Enabling agents to access request forms

By default agents can't use the customer portal to submit and comment on tickets, instead, if they click a ticket in My activities, they are redirected to the Support ticket interface. However, you can enable agents to submit requests and comment on them through the customer portal. This flow is typically useful in multi-brand/multi-department use cases where an Agent can behave in dual roles: both as agents, when issues are submitted to their department, and as end users whenever they require support from other departments.

This article covers the following topics:

• Enabling access to request forms
• Key information for managing requests

Enabling access to request forms

You can streamline your workflow by enabling agents to submit requests and comment on them directly through the customer portal.

To enable agents to manage requests through the customer portal

1. In Guide, click the Settings () icon in the sidebar, then select Guide settings.
2. Select the checkbox to Enable agents to manage requests from your help center.

   

3. If you have multiple help centers, in the brand dropdown menu in the top left corner, you can switch between the brands to decide which help center to apply the setting to.
4. Click Update to save your changes.

Key information for managing requests

The agent interface is a powerful system, but for the average requestor, submitting ticket forms and using the help center is a simpler experience. There are also a few limitations to the feature regarding the following:

• Ticket form limitation for Light agents

  Light agents can submit tickets through a request form, but the tickets are filled out as internal comments, which means it is not visible in the request portal. Subsequent comments to the tickets are also posted as internal notes and are therefore not visible to Light agents.

• Ticket permissions and multi-department awareness

  An agent who submits a request in Guide can easily find their ticket when they are logged into Support, because tickets submitted through a request form in Guide are accessible in the ticket interface in Support.

  Note: For multi-department (multiple groups), use cases that host, for example HR or other departments that handle sensitive information, remember that the submitting agent has access to all conversations on their ticket, (including internal conversations).

• Limited view for Agent interactions with ticket forms and ticket fields

  When an agent attempts to submit a request from the help center, only ticket forms that are Editable for end users appear in the list of available forms that the agent can use. In addition, these ticket forms will only include ticket fields that are Editable for end users or Read-only for end users. Ticket forms and ticket fields that are Agent only don’t appear in the help center. To view these settings, go to Manage > Ticket Forms or Manage > Ticket Fields, and then open a ticket form or ticket field for editing.

  Agents cannot submit a request via the help center or the Web Widget (Classic) if the ticket form includes conditional ticket fields that are required for agents that aren’t also required for end users. Submission will fail when the agent attempts to submit the request. This only happens with required conditional ticket fields and not with other types of required ticket fields.

• Agents can’t mark a ticket as solved

  Agents and Light agents can't change a ticket to “Mark as solved” from the help center, this is done in Support. However you can enable agents to manage requests.

• Agents can’t reopen solved tickets with a comment

  If an end user comments on a ticket that has been solved from the request page, the ticket automatically reopens. However the ticket does not automatically reopen when an Agent or Light Agent submits a comment to a solved ticket, (the comment is submitted and added to the thread as a comment).

• Agents can't rate tickets

  Only end users can submit satisfaction ratings to tickets.