On Enterprise plans, admins can designate a group as private. This means that agents outside the group generally can’t access tickets assigned to it, although agents may be granted permission to view private tickets. While an agent outside the group can assign a public ticket to a private group or a member of a private group, the ticket is made private as a result. Additionally, an agent working on a private ticket is prevented from @mentioning or opening side conversations with team members outside the private group.
This article contains the following sections:
To learn how to set up private groups, see Creating private ticket groups and granting agents access.
Essential facts for private ticket groups
We've distilled some essential facts for you about private ticket groups. To learn how to set one up a private group or convert a public group to private, see Creating private ticket groups and granting agents access.
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When creating a group, you have the option to designate the group as private. It cannot be converted to public.
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You can convert an existing public group to private, but it can’t be converted back to public.
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Tickets in private groups have a private tag with a lock icon (
) as part of the ticket status tag and a lock icon next to the assigned group's name. In views, the lock icon appears next to the ticket status for each private ticket in the list.
- Access to tickets, including tickets in private groups, is set at the role level. Among native agent roles, Admins and Team Leaders can see tickets in private groups by default. Custom roles can be configured to have access to tickets in private groups. See Granting agents access to tickets in private groups.
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A private ticket can’t be viewed or searched for by agents who don’t have access to it.
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If a ticket is reassigned from a public group to a private one, CCs and followers are kept on the ticket and continue to be able to see it.
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If a ticket is reassigned from a private group to a public one, the ticket becomes visible to public groups.
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Tickets in private groups are still included in reports run for all tickets.
- Tickets that aren't assigned to a group are treated as if they're in a public group.
- Admins can configure the visibility of internal comments on tickets an agent requested, regardless of the tickets group assignment. If you restrict agents in your account from seeing internal notes and agent-only fields, they will only be able to access tickets they've requested as an end user.
Limitations of private ticket groups
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The status of a group as private or public isn't available as a trigger or automation condition. (Group | is / is not | Private / Public)
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Macros can’t yet be made available to all private groups similar to the way they can be made available to all agent groups.
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When a side conversation ticket is assigned to a private group, it is visible to members who don't belong to the group.
50 comments
Sam
Is there an update on Explore respecting private groups?
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4767122732058/comments/4809959742106
2
Neil
Private group are aimed specifically for agent usage and will not apply to end-users.
Organizations ticket restriction apply to end-users, not private groups. You can check here for details about ticket restriction of end-users at the organization level.
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Dana Beugless-Spies
I haven't found the answer to my question in this thread yet, so here goes.
I have created a new Group A to which I will be adding a bunch of new agents to. They have not been in ZD before, and I do not want them to see any of my other Groups (B,C)'s tickets... either current or past. So, I've made Group B and Group C 'Private', and unfortunately a new Group A Agent is still able to see historical tickets that were part of Group B or Group C. How do I restrict visibility into historical tickets under Private Groups from Agents NOT in the Private Group?
0
Alina Wright
Dana Beugless-Spies
I think you're on the right track. Head over to Admin Center > People > Roles. Ensure that the agents assigned to the role have ticket access type set to, "Within their groups". This means that they'll only see tickets in groups where they are members and not any other groups.
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Dana Beugless-Spies
Thank you Alina. It turned out that the new agent had been cc'd in some old tickets which are part of the Private groups, and hence was able to see those tickets. All roles and group definitions have been updated, and I'm good to go... for now! :) Thank you!
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eclect taira
Hi!
Is there a way to prevent a private group from mentioning members outside the group?
0
mfg
eclect taira
this doesn't directly provide the solution you're asking about - but It seems like this could be handled as a training issue. what i mean by that is that agents might be doing mentions because they need /some/ info, but im guessing the issue is that you don't want them to have /all/ the info, or on-going access to the ticket. to limit/govern that access, training the agent to use a side conversation email may be the best way of accomplishing that.
1
Aaron Miller
So many users have admin access so they can work with various aspects of their workspace at our organization. This feature would be much more useful if you could limit admins from being able to access those tickets. Or better yet, allow specific agents (maybe a group) to work with views or macros without having to have admin access.
1
Sydney Neubauer
What is not documented is that Side Conversations to Private groups can no longer be edited even if the requester of that Child ticket is wanting to make an edit. This breaks all current functionality when we need to reach out to HR for answers and it is not documented in this article.
A conversation with Zendesk confirms this is the new behavior and expected. Please change this as in order for our teams to be able to communicate to private groups, they need to have all ticket access or create many SC with the group to continue the conversation
0
Kalle Windefalk
Also wondering!
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Bobby Koch
Scnario
Public Group: Support
Private Group: Audit
If I create a side conversation from a ticked in Support, to Audit, do the messages that happen in the audit side conversation make their way back into the parent ticket?
0
Paolo
Yes, the message/comment update in the side conversation, that has been assigned to Audit group(private) will appear in the parent ticket. I can see that you are in the Support Enterprise subscription. Your subscriptions comes with a Sandbox environment. In case you have any workflow that would like to explore or test similar to the scenario above, you can do that in your Sanbox. For more information, kindly check this article: Testing changes in your standard sandbox.
Best,
Paolo | Technical Support Engineer | Zendesk
0
Behzad Gul
Hello Zendesk,
We have a use case where we need to restrict the viewing of tickets assigned to a particular user.
Only reporter, assignee and other members of that organization should be able to see that ticket. No other agents can view that. We are using Professional Plan. Is there anyway to achieve this in professional plan
Appreciate your help.
0
Arianne Batiles
Hi Behzad Gul,
To have a better understanding of your specific requirements, I'm creating a ticket where we can collaborate further. Please keep an eye on your inbox for any updates.
0
Carlos Santos
Hi.
Our current setup allows end-users that are of a specific organisation to read organization tickets without being the requester or CC or follower (i.e. end-users not directly involved in the ticket). I have a group which is now public that I'm considering switching to private due to sensitive ticket content. If I switch that public group to private, will the tickets closed during it's public period remain visible to those not directly involved end-users or will all tickets of the group (old and new, no exception) be restricted as the group is now private?
Thank you.
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Paolo
As long as end users are followers or in CC on those tickets under the private group, these users will continue to be able to access the tickets. Users that are not in the CC/followers will be restricted.
Best,
Paolo | Technical Support Engineer | Zendesk
0
Andrew Chu
Hi team, can you please confirm if can agent route a call to a Private group via a call ticket transfer? Given that the agent has no access/not a part of that Private group.
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Destiny
Thank you for reaching out.
I understand you wanted to know if your agents can route a call to a Private group. Short answer is Yes. While an agent outside the group can assign a public ticket to a private group or a member of a private group, the ticket is made private as a result. More information can be found here About Private Groups.
I hope that helps.
0
Nolan Spratt
Hi we use private groups but have found that when a ticket raised by a requester not in the group they lose access to view their own ticket they created. Is there a fix to that coming because a requester can follow progress of all their own tickets created apart from if it is being dealt with an agent from a private group
Thanks
1
Anders Ohlund
Hi!
We have a setup where groups of agents are organized in private groups to separate access to their respective tickets. However, we have a workflow where an agent (in private group A, B) can re-assign a ticket to another private group (C) via a macro.
The drawback is that private group A,B don't have access to the ticket after re-assigning it.
How would this ideally be solved for the initial group to still have access while assigning it to another private group?
Thanks!
0