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.

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:

Status	SLA Functionality
New	SLA 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.
Open	SLA 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 Hold	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.
Pending	SLA 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.
Solved	No SLA will be applied to the ticket.
Closed	No 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.

Ticket stage	Field Functionality
Ticket is Opened	The SLA Time Remaining countdown will begin based on the assigned SLA policy and display the time remaining to assign an agent.
Ticket is Assigned	The SLA Time Remaining countdown will recalibrate based on the assigned SLA policy and display the countdown for the first reply time.
First Reply	Once 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:

Section	Information
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. 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: 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. 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. The Audit Log tab within in this section will display system events (identified by a gear icon) as well as user events (identified by a user’s avatar). Ticket SLA reminder email notifications, SLA violations, and SLA escalation emails will be recorded here.
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). 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. 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.

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.
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

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

Within Insightly CRM or Insightly Service, navigate to the Contacts object. Select a contact record.
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.
A new ticket modal will appear. Enter the ticket’s details and an in depth description of the issue.
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

Go to System Settings > Portals. Select a portal.
Scroll to toward the bottom of the Portal Settings page and locate the New Ticket Form section.
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.
To remove fields from the form, select a field from the Ticket Fields on Form column and click the right arrow (<).
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.
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:

Action	Information
Edit This Ticket	This action allows for edits to be made to ticket details and fields.
Move Ticket to Spam	This 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 Ticket	This action will delete the ticket after confirmation is received via the Delete Ticket popup.
Change Record Owner	This 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: In the ticket record of the ticket that will be merged, select Merge Into Another Ticket from the Actions dropdown. Enter the ticket number that you want to merge into and click Merge Ticket. 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 Ticket	Customer 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.

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