Using macros to start side conversations

Fastpath: Admin Center > Workspaces > Agent tools > Macros

If side conversations are activated, it's the perfect way to reach out to other departments or external partners. However, for many teams, they can become repetitive, especially if there’s a specific structure to the initial messages. You can use macros to start side conversations to ensure that key information is included automatically when the conversation is started.

For example, let’s say that you want to start a side conversation with a few things like:

• The requester’s initial message
• Some additional questions from the agent
• Some custom field values
• The originating ticket’s ID and URL

This article includes these topics:

• About macros for side conversations
• Creating macros for side conversations
• Applying macros to side conversations

Related articles:

• Creating macros for tickets

About macros for side conversations

You can add a Side conversation action to any macro and when it runs, a new side conversation is started and immediately pops open. Ticket information and some extra boilerplate text are added automatically to the body by means of placeholders, leaving you to add any additional recipients or information that you want to include.

There are a few important things to note about how this feature behaves:

• When you use a macro to start a side conversation, the macro is not applied to any of the side conversations that are already on the ticket. It is only applied to the new side conversation that you're starting now.
• Keep in mind that your macro may include other actions that change ticket fields. If you don't submit the ticket, those changes will be lost.

There are three Side conversation actions in macros:

• Side conversation via email: When you add this action to a macro, you can also enter the email addresses of the users that you want to include in the email notification.

  If you manually enter an email address into the To field, make sure that the email address is correct. The email addresses you enter will become the recipients of a side conversation when the macro is used.

• Side conversation via Slack: End users receive ticket updates in Slack (see Using Slack in side conversations).

  When you add this action to a macro, you can specify only one Slack channel and must enter its name manually. Enter an existing Slack channel name so that it automatically populates the "To" field in the side conversation when you apply the macro.

  If you enter a partial Slack channel name when adding this action, the "To" field will display a list of all channels that contain the partial name when the macro is applied. You can then select the channel from the list.

• Side conversation via child ticket: When you use this action, you create a side conversation on the original ticket and a new child ticket is created (see Using side conversation child tickets).

Creating macros for side conversations

Anyone (agents or admins) can create a personal macro for side conversations. Administrators can also create shared macros for side conversations. You cannot create macros for specific channels.

You may want to use macros to start side conversations to ensure that key information is included automatically when the conversation is started.

To create personal macros for side conversations

1. In Admin Center, click Workspaces in the sidebar, then select Agent tools > Macros.
2. Click the All shared macros drop-down menu, then select Personal macros.
3. Click the Add macro button.
4. Enter the macro name, and add actions for your macro as described in Building macro action statements.
5. In the Actions section, choose one of the Side conversation actions from the drop-down list, enter then enter a subject and your message.
6. Fill in the To, Subject, and Message fields for information you regularly need or use.

   You can use placeholders in these fields for information that you regularly need or use.

   For example, this macro starts a side conversation and includes the first message from the requester, plus some information from the original ticket:

   

   Note: You cannot add images. Markdown in agent signatures does not render in emails sent through side conversations.
7. Click Create.

Applying macros to side conversations

Macros for side conversations create a new side conversation and automatically add ticket information and some extra boilerplate to the body of the message.

To apply macros to side conversations

1. From the ticket, click the Apply macro button in the bottom toolbar.

   

2. Typically, your five most commonly used macros from the past week appear at the top of the macros list.

   

   You can select one of these, begin typing the name of the macro, or scroll through the list to find the one you want to use.

   The most-used macros display can be disabled, in which case, you'll only see the all macros list. For information, see Disabling the most-used macros option.

   The actions defined in the macro will be applied. If the macro updated the ticket comment, you can edit the text before submitting the ticket.

3. When the macro with a Side conversation action runs, it immediately starts a single new side conversation with the ticket information and boilerplate text specified by the macro. The side conversation is not saved though until you add a recipient and click Send.

   

4. Add a recipient to the side conversation.
5. If needed, change the subject of the side conversation and add, remove, or change information in the message.
6. Click Send.
7. If the macro updated any ticket fields, make sure that you also submit the ticket. For example, if your macro starts a side conversation and also changes a ticket's group, the side conversation will be opened, but the ticket group change will not be saved until you submit the ticket.