Mentions: How to add !mentions function to your Zendesk
What?
There has been some interest in having a mentions function in Zendesk. The idea is that by using !agentname in a ticket comment, the agent would receive notification of the comment. Additionally, a team mention would allow anyone using !myteam to notify all members of the team.
Love it! - How?
To add this function - follow the tutorial below.
Go to Settings > Triggers
Create a new trigger named Mentions !yourname (replacing name as required)
Set conditions as follow...
- Meet all of the following conditions - Status not changed to Closed.
- Meet any of the following conditions - Comment text contains the following string !yourname (replace 'yourname' with your username or handle)
- (optional) Meet any of the following conditions - Comment text contains the following string !yourname-alternative (maybe you want to cover your bases for a possible variation)
Set 'Perform these actions'...
Notifications: Email User > Select applicable agent user
Email Subject: Mentions on ticket {{ticket.id}}
Email Text: {{current_user.name}} mentioned you on ticket {{ticket.id}}
{{ticket.latest_comment_formatted}}
Obviously, repeat the process for each agent/username. It is possible to extend this to notify non-agents, using email targets.
That's it - Enjoy!
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Did the same thing...
Two additional tips
Use a special suffix in the Subject like "MENTIONED {{ticket title}}"
In the email body add something like -NoArchive-
I use the -NoArchive- text so I can ensure that my gmail filter which applies labels and skips my inbox for support tickets (I like having a log in gmail... so when i search for a customer everything is there... but don't want it to clutter my inbox)...
The reason for the unique subject is so that it doesn't get threaded with ticket replies afterwards. If you want to follow it click follow when in the ticket.
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I put this in place for our team a couple of months ago and everybody loves it! We used to add internal people as CCs but would always forget to remove them afterwards. Now, we can simply and easily shoot a one-time message to the person we need information from.
I put in 3 different versions of possible strings for each user so that almost any logical combination would work (using my name as an example):
- @matthew
- @matthewbriley
- @mbriley
We have several people with the same first name, so I simply didn't include Option #1 for those users.
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Good shout there Matthew! I did the exact same - I put as many variations as I could, so for me it went as far as:
@ray
@rayroocroft
@ray.roocroft
@raymond
@raymondroocroft
Of course there was a slight variation when people had the same name or common names.
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@frank - there is no name standardization issue - you list the variations you require to cover for your agent in the triggers you create - ie. it is as specific or all-encompassing as you make it :-)
If Zendesk implement this as a inbuilt option what would be really good would be a predicter function - just like in 'buddypress'. However - this wouldnt work for the end user or some agents (who use email etc).
Ray's variations seem to cover most possibilities :)
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Hey guys,
Totally hi-jacking this thread (sorry Andrew!).
So we're poking around this to see how we'd like to design this out, to be able to get this into the product proper.
Which of these two make the most sense? Why? Argue:
- If you were @mentioned in a ticket comment (or a forum post), would you expect to be notified once, or cc'd on that ticket/post for all future updates?
- If you were @mentioned in a ticket comment (or forum post), how would you expect to be notified? Email? In Zendesk? Push notification? Other?
Thanks guys!
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Hey Jake - great to see your smiling face :-)
My two pence...
I would say 'once only' and via email - it could also be good for this to appear in the update stream though.
To CC or not to CC: It may be a idea to have an option per agent whether they want to be auto-CCed or not when mentioned. Default to the less annoying one :)
An option in the email to 'follow' and be added as a CC would be good (though CC is bad news for me - I delete CCs often)
Content: I think I would lean toward full content. Once again, options rule the day - allow us to configure the notification content (I have this option already running of course - using triggers)
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Hi,
would be great to see the mentions functionality been added as official feature.
It would also be great if you add some sort of Notifications area, where every agent can see:
- mentions of his name
- notifications on updates of tickets where he is assigned
- notifications of ticket assignment
At least in our organisation we are trying to reduce the mail usage to minimum, and using the e-mail to be notified for anything happening in Zendesk (except maybe SLA breaches) is needless as we anyway keep Zendesk in front of our eyes most of the time and notifications there would be easily seen.
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@Jake:
Here's my opinion:
- We use @mentions to shoot a one-time message to another user, so we definitely wouldn't want to be CC'd (we would just have to remove them anyway)
- We use the Zendesk Web-portal 99.9% of the time and we really dislike emails, so I'd love to get more notifications from inside Zendesk. I'd understand a summary email if the user hasn't been online for a period of time, but notifications from inside Zendesk is definitely option #1 for us.
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I would love for the 'add CC' to be a configurable option on an @ mention (trigger / automation with different conditionals available). For example, if an agent @ mentions me when working a VIP person / VIP ticket, I'd want to be kept abreast of any/all updates until the ticket is resolved.
As far as how I'd be notified: I'd like to see (configurable/choosable with conditionals): Email, Push, SMS, Slack
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Yep, there's this other thing we have to finish first though.
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Hi Akshath!
Have you seen our Chrome extension? It's not quite the same as in-product push notifications, but it might work for you! Check it out here: Zendesk Activity Stream.
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Thanks for the tutorial. We implemented this @mention feature using triggers, but instead of email notifications, some of our users preferred to be notified via a Slack message. In case anyone else is interested in being notified via Slack from a Zendesk mention (in place of an email notification):
- Create a Incoming webhook in your Slack account and title it "Zendesk Mentions", and even upload a custom Zendesk icon, if you wish.
- In your Zendesk account got to Admin-->Extensions-->Add a target
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Add an HTTP target with the following and click submit:
a) Title: "Slack notification"
b) url: paste in the custom webhook url generated by Slack when you created the "Zendesk Mentions" incoming webhook
c) Method: POST
d) Content type: JSON - When creating a trigger you now have the ability to choose "Notify target: Slack notification"
- We added this formatted JSON to notify users in Slack. You can customize this message to your liking by adding/removing Zendesk placeholders and using Slack's Advanced Message Formatting
- Note: Using the JSON provided, all notifications will be delivered in Slack to each user via the private @slackbot channel. You can change this post to a public channel if you wish.
Hope others find this helpful!
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Hey Mike!
This is a fantastic tip! If you feel so inclined, we'd love it if you'd post about it our Tips & Tricks section so it's easy for everyone to find. We'll send you swag!
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I've modified this tutorial to work for those who do not want to use the inbuilt @ function (inbuilt function adds mentioned user as a CC - see release notes here)
To fix existing setups of this, change all triggers to use !mentions format instead of the original @mentions and of course, advise agents of the change.
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Is there still any way to trigger email notifications to agents when they are mentioned with the @ symbol?
One of the issues we're facing is that @mentions pop up a nice auto-complete menu as they are typed, ensuring the agent chooses exactly who they want. Using !mentions does not, so you have to ensure it's typed right the first time.
I do understand that this will cause the agent to be added to the Cc list as well, that's fine. Just trying to figure out of there's any way to also trigger an email notification this way still too?
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