Using CCs and followers

What's my plan?

Note: This article describes an updated CCs and followers experience. If your account was created before May 2019 you might need to migrate to this updated experience.

You can add CCs 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.

Depending on your plan and how your admin has configured your account, you can also CC and BCC users in email side conversations.

This article includes these sections:

• About CCs and followers
• Adding CCs from the ticket interface and ticket notifications
• Adding CCs and BCCs in email side conversations
• Adding agents as followers from the ticket interface

Related articles:

• Understanding CCs and followers
• CCs and followers resources

About CCs and followers

• CCs allow you to include end users and agents on ticket notifications. Internal and external users can add CCs (copied users) to tickets. Agents who are added as CCs will have their email addresses visible to all end users in the thread (agents are not copied separately). 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. Followers receive updates on the ticket without exposing their identity to end users. There's no limit to the number of followers you can include on a ticket.

It's important to understand what happens when different users (your end users, agents, CCs, and followers) reply from email. See the following related articles for more information:

• Understanding when email replies become public or private comments
• Best practices for using email clients with CCs and followers
• Understanding suppression of CCs email notifications

Adding CCs from the ticket interface and ticket notifications

You can copy users by adding them to the ticket from a public reply in the ticket interface or from the ticket notification. To learn more about using CCs, see About copying internal and external users on tickets.

Note: A ticket can have up to 48 email CCs. If you have an email notification that includes a large number of users (for example, over 25), Zendesk may create multiple emails, split into different batches of users, to send the notification.

To CC 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.

   

   If there are already other users copied on the ticket, you can click on the CC line to add additional CCs.

   

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.

   When the header is expanded to show CCs, a warning icon appears next to any users without email addresses.

6. Repeat as necessary.
7. Enter and submit your public comment (public reply). Copied users receive a notification and are 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 CCs and BCCs in email side conversations

Note: You must be on a Suite Professional plan or above to use side conversations. Side conversations are not available on Support only plans. See About side conversations.

You can CC and BCC both agents and end users in an email side conversation. Side conversation CCs and BCCs differ from CCs on a ticket in some ways. For example, you can use trigger conditions and actions to check for and/or add CCs to a ticket but can’t for side conversations.

To add CCs or BCCs to existing email side conversations

1. In a ticket, click Side Conversations in the upper-left and select an existing email side conversation.

   For more information about using side conversations, see Creating side conversations

2. Click Write a reply.
3. Click CC on the right side of the comment header.

   

   The CC recipient field and the option to BCC users appears.

   Note: Adding a user as a CC or BCC on a side conversation doesn’t add them as a CC on the ticket.

   

4. If you want to BCC a user instead of or in addition to copying a user, click BCC.

   BCC recipients aren't visible to other recipients on the email, but are visible to anyone who can view the side conversation within Support. See About BCCs in email side conversations.

5. In the corresponding field, begin entering the name or email address of the end user or agent you want to CC or BCC.

   Users who already exist in your account appear as suggestions.

6. If you see the user you want to add, click their name; otherwise, type the email address of the person you want to CC or BCC.

   Users you add by email automatically become end users in your account if they aren't there already.

7. Click Send.

About BCCs in email side conversations

Similar to traditional email, when you add a recipient in the BCC field on an email side conversation, the BCC’d recipient can see other recipients in the To and CC fields. However, the BCC’d recipient won’t see that they were added to the BCC field.

When a BCC’d recipient replies to an email side conversation, their reply is threaded into the side conversation. Other recipients won’t receive the BCC’d recipient’s email.

If a BCC’d recipient replies via “reply all”, other visible recipients (that is, recipients in the To and CC fields) are also included in their email. By using “reply all”, the BCC’d recipient makes a public reply to the side conversation and is included in all subsequent replies from the side conversation. You can remove them from the recipients list if you don’t want them included in further replies.

Adding agents as followers from the ticket interface

Internal users (your company's agents and admins) can add followers from the Followers field from the properties panel in the ticket interface. Followers receive email notifications when a ticket is updated. To learn more about using followers, see About adding followers to tickets.

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.

   If you're an agent who is not already a requester or assignee on the ticket, you're also added as a follower.