Side Conversation Limitations

Overview of your product feature request or feedback and note who in your org is affected by this issue [ex. agents, admins, customers, etc.].

• Side Conversations are a fundamental function among our teams. We all use Side Conversations to communicate to third parties (email) and among teams (child tickets) every day and almost on every ticket (we get 9000+tickets a day)
• Unfortunately, there are more limitations we are experiencing by continuing to use Side Conversations which: slows down our team (time equals money), causes lost communication (possible legal complications), frustration, lost visibility, reduced faith in processes, reduced reliability, and not a good user experience

Integral core functions that are missing:

1. Change in Assignee/Updater: If you are not part of the child ticket (didn't initiate it) and you do not have access to the group it was started with, you CANNOT continue the conversation. Someone needs to add you to the Child ticket as a CC/Follower (easier said than done as you cannot see the ticket ID that you need to be added to) - FIXED
2. Visibility: If you are not part of the Child ticket, you cannot see the Status of the child ticket, the Group it is assigned to, or the Ticket ID that is created. Which means that you can't tell when you don't have access to the child ticket vs. when the Child ticket is Closed
3. Private Group Child ticket: There was recently a launch for Private groups which restricts access to Private Groups even if you submitted the request. This also applies to Child tickets. Which means even the requester CANNOT update their own Child ticket that they created

4. Parent ticket follow-up: When a child ticket closes, you cannot update the Child ticket anymore (this is new functionality) to help ensure conversations were not lost as there were no follow ups being created for child tickets. However, this does not apply when the PARENT ticket closes. As such, a child ticket can respond to the parent ticket, but it does not provide any update on the parent ticket. And there is no indication on the child ticket that the conversation is closed (you can click on link but only if you have access to ticket). And there is no follow up ticket created for the parent ticket either

    

Feature requests:

These suggestions are to just bring Side Conversations up to par with regular ticket interactions.

1. Grids/tables: Ability to use grids/tables within Side Conversations. We have macros that use templates to be filled in for teams, but it cannot be copied, pasted or added via macro.
2. Text editing capabilities: Additional text editing capabilities (colors, formatting, etc.). Same as the current ticket text editor
3. Print/export Side Conversations: Ability to print/export Side Conversations. Right now, there are no solutions for being able to export a Side Conversation and our teams need to sometimes be able to include a conversation in another ticket as an attachment.
4. Amount of Child tickets: There is a limit of 50 child tickets in one ticket. This prevents the use of certain workflows (communication to agents, bulk notifications, etc.)
5. Signature formatting/Simplified threading: There can be a rather lengthy thread and repeat signatures/previous replies all extend the conversation. Tickets can have a minimize option so it would be nice to include that for Side Conversations to make them easier to read.
6. Internal notes: Side Conversations can get long so you end up needing to read the entire conversation over again (imagine having 5 SC to read and the ticket exchanging assignees).
7. Conversation order: With layout builder we can change the order of the ticket but it does not reflect on Side Conversation

What problem do you see this solving?

Core functionality: Right now, it is the expectation that when you talk with other teams, they always get your messages, and that assignee can handle a ticket to 100% of their ability without loss of access. This is not the case so when it happens, it causes backlogs, support tickets, investigations, informing, training, meetings, new workflows, etc. Side Conversations should make our lives easier and not harder.

New features: These would bring Side Conversations back up to being on par with ticket functionality (they aren't new features but new to Side Conversations).

Goal: A seamless conversation among groups where access and functionality are not lost

When was the last time you were affected by this lack of functionality, or specific tool? What happened? How often does this problem occur and how does this impact your business?

I get questions daily about side Conversations and the missing functionality or the behavior limitation.

Impact:

1. Change in Assignee/Updater: I currently have 5 tickets about that as the original assignee went on vacation and handed over tickets to other team members. They are unable to update the Child tickets that were started by the original Assignee. I had to create an article, create a reminder communication among the team (not the first time), provide training, add the new assignees as followers, inform managers, etc.- FIXED
2. Visibility: I get at least one ticket a day asking why they can't update a Child ticket, only to find out the ticket is Closed (even if it wasn't, they couldn't update it due to the access limitation).
3. Private Group Child ticket: We got about 12 tickets when this first rolled out due to the limitation that even requesters could not update their Child tickets for a private group (we only have 3 private groups but are wanting to add more). This resulted in an escalation, a Zendesk ticket for investigation, a review of Private groups and Roles.
4. Parent ticket follow-up: There is a ticket for this a week regarding why a response from a child ticket did not inform the assignee of the parent ticket. A ZD ticket was created for investigation, a review of workflows.

Are you currently using a workaround to solve this problem? 

Core Features:

1. Change in Assignee/Updater: You have to submit a ticket to IT and then they will add the new Assignee to the Child ticket as a CC/follower to allow them access (this has to be done every time the Assignee changes).
2. Visibility: We had to create a webhook that will add the ticket ID and group it is assigned to as a public comment, so it shows on the Parent ticket for visibility. We are going to need to create another for when status changed to Closed.
3. Private Group Child ticket: We had to request to be excluded from this feature update as you cannot reverse a Group from being a Private group and we did not want to grant all ticket access or group access.
4. Parent ticket follow-up: we are looking into a workflow that will close the child ticket when the parent ticket closes.

Feature requests:

1. Grids/tables: The team applies a macro to an internal note with the template, the agent fills in the details and then submits the comment. Then they use another macro to start the Child ticket and they chose the function of copy comments from the parent ticket so it can be included (better hope there are no typos).
2. Text editing capabilities: None
3. Print/export Side Conversations: None - we can use API, but this is not widely known or used as it is not typical Agent functionality, only admins.
4. Amount of Child tickets: A new ticket needs to be created to complete the tasks.
5. Signature formatting/Simplified threading: None
6. Internal note: To summarize a side conversation, you can add an internal note within the parent ticket but it gets very messy very fast if you have more than one ongoing SC.
7. Conversation order: None

What would be your ideal solution to this problem? How would it work or function? 

Core Features:

1. Change in Assignee/Updater: If you have access to the parent ticket, you should be able to access and edit the Child ticket.
2. Visibility: No matter the access of the Agent, they should be able to tell who the Child ticket was created for (Group), the Ticket ID, and the status of the Child ticket
3. Private Group Child ticket: It should not matter if it be a Private or a Public Child ticket, it should still be able to be updated if you are accessing it from within a parent ticket.
4. Parent ticket follow-up: Either the parent ticket needs a follow up ticket created for when an update is made from child ticket, or the child ticket needs to close so it can't be edited (it would then mirror the functionality of when a child ticket closes).

Feature requests:

1. Grids/tables: A grid/table can be pasted/created/edited within a new side conversation (any type of Side Conversation)
2. Text editing capabilities: Text editor toolbar that is present in tickets is visible and usable within Side Conversations
3. Print/export Side Conversations: You can choose to export or print the entire Side Conversation (any type of Side Conversation) 
4. Amount of Child tickets: The removal of the limit for how many Side Conversations can be created.
5. Signature formatting/Simplified threading: Just like in current ticket functionality, Agent signatures are added on the backend (tickets add them via triggers), there is simplified threading to reduce the amount of duplicate text shown.
6. Internal note: It functions same as in tickets so you can add an internal note within any of the Side Conversations started (a summary, next steps, etc) so that it is easy for the next Agent to pick up (or help refresh yourself on what to do next).
7. Conversation order: Have layout builder impact comment order in Side Conversations to keep the behavior universal

Related feedback posts (thank you everyone!)

Ability to update child ticket if you have access to parent ticket

Tables/Grids

Print Side Conversations

Exporting Side Conversations

Side Conversation 50 limit

Side Conversation signature formatting