Creating and Managing Tickets

About

When customers require assistance, they’ll need to be able to reach out to a product expert. Insightly Service offers the Ticket object to assist Customer Support Agents in communicating with customers and providing applicable support.

In this Article

How Do Tickets Work?

When customers need assistance, Customer Support Agents need to be prepared with the best possible tools to quickly solve the customer’s issue. Tickets capture all details from the initial request to each subsequent conversation. 

Customers are added to Insightly Service as contacts and Customer Support Agents can review past interactions between the customer and the support team. When a ticket is submitted by a customer, a conversation between the customer and the Customer Support Agent begins; Customer Support Agents additionally have the option to create tickets manually on behalf of a customer when applicable.

When a new ticket is submitted, by default it will be assigned to the New Tickets queue. Queues allow for the distribution of tickets amongst agents in a visible and understandable way. When viewing a ticket list view, users can click the Show Sidebar button (to the left of the New Ticket button) to display the number of tickets in each list view. The sidebar will display the queues and views in the same order as they are shown in the list view dropdown for the Tickets object. Clicking a queue or view within the sidebar will change the view of the Tickets object to that specific queue or view.


When viewing a list view of tickets via the Ticket object within Insightly Service, users are able to see when a ticket is being viewed by other users via the eye icon located on the far left of a ticket's row in the list view. This icon can be hovered over to display what users are viewing the ticket.


Additionally, within the ticket record itself, users can review a list of other users who are also viewing the ticket via the Ticket tab on the left of the ticket record.

System Administrators can navigate to System Settings > Objects > Ticket Layout to design the layout of tickets. This design ability applies to the the Ticket, Contact, and Organization tabs of a ticket record.

Insightly provides out of office auto reply detection by identifying common email headers that indicate whether an email is an auto reply. 

  • If an auto reply email is received from a customer, Insightly will detect this out of office notification and the subsequent ticket created from the email will be automatically be sent to the Spam queue.
  • If an auto reply email is a reply to an existing open ticket, the new ticket comment will be flagged as an auto reply within the ticket comment metadata; these types of comments will be filtered out of the ticket display view. 
  • If an auto reply email is received for a closed ticket, the ticket will not be reopened by the auto reply. 

Support Schedules

System Administrators can define support schedules based off the companies regular business hours, time zone(s), and holidays. Insightly Service will apply these support schedules to tickets that utilize triggers. Schedules can be set up via System Settings > User Interface > Schedules

  • When setting up automation within Insightly Service, automation time triggers implement based off calendar hours rather than schedule hours. 

SLA Functionality 

When an SLA policy is applied to a ticket, that event will be recorded in that ticket’s Audit Log tab. A ticket's SLA policy is recorded in a ticket record's Details tab, where users can review how much SLA time is remaining before the next action is due. Once a ticket has the status of Closed or Solved, it will no longer display an assigned SLA policy. SLA functionality can differ based on the status of a ticket:


StatusSLA Functionality
NewSLA countdown will be active. If the ticket is placed On Hold, the countdown will pause immediately and will resume once the status is updated to New, Pending or Open.  
OpenSLA countdown will be active. If the ticket is placed On Hold, the countdown will pause immediately and will resume once the status is updated to New, Pending or Open.
On HoldIf the ticket is placed On Hold, the countdown will pause immediately and will resume once the status is updated to New, Pending or Open.
PendingSLA countdown will be active. If the ticket is placed On Hold, the countdown will pause immediately and will resume once the status is updated to New, Pending or Open.
SolvedNo SLA will be applied to the ticket.
ClosedNo SLA will be applied to the ticket.


Once an SLA policy is assigned to a ticket, the SLA Time Remaining field functionality is based off different stages of the ticket and will always display the time remaining as calendar hours. 

  • When SLAs are configured, the field Operational Hours can be set to business hours (rather than calendar hours) to allow SLAs to work in conjunction with the business hours set up by System Administrators via System Settings > User Interface > Schedules. This configuration will account for weekends and when Customer Service Agents are not actively working tickets to allow for SLAs to provide the most accurate time for when actions are due. 
  • The SLA Time Remainingfield can be used in ticket list views.
    • When the filter is configured with the value of less than 0h0m for the SLA Time Remaining field, then the filter will result tickets that have violated their SLA’s and have negative time remaining.
    • When the filter is configured to display tickets where the SLA Time Remaining field is empty, it will show tickets that have no SLA Time Remaining value, and those that have an SLA Time Remaining value of On Hold.
    • Filters allow negative integers (-10, -100, -550, etc.) in order to display tickets that have violated their assigned SLA policy. For example, if the filter is set to less than -100, this equates to ~4 days so the list will display tickets with SLA violations greater than 4 days.

Another field that can be used in ticket list views is the SLA Current Target field. Based on the selection made via the SLA Current Target filter drop-down, the list view will display tickets currently in the selected SLA target. SLA Current Target is also available as an option in all ticket reports.

Ticket stageField Functionality
Ticket is OpenedThe SLA Time Remaining countdown will begin based on the assigned SLA policy and display the time remaining to assign an agent.
Ticket is AssignedThe SLA Time Remaining countdown will recalibrate based on the assigned SLA policy and display the countdown for the first reply time.
First ReplyOnce the first reply has been submitted, the SLA Time Remaining countdown will display the countdown for the total time remaining to solve the ticket.

For information regarding the setup of SLAs (performed by System Administrators), the Creating and Managing SLAs article can be reviewed. 

Email Allowlists and Blocklists 

System Administrators can control access to Insightly Service Portals, as well as who can send tickets to the support team; this is done by adding email domains to the email blocklists via System Settings > Feature Settings > Email Blocklists.

Tasks and Opportunities

Agents with both CRM and Service subscriptions can create tasks and opportunities from the ticket record through the Actions dropdown. The task or opportunity will then be linked to the contact, organization, and ticket upon creation. 

The option to create opportunities from the ticket’s action menu will be disabled once an opportunity has been linked to the ticket, as only one opportunity per ticket is allowed.

Ticket Layout

Insightly Service provides a default page layout for tickets that can be customized by System Administrators via System Settings > Objects and Fields > Ticket > Page Layouts > Ticket Layout.

The default ticket layout displays the following information for each ticket:


SectionInformation
1

Basic ticket information and ticket actions:

  • The padlock icon can be clicked to review the record permissions.
  • Clicking the pen icon button will allow for edits to be made to the ticket details.
  • Utilizing the Actions button will display actions that can be taken against the ticket. See the

    Managing Tickets section of this article for more information. 

2

Important ticket details regarding queue, priority, SLA, etc. Ticket status can also been viewed:

  • New: The ticket has not been opened and has not been assigned to an agent. Once the ticket has been assigned another status, it cannot be reverted back to New
  • Open: The ticket has been reviewed and assigned to an agent.
  • Pending: The ticket’s assigned agent has a followup question for the customer and is waiting for a response that provides the information the agent needs to continue resolving the request.
  • On Hold: The support request is awaiting a resolution from a third party. Likely, this is someone who is not a member of the support staff and does not have an agent account. The On Hold status is visible to agents only, not customers; the SLA timer will pause when the ticket’s status is changed to On Hold. For customers, tickets that are On Hold will display as Open
  • Solved: The agent has resolved the support issue. Solved tickets are set to Closed, typically, a number of days after they have been set to Solved after a number of days set by the System Administrator via System Settings > Automation > Automation. Until a ticket is closed, the requester can reopen the ticket. For example, the requester may not agree with the agent that the support issue is resolved and reply back to the ticket solved notification they receive via email.
  • Closed: Indicates that the ticket is complete and can't be reopened. Requesters however can create followup requests for closed tickets. A ticket's status cannot be changed to Closed manually. Closing a ticket is handled automatically via business rules set by the System Administrator via System Settings > Automation > Automation
3

Ticket: Displays ticket details and assists with identifying the type of issue that needs to be resolved. 

Contact: Displays information regarding the contact that the ticket pertains to. 

Organization: Displays information regarding the organization that the ticket pertains to.

4

Public Replies and Internal Notes: When a public reply or an internal note is being created, Insightly Service will auto save every five seconds to prevent loss of progress. Customer Support Agents can utilize @ mentions to notify other agents; all additional agents that are @ mentioned will be added to the CC list of the ticket. When adding attachments to ticket public replies and internal notes, there is a file size limit of 20 MB.

When adding attachments to ticket public replies and internal notes, there is a file size limit of 20 MB. The following file attachment types will be blocked for security reasons:

.ade, .adp, .apk, .appx, .appxbundle, .bat, .cab, .chm, .cmd, .com, .cpl, .diagcab, .diagcfg, .diagpack, .dll, .dmg, .ex, .ex_, .exe, .hta, .img, .ins, .iso, .isp, .jar, .jnlp, .js,

 .jse, .lib, .lnk, .mde, .msc, .msi, .msix, .msixbundle, .msp, .mst, .nsh, .pif, .ps1, .scr, .sct, .shb, .sys, .vb, .vbe, .vbs, .vhd, .vxd, .wsc, .wsf, .wsh, .xll 

Uploading files with blocked extensions will not be possible in the following circumstances:

  • Creating or editing a ticket macro  
  • Editing an internal note 
  • Bulk applying a macro
  • Public Reply: Utilized when a Customer Support Agent communicates with the customer. Public replies can be converted to internal notes by utilizing the three dot menu for the reply (this option is not displayed to customers). 

  • Internal Notes: Utilized to discuss the ticket with fellow Customer Support Agents or to leave notes pertaining to future work to be performed on the ticket. 

Underneath the text box are four tabs. Each tab displays the number of events within each tab. The number of events in the All Notes tab is equal to the sum of the Public and Private tabs.

  • All Notes: All public and internal notes are listed here.
  • Public: Only public replies between agents and contacts are listed here.
  • Private: Only internal communications between agents are listed here.
  • Audit Log: All updates made by agents and by the system are listed here and visible to all users. This tab is available and visible to admin as well as non-admin Service users within the service ticket interface. 
    • The Audit Log tab will showcase system events (identified by a gear icon) and user events (indicated by a user's avatar). It encompasses the recording of Ticket SLA reminder email notifications, SLA violations, and SLA escalation emails.

    • Any addition, editing, or deletion of a Public Reply or Internal Note within a service ticket is meticulously documented in the audit log. Conversions, such as turning a public reply into an internal note or vice versa, are also tracked and displayed in the audit log as 'User X converted a public reply to an internal note via Service App or Web Portal,' depending on the origin of the changes.

    • In instances where a user triggers an event through API or AppConnect, the audit log entry captures the user responsible for the modification and specifies the type of execution. For instance: 'John Smith edited this ticket via API.'

5

The ticket sidebar provides Customer Support Agents tools to assist in serving the customer: 

  • Insert Macro: Some tickets can quickly be solved by inserting a macro response; this is typically used for common issues. This tool allows for the insertion of personal or shared macros. 

  • Insert Knowledge Article: This tool allows agents to search for a knowledge article, then add a link to the article into a ticket. 

  • Ticket History for Contact: Displays previous tickets for the contact with the most current ticket displayed at the top of the list. Each ticket listed includes the subject, the date and time the ticket was created, and the number of comments (both internal and external). 

  • Ticket History for Organization: Displays previous tickets for contacts in the same organization, with the most current ticket displayed at the top of the list. Each ticket listed includes the subject, the date and time the ticket was created, and the number of comments (both internal and external).

  • Attachments in Ticket: This tool displays all file attachments that have been added to the ticket with the newest attachment at the top of the list and oldest at the bottom of the list. This tool provides a search bar to quickly find a specific file name and files can also be downloaded through this tool.

  • Tasks for this Ticket: Displays each task associated with the currently open ticket, with the most current task displayed at the top of the list. Each task will display the task name, date due, responsible user, task owner, task status, and task progress percent.

This sidebar does not display when viewing a ticket via:

  • Insightly CRM Related tab for contacts, organizations, opportunities, or tasks

  • Insightly Marketing Related tab for prospects. 


Creating Tickets

Customer Ticket Creation

Customers can submit tickets via the Public Portal Website which is setup by System Administrators via System Settings. Customers do not need to have an account to submit a ticket although with an account, customers have access to all of their previous ticket history, as well as any tickets they currently have open.

Limitations

When submitting a ticket, the following file attachment types will be blocked for security reasons:

.ade, .adp, .apk, .appx, .appxbundle, .bat, .cab, .chm, .cmd, .com, .cpl, .diagcab, .diagcfg, .diagpack, .dll, .dmg, .ex, .ex_, .exe, .hta, .img, .ins, .iso, .isp, .jar, .jnlp, .js, .jse, .lib, .lnk, .mde, .msc, .msi, .msix, .msixbundle, .msp, .mst, .nsh, .pif, .ps1, .scr, .sct, .shb, .sys, .vb, .vbe, .vbs, .vhd, .vxd, .wsc, .wsf, .wsh, .xll

When the ticket is received in Service, the following notice will appear:

Note: Email Attachments with illegal extensions were discarded from this email message.

How to Create a Ticket Through the Public Portal Website

  1. Within the Public Portal Website, customers will need to navigate to the tickets page which can be reach by clicking the Tickets tab (per the default public portal homepage). For customers with an account, filtering and sorting of tickets can be applied: 
    • Filtering: Customers can filter their view for all tickets, open & pending tickets, and solved & closed tickets. 
    • Sorting: Customers can sort through their submitted tickets by status, date created, and last activity. 
  2. To submit a ticket, click New Ticket.
    1. Customers will input an email address and a subject for the ticket. For customers who have an account, their account email address will auto populate in the Email Address field. 
    2. The Details section of the ticket submission form should contain the details of the issue being submitted; customers should provide as much relevant information as they can in order to assist the Customer Support Agents in solving the ticket efficiently. 
    3. Once all issue details have been entered, click Submit to complete the ticket submission process. 

Ticket Creation on Behalf of a Customer

  1. Within Insightly Service, Customer Service Agents can navigate to the Tickets object and click New Ticket in the upper right corner.
    1. Via the Add New Ticket popup, search for and select the contact the ticket is for and then apply the ticket details and an in depth description of the issue. 
    2. Once the ticket details have been entered, click Save. The new ticket record will open and the agent can create their response to the customer as applicable. Once a response is complete, Submit as Pending can be clicked or a different status can be chosen from the drop-down.

Ticket Creation through a Contact Record

  1. Within Insightly CRM or Insightly Service, navigate to the Contacts object. Select a contact record.
  2. Click the Related tab. Click the Add Ticket button located on the right-hand side of the Tickets related grid. This button will only appear for users with create permissions for tickets.
  3. A new ticket modal will appear. Enter the ticket’s details and an in depth description of the issue. 
  4. Once the ticket details have been entered, click Save. The new ticket will be automatically populated with the contact and primary organization fields pulled from the contact record. 
    1. The ticket record will open and the agent can create their response to the customer as applicable. Once a response is complete, Submit as Pending can be clicked or a different status can be chosen from the drop-down.

Updating Ticket Form Fields

Insightly Service admins can add, remove, and reconfigure the fields that will appear on the ticket submission form. Any ticket custom fields can be added and the Priority standard field can be added to the form. If a custom field is deleted, that field will automatically be removed from all ticket forms it appears in.

The following fields cannot be removed from the field and are required for successful ticket submissions:

  • Email Address
  • Subject
  • Details

If a field is dependent on another field, both fields must be present on the form, with identical validation as the page layout field dependency validation. The portal settings page cannot be saved if the dependent fields are not present.

If validation rules are in place for a field, that rule will also apply within the ticket form and if the rule is violated, an error will appear.

Dynamic layout rules, however, do not apply to the ticket form.

How to Update Ticket Form Fields

  1. Go to System Settings > Portals. Select a portal.
  2. Scroll to toward the bottom of the Portal Settings page and locate the New Ticket Form section.
  3. There are two columns present: Available Ticket Fields and Ticket Fields on Form. To add fields to the form, select a field from the Available Ticket Fields column and click the left arrow (>) to add it to the Ticket Fields on Form column.
  4. To remove fields from the form, select a field from the Ticket Fields on Form column and click the right arrow (<).
  5. To change the order of the fields on the form, select a field in the Ticket Fields on Form column and use the up arrow (^) or down arrow (v) to change its position in the list.
  6. Click Save Portal Settings.

Managing Tickets

Multiple actions are available to assist with the management of tickets. When viewing a ticket record, the Actions button in the upper right can be clicked to display the following actions that can be taken against the specific ticket record being viewed:

ActionInformation
Edit This TicketThis action allows for edits to be made to ticket details and fields.  
Move Ticket to SpamThis action will move the ticket to the Spam queue. Once a ticket has been marked as spam, it can be removed from the Spam queue by changing the record owner of the ticket.
Delete TicketThis action will delete the ticket after confirmation is received via the Delete Ticket popup.
Change Record OwnerThis action allows for the selection of a different queue or user to assign the ticket record to.
Merge Into Another Ticket

If two tickets regarding the same issue from the same customer are received, they can be merged into one ticket by using this action. When merging tickets, users will need to notate the record number of the ticket they are merging into. Merges are permanent and can't be undone: 

  1. In the ticket record of the ticket that will be merged, select Merge Into Another Ticket from the Actions dropdown. 
  2. Enter the ticket number that you want to merge into and click Merge Ticket
    1. Within All Notes or Private Notes, the user that merged the ticket and the ticket number are recorded. The ticket number will be hyperlinked to the closed ticket (the ticket that was merged). 

Notes About Merging:

  • The tickets cannot have a status of Solved or Closed. However, an unsolved ticket can be merged into a solved ticket - this will not reopen the solved ticket.
  • Agents can merge two tickets with different requesters. The requester of the ticket that closes with the merge will be added as a CC to the new ticket. If anyone was CC'd on an original ticket, they are also added as a CC on the merged ticket.
  • The most recent public note from the ticket being merged will appear in the new ticket's notes. No other notes will appear in the new ticket.
  • When merging one ticket into another, the original ticket is not deleted, it is marked as Closed.

Add New Task for TicketCustomer Support Agents with both an Insightly Service and Insightly CRM subscription can utilize this action to create tasks from the ticket record.
Add Personal Macro from Ticket 

Selecting this action will take users to User Settings > Personal Macros where a personal macro can be added; the Priority, Owner, Tags, and Ticket Type will pre-populate from the ticket field values although these values can be edited and additional fields can be added. If the last comment (public or internal) on the ticket was added by the user/System Administrator creating the macro, the comment will also pre-populate.

  • Personal macros can be created by both users and System Administrators. 
Add Shared Macro from Ticket

Selecting this action will take users to System Settings > Shared Macros where a shared macro can be added; the Priority, Owner, Tags, and Ticket Type will pre-populate from the ticket field values although these values can be edited and additional fields can be added. If the last comment (public or internal) on the ticket was added by the System Administrator creating the macro, the comment will also pre-populate .

  • Shared macros can only be created by System Administrators.
Add New Ticket for Contact Selecting this action will display the Add New Ticket popup and the Contact field for the new ticket will automatically be pre-populated as the same contact as the original ticket being viewed.


Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSAT)

A customer satisfaction survey, also known as a CSAT, is an email survey that is typically sent after a ticket has been closed or solved. These surveys gauge how satisfied the customer is with the support they received from your agents and are typically presented as a yes or no question or a thumbs up or thumbs down.

CSAT results can help managers understand how effective their agents are. Positive CSAT results can be a cause for praise and can be used to discover what kind of behavior other agents should try to emulate. Negative CSAT scores can be disappointing but can be used to determine what gaps there may be in the service being provided.

Once the contact has clicked the rating they’ve chosen, Good, I’m Satisfied or Bad, I’m Unsatisfied, they will be allowed to leave a comment if they wish to. Once finished, they will be redirected to a thank you page. Users can review the Ticket CSAT Report for an overview of their CSAT responses.

CSAT Score will also be available under custom list view filters for Tickets under a new section Ticket CSAT. Users can choose CSAT Score of “Good” and “Bad” via dropdown field. CSAT Score can be added as a filter field and can also be displayed as a column in list views. CSAT Comment will also be available as a column in ticket custom list views. 

Limits
  • Administrators on Professional and Enterprise plans can create an unlimited number of CSATs, while administrators on Plus plans will not have access to any CSATs. 

  • The default CSAT cannot be deleted. 

  • Each CSAT can only receive one response. If a Contact has already provided a CSAT rating for a ticket and they click the rating link within the email, they will be redirected to the CSAT thank you page.

How to Create a CSAT

  1. Go to System Settings > CSAT Surveys.
  2. Click Add Survey. 
  3. Enter the Survey Name. Click Save.
  4. The first section is Customer Satisfaction Survey Details, which contains the Survey Name and the Active checkbox. Click the Edit button to update these fields.
  5. The next section is Edit Criteria. By default, there are two sets of evaluation criteria that cannot be removed:
    1. Status equals Solved or Status equals Closed.
    2. Hours since Solved (or Closed) equals [Numeric value set by user].
      1. By default, the numeric value is 24.
  6. To add more criteria, click Add a Filter Row.
  7. Click Add Filter Logic to govern how and when filters should be applied to the CSAT.
  8. Click Save Criteria.
  9. The final section is the Customer Satisfaction Survey Email. Select a language from the dropdown. Additional languages can be added by Enterprise customers in System Settings > Languages.
    1. Enter a Subject Line for your survey email.
    2. Use the text box to craft the survey email. The default text can be updated to better match your brand, but there are several merge fields included that we recommend you include in your email.
      1. {{ticket.contact.first_name}}
      2. {{ticket.agent.first_name}}
      3. {{ticket.subject}}
      4. {{ticket.portal_name}}
      5. {{CSAT.rating_section}}
        • The {{CSAT.rating_section}} field should never be removed, as that is the field used to collect CSAT results from the Contact it has been emailed to.
    3. Click the Insert Field button to add additional merge fields.
    4. By default, the Unpublish all other translations of this template checkbox is checked. Uncheck this box if desired.
    5. Click Restore to Default if you wish to restore the template’s default text.
  10. Click Save Template.

To edit an existing survey, click the 3-dot menu and select Edit This Survey. To delete an existing survey, click the 3-dot menu and select Delete This Survey.

Bounce Errors

If a ticket comment fails to be delivered, Insightly will display an error describing why the bounce occurred. When you receive a bounce notification with a bounce type of Transient, you might be able to send email to that recipient in the future if the issue that caused the message to bounce is resolved.

When you receive a bounce notification with a bounce type of Permanent, it's unlikely that you'll be able to send email to that recipient in the future. We recommend  immediately removing the recipient whose address produced the bounce from your mailing lists.

Bounce TypeBounce Sub TypeDescription
UndeterminedUndeterminedThe recipient's email provider sent a bounce message. The bounce message didn't contain enough information for Insightly to determine the reason for the bounce. The bounce email, which was sent to the address in the Return-Path header of the email that resulted in the bounce, might contain additional information about the issue that caused the email to bounce.
PermanentGeneral

The recipient's email provider sent a hard bounce message, but didn't specify the reason for the hard bounce.

Important

When you receive this type of bounce notification, you should immediately remove the recipient's email address from your mailing list. Sending messages to addresses that produce hard bounces can have a negative impact on your reputation as a sender. If you continue sending email to addresses that produce hard bounces, we might pause your ability to send additional email.

PermanentNoEmail

The intended recipient's email provider sent a bounce message indicating that the email address doesn't exist.

Important

When you receive this type of bounce notification, you should immediately remove the recipient's email address from your mailing list. Sending messages to addresses that don't exist can have a negative impact on your reputation as a sender. If you continue sending email to addresses that don't exist, we might pause your ability to send additional email.

PermanentSuppressedThe recipient's email address is on the Amazon SES suppression list because it has a recent history of producing hard bounces.
PermanentOnAccountSuppressionListInsightly has suppressed sending to this address because it is on the account-level suppression list.
TransientGeneral

The recipient's email provider sent a general bounce message. You might be able to send a message to the same recipient in the future if the issue that caused the message to bounce is resolved.

Note

If you send an email to a recipient who has an active automatic response rule (such as an "out of the office" message), you might receive this type of notification. Even though the response has a notification type of Bounce, Insightly doesn't count automatic responses when it calculates the bounce rate for your account.

TransientMailboxFullThe recipient's email provider sent a bounce message because the recipient's inbox was full. You might be able to send to the same recipient in the future when the mailbox is no longer full.
TransientMessageTooLargeThe recipient's email provider sent a bounce message because message you sent was too large. You might be able to send a message to the same recipient if you reduce the size of the message.
TransientContentRejectedThe recipient's email provider sent a bounce message because the message you sent contains content that the provider doesn't allow. You might be able to send a message to the same recipient if you change the content of the message.
TransientAttachmentRejectedThe recipient's email provider sent a bounce message because the message contained an unacceptable attachment. For example, some email providers may reject messages with attachments of a certain file type, or messages with very large attachments. You might be able to send a message to the same recipient if you remove or change the content of the attachment.
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