| Suite | Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus |
| Support | Professional or Enterprise |
To create the optimal conversation flow for your agents, you can use layout builder to configure how conversations and the composer appear in a custom ticket layout in the agent interface. You must have a Professional plan or higher with the Zendesk Agent Workspace activated to make these changes.
This article includes these sections:
About configuring ticket conversations
By default, the ticket interface in the Zendesk Agent Workspace shows the newest comments at the bottom of the ticket conversation, followed by a composer for entering new comments. This layout is useful for live conversations such as messaging and chat, but you might prefer a different layout for your agents, suited to their unique workflows.
When you create a custom layout, you can:
- Change the order of comments that appear in a ticket.
- Change the position of the composer.
- Collapse (or expand) the composer window by default in a ticket.
Because these settings are part of custom ticket layouts, you can configure different settings for each ticket layout. For example, if you have a layout that’s used mainly for messaging tickets, you can have the configuration settings that work well for a typical messaging conversation. If you have a layout that’s used mainly for email tickets, you can have configuration settings that work well for a typical email conversation.
Changing conversation and composer settings
The changes you make to a custom layout will apply to all tickets that use the layout.
To change the conversation flow
- Open a layout for editing. See Editing a layout for details.
The layout builder appears.
- Click Customize layout to make changes to your layout.
- Select the conversation pane in the ticket layout.
The conversation settings appear in the Customization area of the layout builder.
- Select the Conversation order.
You can choose between Newest messages at the bottom or Newest messages at the top.
- Select the Composer position.
You can set the composer to appear Below the conversation or Above the conversation.
- Select a default for collapsing or expanding the composer window:
- To see more of the conversation when you open a ticket, select Collapse by default. When selected, the composer window is collapsed by default when agents open tickets.
- If you want the composer window expanded by default, deselect this option.
Agents can expand or collapse the composer as needed within each ticket. When an agent expands the composer, it includes any resizing changes the agent made previously.
- Save your layout changes.
21 comments
Lisa Kelly
Thanks, Youli. We appreciate your comments. See below for details.
From this article: Note: When you first create a ticket, the standard ticket layout is used no matter what default layout or contextual workspace is configured for the ticket. You need to submit and reopen the ticket before you see a custom layout applied.
For best results, Zendesk recommends posting your comment in our product feedback forum for Support where we collect product feedback and where our PM’s review feedback from our customers. Use this forum to share your feedback with us for better visibility. Here is our product feedback template to get you started.
0
Youli
I'm testing the new interface again, and I can now put the composer on top but unfortunately this only seems to apply to existing tickets. Every time I open a new ticket the composer is still at the bottom and it gets on top only after updating the ticket. This is very annoying when you have to write an email in a new ticket. Why doesn't the configuration apply to all tickets? That makes no sense.
0
Lisa Kelly
Hi Vasil,
This option is also available on Professional plans. See the plan banner at the top of the article. So if you have a Professional plan (Suite or Support) you can configure the conversation order.
0
Vasil Kolev
I've been sent an email that we'll be “upgraded” to agent workspaces between 28 and 30 of Oct. The order of messages is an issue that been raised multiple times, and if we have to upgrade to Enterprise to retain the functionality we use, we'll most probably just migrate away.
So if Zendesk has decided that any feature people need in their current product is going to move to a more expensive plan, I wonder how long until we have to pay extra for email.
0
Rebecca Baur
Hi there. Wondering if there's any update on when this will available for professional accounts. We use Outlook so forwarded emails create a lot of confusion with the thread direction and I would love to implement the customization described here.
0
Shawna James
My intention in sharing our product feedback forum and the feedback template was to direct you to the place where our product managers review customer product feedback and can help answer your questions more directly. I am not a product manager so I unfortunately am not able to provide product specific answers about the feasibility of this feature request. You are of course more than welcome to continue to provide your feedback in this space; it was my hope in sharing the forum that is more active with our Product Managers that you would be able to receive the engagement you desired.
Thank you for sharing your product feedback and continuing to help us understand how we can improve our processes.
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Johannes Garske
5895537231642
We would just appreciate if you don't need some product feedback template for the easiest possible problem.
It took over a month to get an answer and it was in no possible way helpful to everyone.
It sounds just like a template and has literally zero connection to the messages above.
When you read our feedback, it is not necessary that we need to answer some form and say the same thing multiple times in some topics like this.
Hope to get a faster reply on my concerns and templates and not a auto-response message.
Thanks!
1
Johannes Garske
Please give a quick overview of your product feature request or feedback and note who in your org is affected by this issue.
Delete this big block for “apply macro” and just put it in the answerfield, like the button for links. It is just a waste of space.
What problem do you see this solving?
Like above: It is just a waste of space.
When was the last time you were affected by this lack of functionality, or specific tool? What happened? How often does this problem occur and how does this impact your business?
Daily.
Are you currently using a workaround to solve this problem? (If yes, please explain)
There is no workaround.
What would be your ideal solution to this problem? How would it work or function?
Like said multiple times: We would like to just have it in the answerfield, like the links.
3
Johannes Garske
Hey 5895537231642
Please give a quick overview of your product feature request or feedback and note who in your org is affected by this issue.
We would like to not readjust the windows EVERY time we are using Zendesk.
Please make sure that the quality is at least acceptable for the customers, which is currently not the case. We have to readjust something every time we open a ticket.
What problem do you see this solving?
Like above: We would like to not readjust the windows EVERY time we are using Zendesk.
When was the last time you were affected by this lack of functionality, or specific tool? What happened? How often does this problem occur and how does this impact your business?
Daily.
Are you currently using a workaround to solve this problem? (If yes, please explain)
Readjust it EVERY time.
What would be your ideal solution to this problem? How would it work or function?
Like said multiple times: We would like to not readjust the windows EVERY time we are using Zendesk.
2
Shawna James
I wanted to point you in the direction of our product feedback forum for Support where we collect product feedback and where our PM’s review feedback from our customers. While we read and review every piece of feedback that comes through our Help Center and Community, we would greatly appreciate you using this forum to share your product feedback with us for better visibility. Here is our product feedback template to get you started.
I also want to take a moment to reference our guidelines in this response. Product feedback that is provided in this space is not guaranteed to be included on any product backlog or roadmaps. While we listen and read every piece of feedback that comes through, in some instances, our product teams need to make the tough decision to work in a direction that is not aligned with a particular piece of feedback. The forum is simply for sharing your challenges and how you use the product, but it is not a case/resolution system.
If you are interested in learning more about this and other features being built please make sure to check out our Community events, What’s New Community Topic, and Zendesk Updates. Thank you again for being a valuable Zendesk customer!
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