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Messaging - don't allow customers to send messages before inputting name/email since agents don't receive these until they do



Posted Oct 07, 2022

 

Currently, with chat messaging, a user is able to send messages even though they have not entered their name and email, I believe this should be disabled because the ticket is not created until they input their information, so very often customers start sending messages thinking that we get them and have a bad experience because they believe we are not answering them when in truth we have not even received the messages

I can't think of a reason why the send messages box would allow messages to be sent before they input their information

 


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15 comments

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Daniel Aron

Zendesk Product Manager

Hi Pedro, thanks for your feedback. One reason that users are able to send messages when presented with the form is to accommodate a scenario where the user decides they do not want to proceed to speak to agent, and instead want to continue to try to self-serve by chatting with the bot. If the user typed a message such as "I'm having a problem with x, y, z..." the bot would try to match that message to the appropriate answer flow and they can continue to solve their issue. Perhaps one suggestion is to modify the message text to make it more explicit the user must fill out the details if they want to be transferred to an agent.

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Tim Grimshaw

Zendesk Luminary

We're seeing the same issues with customer confusion and frustration about "where to type" - because the free text input box isn't de-activated / greyed out.

I raised a ticket with Zendesk support and they mentioned that there isn't a way to disable the 'type a message' box - but it would be really useful to be able to do this sometimes. For example, from the 'understanding answer flow types' article: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836323738

We have a similar set up to the below - and customers regularly get frustrated because they see the request for name/email etc, but they type their response in the "Type a message" box at the bottom - rather than entering it in the 'fields' within the messaging flow: 

It'd be really nice to be able to configure the flow to say 'disable input for this question' etc.

Interestingly, when I was raising the ticket with Zendesk support about this exact issue - I noticed that the Zendesk chat flow does exactly that - meaning that the customer can't get confused/frustrated when needing to fill out a form field. 

In the below - you can see how the text input is greyed out, and says "Complete the form above".

 

This is perfect - but can we get that same functionality in the flow builder / configurable for us please? 

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I need the same "Complete the form above" disabled option. How can we configure it?

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Hi Daniel Aron

I'm having similar issues and would like to add one vote for this option to be able to choose to disable the type-a-message box while having user filling out forms. 

As you explained, I understand exactly that sometimes users might change their minds and might want to proceed with different flows, which is totally fine, and so we should allow that by leaving the type-a-message box active. However, there are also times when we want them to fill out exact something before they can proceed. At which time, we should have a option to disable the message box just for that instant. 

It's been over a year since your last post so I'm wondering if there has been any further thought into this issue so far? Thank you. 

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Shawna James

Community Product Feedback Specialist

Hello Wathanyoo, thank you for your continued feedback here. I want to confirm that your comment and others have been logged for our PM's to review. Please note, that our PM's may not be able to get a reply back especially if there have been no updates to the issues raised. Thank you again for sharing your concern, we appreciate your feedback!

2


Hello, we have just launched the messaging widget and are having the same challenge. We need to be able to make the name and email field mandatory to continue with using the feature. We are getting live messages come through with no name or email address.

2


Why ZD subscribers are restricted from good features !! Are these only restricted for ZD and not to their clients !!!!

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Harper Dane

Zendesk Luminary

We're having similar problems with this limitation, and it has even led to several customer escalations. Our inability to disable free text entry on certain steps isn't just a missing “feature,” it's a serious design flaw. 

 

I filed a similar “feature request” to fix this problem quite some time ago: 

https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/5405983960730-Messaging-Hide-text-entry-field-from-End-Users-on-certain-Step-types


Zendesk's own support team clearly understands why it's critical to disable the text entry field on certain “Form” and “Present Options” steps, since they've added that functionality to their own support widget. 

 

Hopefully the Product team will treat this with the extreme urgency it deserves… meanwhile, we're fielding angry chats and calls from irate customers whose only problem is they simply typed into the wrong box.

 

5


Hey there! It totally makes sense to require customers to input their name and email before sending messages. That way, agents can respond promptly and know who they're communicating with. It's all about making sure everyone's on the same page and communication flows smoothly. 

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Thanks for bringing this up!

 

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This is a critical issue that negatively impacts both the customer experience and the effectiveness of our support team. Allowing customers to send messages before providing their name and email creates confusion, as clients believe their inquiries are being addressed, when in reality, agents are not receiving them. This leads to frustration, missed opportunities for timely responses, and damages the trust in our support system. Ensuring that the required information is collected before allowing messages to be sent is essential for maintaining the flow of communication and upholding the quality of our support services.

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I cannot disagree with comment above. 

 

We built-in chat widget inside our standalone program which looks quite complex, I have to admit, to those who have experience with similar tools, not to mention newcomers. And every missed conversation most likely costs us either an existing or potential client. Our marketing department brings new clients, but your widget, Zendesk team,  makes client leave dissatisfied with the support. 

 

users are able to send messages when presented with the form is to accommodate a scenario where the user decides they do not want to proceed to speak to agent, and instead want to continue to try to self-serve by chatting with the bot

 

Daniel Aron  we do not use bots as they are usually helpless in most of our clients' cases. Why wouldn't you implement an option to disable the ability to send messages if bots are disabled? This situation with a customer sending messages but receiving no response because bot is disabled and agents have not received the request looks like a bug to me, and it seems this feature  were implemented without your clients needs and cases being thoughtfully reviewed. 

 

Probably, it's time to move it and the related tasks back from the completed state of your developing cycle into the In progress state and fix the issue you have not thought about.

 

Sorry for being rude, I can expect incomplete features being released by a start-up company or a cheep indi game developer, but not from grown-up company like ZenDesk. 

 

7


We need this feature as well.

1


Thanks to this thread we now got explanation why sometimes our clients could not receive a support via messaging channel. Should be fixed asap.

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As far as I understood, this feature is not available yet. Is there any ETA?

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Anastasiya Kastsiushkina

Zendesk Product Manager

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for taking the time to provide us with your feedback here. This feature request has been accepted and is on our roadmap in H1 2025.  Per our Community Guidelines, we do not provide specific timelines around releases for our product and any discussion of planning is always subject to change. To stay on top of product releases please visit our What’s New page in the Help Center. 

We are going to leave this post open for comment to allow others to provide their feedback and use cases. 

Thank you again for your feedback!

Best regards,

Anastasiya

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