Searching, linking, and quoting content in tickets

Agents can use the knowledge section of the context panel while working with tickets to conveniently get information and answers relevant to the conversation they're in.

The knowledge section uses Zendesk bots to automatically provide relevant suggestions you can use to answer questions in your tickets. You can also manually search your help center to find additional content, then you can link to content or quote content directly in the ticket.

With the knowledge section, you can:

• Browse Zendesk bot suggestions for relevant information
• Search your help center and preview content without leaving the ticket
• Insert links to content in your ticket
• Quote the most relevant section of an article or post in your ticket

This article covers the following topics:

• Opening the knowledge section
• Searching your help center in the knowledge section
• Adding links to content in tickets
• Quoting an article or post in a ticket

Opening the knowledge section

You can open the knowledge section in the context panel to find help center content relevant to your ticket.

To open the knowledge section

1. In the Admin Center, open any ticket.
2. Click the Knowledge icon () in the sidebar to open the knowledge section.

   

   The knowledge section opens with automatic suggestions matching the topic of the ticket, if there are any. The icon beside each item indicates whether it is an article, a post, or restricted, internal content.

   On Enterprise plans, if federated search is configured, you will also see relevant external content. External content is indicated by the icon. The icon also appears next to the external content title, indicating that the content automatically opens in a new tab.

   

3. You can then take any of the following actions:
   • Preview an article of post by selecting it in the list.

     You can then click Open in Help Center to view the content in another tab.

   • Search for relevant content.
   • Link to content in a ticket.
   • Quote text from an article or post in a ticket.

Searching your help center in the knowledge section

The knowledge section provides content suggestions, powered by Answer Bot, based on the ticket you are viewing. You can also manually search your help center to find content relevant to the issues raised in the ticket.

In the knowledge section, search uses the same search technology as the help center search. The search includes help center articles and community posts. On Enterprise plans, if you've configured federated search you will also see links to external content in your search results. The search does not include comments on articles and posts.

In the knowledge section, search includes default filters that filter search results based on ticket brand and ticket language. If agents routinely change the default search filters shown in the knowledge section to meet their needs (for example for a help center or language), account admins can configure knowledge in the context panel to customize the default search filters shown to agents when they search for content.

Agents can further refine their search by:

• Clicking the Filter icon () next to the search bar, then selecting one of the available filter options.
• Typing one of the available filters in the search field, then select a subfilter option from the options that appear. To search for plain text instead of applying a filter, you can select the “Search for...” option at the top of the list.

  For example, when you enter the word “type” in the search field, you can choose to search for the word "type" or you can select one of the available subfilters for content type (articles or community posts. If federated search is configured and you have enabled external content in knowledge in the context panel, you can use type-ahead filters to filter on external content types and sources as well. Specifically, you can enter "type" or "source" in the search field to display filter options for filtering on external content sources and types defined during federated search setup.

  

Following are the available filter options (type-ahead filter names are shown in code format):

• Content type (Type): Filter by article, post, or external content type (if you are on an Enterprise plan, have configured federated search, and enabled external content in knowledge in the context panel).
• Brand (Brand): Filter based on a specific help center brand.
• Article placement (Available with the filter icon only): Filter based on a specific help center category or section.
• External Source (Source): (Available on Enterprise plans where federated search is configured and external content is enabled in Knowledge) Filter based on external content sources.
• Language (Language): Filter by one of your supported languages.

To search for content

1. In a ticket, click the Knowledge icon () in the sidebar to open the knowledge section.
2. Click the Search icon ().
3. If you want to filter your results, you can either click the Filter icon () next to the search bar, then select a filter and sub filter from the drop-down menu, or you can use a type-ahead filter to selected a supported filter directly from the search field.

   A filter tag is added beneath the search bar for each filter. You can remove individual filters as you like or click Clear filters to remove all filters.

   

4. Enter your search term, then press Return or Enter.

   The search results appear. The icon beside each item indicates whether it is an article, a post, or restricted, internal content.

   On Enterprise plans, if you've enabled federated search, search results also include links to external content, identified by the icon.

   Each result shows up to three comments: The official comment (if available), the most upvoted (if available), and the most recent - in that order.

   

5. Click any of the search results to preview the content in the knowledge section.

   If you want to view the content in another tab, click Open in Help Center.

Adding links to content in tickets

When you find a knowledge base article or community post you think is useful, you can insert a link to it in the ticket. You can add links to multiple articles in a comment.

On Enterprise plans where federated search is configured, you can also add links to external content. Links to external content will always open the content in a new tab.

To insert a link to content in a ticket

1. In a ticket, click the Knowledge icon () in the sidebar to open the knowledge section.
2. Find the content you want to link to.
3. Hover over the content, then click Copy link to conversation.

   

   The content link appears in the ticket.

Knowledge actions are captured in the Knowledge Capture dashboard in Explore for reporting (see Analyzing your Knowledge Capture activity).

Quoting an article or post in a ticket

You can quote text from an article or post in your ticket.

To quote an article or post in a ticket

1. In a ticket, click the Knowledge icon () in the sidebar to open the knowledge section.
2. Find the article you want to quote, then click the article to preview it.
3. Hover over the section you want to quote, then click the Options menu () and select Copy to conversation.

   

   The quoted section appears in your ticket comment.