tickets that are subordinate to a side conversation and that are assigned to a specific agent or group.

Light agents cannot create, send, or be assigned side conversation child tickets. 

This article includes these sections:

• About side conversation child tickets
• Workflow example about side conversation child tickets
• Enabling side conversation child tickets
• Trigger conditions for side conversation child tickets

Related articles:

• Using side conversation child tickets (Collaboration add-on)
• Collaboration add-on resources

About side conversation child tickets

When you create a side conversation child ticket, two things happen simultaneously: you create a side conversation on the original ticket, and you create a new, separate, subordinate ticket that is assigned to a specific agent or group.

These definitions may be helpful to this discussion:

• originating side conversation: the side conversation on the original ticket used to create a side conversation child ticket.

• side conversation child ticket: a ticket created from a side conversation.

There is an invisible connection between the originating side conversation and the side conversation child ticket. This is a parent-child relationship. The originating side conversation is the “parent” and the child ticket is the “child.”

The child ticket inherits replies from the originating side conversation because of the parent-child relationship. For example, when an agent replies to the side conversation on the original ticket, the replies are added to the child ticket as public comments.

Workflow example about side conversation child tickets

Here’s an example of how you might use side conversation child tickets.

If an agent is working on a ticket that requires an approval from the Finance team and the Finance team also uses Support, a side conversation can be assigned to the Finance team. This creates a new ticket that is assigned to the Finance group, which then appears in the appropriate views for the Finance team, so they can triage the ticket and handle it however they normally do.

As the Finance team works on the ticket, any public comments they make are sent back to the originating side conversation. Any private comments (internal notes) or side conversations they make stay on their ticket.

This workflow lets agents leverage any other team working in Support to get the assistance they need, while letting those teams retain their existing processes and workflows. It also ensures that all communications are consolidated in Support, leveraging existing workflows and keeping everything in one place for posterity and reporting.

Enabling side conversation child tickets

Side conversation child tickets are disabled by default. If you want to use this feature, you must select the Enable child ticket option in your Admin settings first.

To enable side conversation child tickets

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Settings > Tickets.
2. Scroll down to the Side Conversations section.
3. Select Enable child tickets.
4. Click Save tab.

Trigger conditions for side conversation child tickets

When side conversation child tickets is enabled, the following trigger condition is available:

Update via + Is + Side conversation

If you have a trigger with this condition, the trigger fires when a side conversation child ticket is updated because an agent replied to the originating side conversation and the reply was also added to the side conversation child ticket as public comment.

If side conversation child tickets is disabled, you won’t see this trigger condition in your account.

For information about other trigger conditions you can use with side conversations (see Setting up trigger conditions for side conversations).