Best Practices: Choosing a Ticket to Answer

The first step in replying to your customers' tickets is choosing which to answer. Consider the following steps when developing your own workflows.

Step 1 | Go to Your Tickets List

Your Tickets List is the hub where all your customers' questions from every source come together. 

Click the Tickets icon in the side panel to view the following features on your Tickets List:
  • Views: Filter your tickets using preset views and create your own custom views.
  • Ticket search: Enter search phrases such as customer email addresses or terms used on tickets to locate relevant tickets. 
  • Sort tickets: Click to sort tickets by newest or oldest first.
  • Language selector: Click to select the ticket language by which you'd like to filter your list.
  • Refresh: Click to refresh your Tickets List and view the most current results.
  • Ticket preview: View previews of tickets on the list and hover over for more details.

Step 2 | Select a View

Click a View on the left to preview its tickets. 
With views, you can start with preset ticket filters and customize then save them for future use. If you or other team members work on specific types of tickets, create and save views to easily access them later. 

Step 3 | Select a Language

Click All languages at the top right and select a language to only show tickets from one language.
If you or other team members speak a language in which you have limited agent resources, you should focus primarily on tickets from that language to reduce overall response times. 

Step 4 | Sort Your Tickets by Date

Select Oldest first at the top of your Tickets List.
We recommend the 'first in, first out' (FIFO) approach to managing your ticket flows. You should work on older tickets first to maintain shorter average response times, reduce the temptation to search for easier tickets to solve, and keep your customers happy. 

Step 5 | Preview and Select a Ticket

Before selecting a ticket, quickly gain context about it by previewing information such as:
  • Ticket subject and message: View the ticket subject and a preview of the message or last reply. Hover over the preview to view the customer's message in a pop-up window. 
  • Priority level: View the ticket's priority level.  
  • Labels: View the labels added to the ticket. Learn how to automatically add labels to tickets for organizing your tickets.  
  • Customer name and profile image: View this information on the left of the preview. 
  • Waiting time: View how long the ticket has been in its current status.
  • Number of Replies: View the total number of replies the ticket has received.
  • Language: View the ticket language. 
  • Assigned: View the agent or group the ticket is assigned to.
  • SLA Indicators: View the ticket's SLA policy response and resolve timeframes. Learn More
Note:
If another agent is already viewing or typing on a ticket, an indicator appears in the bottom right.
Next:
Once you've chosen a ticket to reply to, learn best practices for reviewing the Ticket Page.