Ticket Management
Page Status: in Beta (Work in Progress)
Scope
This document covers new concepts and features regarding Ticket Management introduced with the release of CommitCRM version 5.3. The main features are new features include new Ticket navigation, new Ticket Inbox view and enhanced email correspondence management.
Other Ticket references: Ticket Workflow
Introduction
Tickets in CommitCRM provide a comprehensive ticketing system to help you record all the information for a call including status, priority, and nature of the issue, and track time-to-resolution.
Each ticket can support multiple activities for ongoing projects and complex service tickets, as well as access contract/billing information to determine required charging information.
Tickets are the communication point with your customers. This means customers can access Ticket information via Commit Web Interface, or communicate about a specific Ticket using email. All email communication can be logged in the Ticket level. See more details under Email Correspondence.
Ticket Information
Each Ticket in CommitCRM holds information which is relevant for the service call. It keeps information such as the Ticket description, status, due date and more. This information is displayed in the Ticket's General tab and Details tab.
In addition to the general Ticket data, each Ticket can store related information to provide quick access to all data linked to this Ticket.
The Ticket data linked to the Ticket includes:
- Account – The Account which is linked to this Ticket.
- Asset – The Asset which is linked to this Ticket.
- Contract – The Service Contract under which the Ticket was created, and for which the Charges will be billed to.
- Tasks – Pending Tasks for this Ticket (under the Pending tab).
- Appointments – Pending Appointments for this Ticket (under the Pending tab).
- Charges – Charges logged for this Ticket for work, expenses and parts.
- Messages – Internal CommitCRM messages between employees, linked to this Ticket.
- Email Correspondence – All email communication performed for this Ticket (see more details in Email Correspondence).
- Documents – Files linked to this Ticket.
- History – All of the activity performed for the Ticket – updates audit, done appointments and tasks, history notes, emails, documents, etc.
Each Tab shows relevant linked information, and most data can be accessed directly from the Ticket by right-clicking the relevant object or simply double-clicking it.
Ticket Window
The main Ticket window displays tickets by Status. To view all Tickets with a specific Status, simply click the relevant Status in the left pane. There are also other views available, such as Inbox or Dispatcher (see more details under Inbox and Dispatcher). Using these views will show the relevant Tickets, regardless of their Status.
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Tickets are displayed in the Ticket Navigation Pane view, allowing easy filtering by status and by employee.
The Ticket Navigation Pane provides the following views:
- Inbox - The Inbox view shows all tickets which are in your Inbox, meaning they have been updated by a customer. Customer updates can happen via the Customer Web Interface or when a new email arrives for this Ticket from a Customer or from an external application (via CommitCRM API). Tickets can also be added to the Inbox manually, using the Move To Inbox option when right-clicking a Ticket. See more details under Inbox.
- Dispatcher - The Dispatcher view shows all Tickets waiting to be dispatched to technicians. The same list is displayed when viewing the main Dispatcher window. See more details in Dispatching Tickets.
- All - This view shows all tickets, with all statuses, open and closed.
- Open (by status) - The main Open view shows all open tickets, i.e. tickets which have a Status which is considered to be "open" (such as New, Scheduled, etc.). Clicking any of the statuses below it will show only tickets with this status.
- Closed (by status)- The main Closed view shows all closed tickets (i.e. Canceled or Completed). Clicking any of the statuses below it will show only tickets with this status.
Ticket Manager Filter
Users who are privileged to view other users' tickets have the option to filter tickets by the Employee managing these Tickets. The Employee managing a Ticket can be seen in the Ticket's Manager field in the General tab.
The Employee filter appears at the bottom of the tree. This filter shows only tickets managed by the selected Employee. The Employee filter works on top of the status filter.
Possible options are:
- Me - show only tickets managed by the current logged-in user.
- All - show all tickets.
- Choose specific employees
Dispatcher
The Dispatcher view within the Ticket window shows the list of Tickets which are pending dispatch. Tickets can be marked for dispatching using the "Waiting for Dispatching" flag in the Ticket details. Tickets can be easily removed from the Dispatch board by clicking the "Dispatch" column on the left.
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The Dispatcher view within the main Ticket Tree provides a quick glance at the pending for dispatch Tickets. In order to actually dispatch the Ticket to technicians, use the main Dispatcher window via the applications navigation pane, which lets you appoint the relevant technicians to this Ticket. See more details in Dispatching Tickets.
Inbox
The Inbox view in the Ticket window shows all tickets which are in the Inbox, meaning they have been created or modified by a customer or by a third-party application. Tickets can also be moved to the Inbox manually when needed, to allow better tracking of those specific Tickets.
Ticket updates can be performed by:
- Customers via the [Web Interface|Customer Web Interface]].
- Customers sending emails via [Email Connector|Commit Email Connector]].
- Third-party applications updating or creating Tickets using CommitCRM API. This can be done via Commit Email Connector (API by Email) or directly via the database (using the Programming API). See more details in the CommitCRM API User Guide.
All updates which cause the ticket to appear in the Inbox are documented in the Ticket's History tab.
The Inbox is global, meaning all users see the same Inbox and any changes made by one user will affect all users. For example, if a user removes a Ticket from the Inbox, it will be removed for all users viewing the Inbox.
Ticket Updates
Ticket updates which trigger the Ticket to appear in the Inbox includes:
- New Tickets
- Web Interface: Customer adds new tickets via the Web Interface.
- Email-to-Ticket: Customer sends emails which create new tickets by Commit Email Connector.
- CommitCRM API: Third-party program creates Ticket via the API
- Ticket Updates
- Web Interface: Customer updates ticket details or adding history notes via Commit Web Interface.
- CommitCRM API: Third-party program updates Ticket via the API
- Email-to-Ticket: Customer replies on emails concerning existing tickets.
Read/Unread indications
To see which Ticket updates were already read/unread, two indications are used:
- Open/Closed envelope
- Bold indication (for the current logged-in user)
Both Indications appear in all Ticket views, not only in the Inbox view; however, the indications appear only for Tickets which have been updated by an external party (i.e. customer, using the CommitCRM API). Tickets which are created manually by employees will not display these indications by default. In case a customer updates such a Ticket, or if a user explicitly marks a Ticket as Unread, then these indications will take place.
Envelope Indication
In addition to the bold indication which is personal, the Ticket List also shows a global envelope indication next to the Ticket Manager name. The envelope shows whether this customer update was viewed by the Ticket Manager already. The envelope indication appears next to the Ticket Manager in the list and visible to anyone who is privileged to see those Tickets.
The envelope icon varies between a closed envelope (not read) and an open one (read). The system will display a slightly different icon for the currently logged-in user's Tickets, and for other users' Tickets. This way, each user can tell which Tickets have pending updates which were not viewed by the Ticket Manager yet, even if the Ticket is not assigned to them.
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Bold Indication
For new updates in the Inbox, the Ticket Manager column in the Tickets list appears in bold until the Ticket is marked as "read". The bold indication is personal and appears only when logged in as the Ticket Manager for this Ticket.
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Marking Tickets as Read
The Ticket Manager must go through the new items in order to remove the bold indication. This can be done either by viewing the Ticket for a few seconds, or by explicitly marking the Ticket as "read" using right-click > Mark as Read.
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Marking the Tickets as read is a personal option which can be performed only by the Ticket Manager. Note that privileged users can mark Tickets which are managed by other users as read (see Ticket Options).
Adding Tickets to the Inbox
Updates performed by Customers trigger the Ticket to automatically appear in the Inbox. Tickets are automatically added to the Inbox in the following cases:
- Customer adds a new Ticket via Commit Web Interface.
- Customer updates an existing Ticket via Commit Web Interface.
- Customer adds a History Note to a Ticket via Commit Web Interface.
- Customer replies by email to a Ticket via Commit Email Connector.
- Ticket is added or updated via CommitCRM API (i.e. by a third-party program).
Tickets can also be moved to the Inbox manually. This can be done by right-clicking the Ticket and choosing "Move to Inbox". This can be useful in order to draw attention to a Ticket which requires handling by the Ticket Manager.
Removing Tickets from the Inbox
Tickets can be removed from the Inbox manually in two ways:
- Right-click the Ticket and choosing the Remove From Inbox” option.
- Drag a Ticket from the Inbox to any other status in the Ticket tree view. This will automatically change the Ticket status and remove it from the Inbox.
Removing a Ticket from the Inbox will take affect for all users.
Ticket History
Working with tickets in CommitCRM provides a great way to track all activity for a Ticket in a single point. The Ticket gets updated all the time, by Employees (technicians) or by Customers, and this activity is automatically logged under the Ticket History tab.
Ticket updates can be performed via various channels:
- Customer:
- Updates Ticket details or adds History Notes via Commit Web Interface.
- Sends email regarding the Ticket using Commit Email Connector.
- Employee:
- Updates the Ticket via the CommitCRM client application or Commit Web Interface.
- Sends email regarding the Ticket.
- Third-party Application:
- External third-party application can use CommitCRM API to update the Ticket.
Ticket updates may include:
- Ticket details update (priority, status, etc.)
- New History Notes regarding Ticket
- Email correspondence added to the Ticket
- Done Appointments or Tasks updates
- New Charges, Documents, Messages added to the Ticket
All Ticket updates and email correspondence sent via CommitCRM application is automatically logged in the Ticket History and can be viewed via the client application or the Web Interface.
When using Commit Email Connector, all emails coming from customers are logged in the Ticket History and also trigger the Ticket to appear in the Inbox.
See more details under Email Correspondence.
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Email Correspondence
Email correspondence can be managed via the CommitCRM application in two levels:
- Tracking email history regarding a Ticket.
- Managing Ticket Recipients, i.e. defining who should receive a copy of emails being sent regarding a Ticket.
Email Correspondence can be managed in CommitCRM in two possible ways: Basic and Advanced.
Basic Email Correspondence
- The Basic option tracks outgoing emails sent via CommitCRM.
- When sending an email from CommitCRM, the Ticket Recipients are automatically copied to the email recipients.
- Emails are logged as Commit Documents in the Ticket History, and can be viewed by double-clicking the document.
Advanced Email Correspondence
- The Advanced option works with Commit Email Connector.
- Tracks both incoming and outgoing emails automatically.
- When sending an email from CommitCRM, Commit Email Connector's email address(*) is used as email recipient.
- Commit Email Connector distributes emails to the Ticket Recipients.
- Emails are logged as Email Messages in the Ticket History and can be viewed in the history pane directly.
- Employees can reply on emails directly from the Ticket History's Email Message
(*) For explanation regarding Commit Email Connector terminology see Commit Email Connector user guide.
The table below compares email correspondence tracking capabilities in both modes.
Email Correspondence Features
| Feature | Basic | Advanced |
|---|---|---|
| Send Email from CommitCRM | The Recipients defined for the Ticket are automatically copied to the email. | The Support Public Email Address of Commit Email Connector is automatically copied to the email To: address. Only Commit Email Connector distributes it to the Recipients defined for the Ticket. |
| Click Reply Email in CommitCRM | N/A | Employees can reply on emails directly from the Ticket History's Email Message. Reply is send to Commit Email Connector, which distributes it to the Recipients defined for the Ticket. |
| Handle Incoming emails | N/A | Incoming emails (from customers or employees) arrive at Commit Email Connector which:
|
| Send emails via any email application | N/A | Employees can send emails from anywhere to Commit Email Connector which:
|
| View email correspondence in Ticket History | Only outgoing Emails are logged in the Ticket history as Commit Documents. Email text can be viewed by double-clicking the Document. | Incoming and Outgoing emails are logged by Commit Email Connector as an Email Message in the Ticket History. Email Text is displayed in the History pane directly. |
Benefits in the Advanced mode:
- Easier history view: The email text itself appears in the History tab, providing a quick review of all email correspondence.
- Incoming and Outgoing email in History: Provides a complete view of all correspondence for the Ticket.
- Emails can be sent from anywhere via Commit Email Connector: Technicians can reply on emails regarding Tickets from any email application, by sending it through Commit Email Connector. This way the reply will be automatically logged in the Ticket history and will reach all External Recipients and Employee Recipients.
- Internal Email Distribution: Emails coming from Employees or Customers are distributed to all Employee Recipients defined for the Ticket, providing better control over the activity in the Ticket. This also provides quick and efficient distribution of service related information to all employees involved in a Ticket.
For mode information regarding the advanced email correspondence, see Email Distribution via Commit Email Connector.
In both cases, the Recipients defined for the Ticket are used in order to send the email to the relevant people. See more details under Ticket Recipients.
Email Distribution via Commit Email Connector
When using Commit Email Connector, all email distribution goes through Commit Email Connector. This means that all emails (incoming and outgoing) are sent to the Support Public Email Address rather than sending the email directly to the recipients. The email is then processed by Commit Email Connector, distributed to the Recipients defined for the Ticket, and logged in the Ticket history automatically.
For user not familiar with Commit Email Connector terminology, it is recommended to read Commit Email Connector user guide for better understanding of this section.
The following chart demonstrates the workflow when using Commit Email Connector:
How does it work?
- When a Customer sends an email relating a specific Ticket, Commit Email Connector processes the email and creates a Ticket in the system for new emails. This service is called Email-to-Ticket.
- An automatic email response for new Tickets is sent to the Customer and to relevant Employees; this response contains the Ticket Number in the email subject and the reply-to address points back to Commit Email Connector.
- From this point on – all email correspondence is sent to, and handled by, Commit Email Connector:
- The email is logged under the Ticket history (according to the Ticket Number in the subject).
- The email is distributed to the Recipients defined for the Ticket.
Email Messages View in Ticket History
Email Messages which are automatically logged in the Ticket History show the actual email text in the main history view. The history entry shows an email icon, and the text appears next to it.
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The email icon indicates that this is an actual Email Message (as opposed to an email Document), and the email itself can be opened by clicking Show or by right-clicking the icon itself, and choosing Open Original.
When attachments exist in the original email, the icon will indicate this, and when opening the original email, it will open with the attachments.
Note: Commit Email Connector saves the original emails in a basic email format (.eml), which can be opened via Outlook Express. Eml files are basically not compatible with Outlook®, however, it is possible to override this and allow Outlook to open these files. For more details, see this suggested workaround.
Customer Correspondence
All emails should be sent to customers via Commit Email Connector. This way, the "Reply To" address will go back to Commit Email Connector, which will process all incoming emails from customer. When a customer replies, the system identifies the incoming email as a message regarding an existing Ticket (according to the Ticket Number in the subject), files it under the Ticket history and distributes it internally to the relevant Employee Recipients.
Employee Correspondence
All emails sent by employees are sent via Commit Email Connector, i.e. sent to the Support Public Email Address. The email is then distributed to all Recipients defined for the Ticket and is filed under the Ticket history.
This means that employees can reply to emails from any email application (not via CommitCRM application), sending the email to Commit Email Connector, which then handles the actual distribution to all Ticket Recipients.
This way all of the emails are logged in the Ticket history automatically and customers receive all emails from the Support email address (not the employee's personal addresses).
It actually doesn't matter where the email comes from as long as:
- The email is sent to the Support Public Email Address for Commit Email Connector to process
- The Email Subject contains the Ticket number in a predefined format which is used to identify the email as relating an existing Ticket.
For example, the following email will be filed under Ticket number 0500-1000 and distributed to the recipients defined for this Ticket:
To: Support@yourdomain.com
Subject containing: Ticket [0500-1000]
Important Notes:
- Employee emails arriving at Commit Email Connector are not handled the same way as Customer emails. In order for the system to identify the sender as an Employee, the "from" email address of the email must be unique in the CommitCRM database, i.e. only one Employee can have this email specified in their Employee record. The address is compared to the employee's email address stored in the Employee Account under Email1 or Email2.
- Only active Employees will trigger email distribution by Commit Email Connector.
Avoiding Email Distribution
Employees may wish to send emails which will be logged in the Ticket History without having it distributed to the Ticket Recipients. This can be done by sending the email to Commit Email Connector (i.e. to the Support Public Email Address) using the Cc or Bcc part, and not the "To:" part. Commit Email Connector will then avoid distributing this email, and will only file it under the Ticket's history.
Note that this option is available only for emails arriving from an Employee email address.
Sender Email Address
Since all emails are first sent to Commit Email Connector, which distributes them to all Ticket Recipients, the "From" email address is basically the Public Email Address defined for Commit Email Connector. This means that the customer receiving the email does not see the technician's address, but rather the Public Email Address in the email. This helps to avoid revealing personal employees email addresses, and consolidate communications with a customer which multiple technicians participate in.
To make the emails more personal, the replies sent by Commit Email Connector take the Sender Name from the Employee original Reply (which was sent to Commit Email Connector), so when the customer sees the reply it looks like this:
From: Employee Name <support@yourdomain.com>.
When a Customer replies to these emails, the reply-to address stays the Public Email Address (e.g. support@yourdomain.com), and the emails is then processed by Commit Email Connector.
Employee Recipients vs. Commit Email Alerts
Working with Commit Email Connector and receiving all email communication (as Employee Recipients) does not require using Commit Alerts Server. The emails are distributed to the Employee Recipients regardless of the Commit Alerts Server mechanism.
When using Commit Alerts Server, email alerts are sent to Employees for new updates performed in the database. These emails have a fixed text format containing information regarding the update performed, and details about the object which have been updated. These emails are created automatically by the system.
Unlike Commit Alerts Server, when an email arrives to Commit Email Connector, it is distributed to all subscribed Employees in its original form. This means they get the original email, with its formatting, attachments etc. When an Employee replies to the email, it is automatically sent to Commit Email Connector which distributes it to the relevant Ticket Recipients (employees and customers) according to the Recipient settings in the Ticket.
Ticket Recipients
Each Ticket holds a list of Recipients to define which internal (employees) and external (customers) Recipients should be notified with each email correspondence for the Ticket.
Recipients are managed via the Ticket's Recipients tab, which contains two lists:
- External Recipients:
- A list of email addresses which may belong to existing Accounts in the database or not.
- External Recipients receive outgoing emails sent by technicians regarding this Ticket.
- External Recipients can be defined in the To, Cc or Bcc fields.
- Employee Recipients:
- A List of Employees subscribed to this Ticket, which means they wish to receive any email concerning this Ticket.
- The Employees in the list receive outgoing and incoming emails sent by other employees or by customers.
- Whether the employee appears in the To, Cc or Bcc fields is determined automatically:
- For emails coming from customers, the Ticket Manager appears in the To field. Other employees appear in Cc.
- For email outgoing from employees, all employees in the Employee Recipients list (besides the sender) appear in Bcc.
Adding Recipients
Whenever a new Ticket is created in the system, the Employee Recipients and the External Recipients are automatically initialized with default Recipients for this Ticket. Recipients can then be edited via the Ticket's Email Recipients tab.
- Employee Recipients - Employee Recipients can be added using the Add button, which offers a quick pop-up selection menu of employees. This also offers to add employees by their role in the Ticket (i.e. Ticket Manager and Account Manager).
- External Recipients - External Recipients can be added using the Add button, which offers a quick pop-up selection menu of all contacts for this Account. The quick selection automatically adds the email as a recipient in the "To" field. To add the emails as Cc or Bcc, or to choose another email address, use the "Add" option.
External Recipients can be added by selecting an existing Account or Contact in CommitCRM, or by specifying a specific email address.
Note that after adding recipients, the ticket should be saved in order to apply the changes and for the new recipients to be saved with the Ticket data.
Default External Recipients
When a new Ticket is created, the Account's main contact is automatically added by default to the External Recipients list as an External Recipient. If choosing a specific Secondary Contact as the contact person for this Ticket, then this contact's email address is taken instead of the Account's main address. This default email address can be changed while creating the Ticket, in the New Ticket window.
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Notes:
- When a new Ticket is created by Commit Email Connector from an incoming customer email, the customer's email address from the incoming email will be added automatically to the External Recipients list of the Ticket (instead of the Account's main address).
- Creating tickets via the Commit API supports passing the Recipients (see API user guide) and linking them to the Ticket. If not transferred, the default Account's main contact will be used.
Default Employee Recipients
When a new Ticket is created, the following addresses are automatically added to the Internal Recipients list as the default recipients.
- Ticket Manager
- Account Manager
- All Employees who selected to receive all email communication (via the Options window, see Recipient Options)
Each employee can also subscribe or unsubscribe themselves for a Ticket via the Ticket window, under the Email Recipients tab.
Email Correspondence Settings
Ticket settings concerning Email Correspondence can be set up in the Tools > Options > Tickets window.
Ticket settings concerning Ticket communication include the following
Read/Unread Settings
In this section, each user can define which default Employee filter will be used in the Inbox view. Default is "Me", i.e. showing only Tickets which are managed by the current logged-in user.
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Recipient Options
Each Employee can define whether and when they wish to receive emails arriving at Commit Email Connector relating Tickets.
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In this window each user can choose under which terms they wish to receive the email arriving for a specific Ticket, according to their role in this Ticket.
Possible options include:
- OFF: do not send any emails relating Tickets to me. For example, this option is good when on vacation, and the user does not wish to receive the emails no matter what (even if they appear in the Employee Recipients list).
- All – send me all emails arriving for all Tickets.
- Only when:
** I manually subscribed to: Only when I'm subscribed to a specific Ticket, i.e. when I explicitly appear in the Ticket's Employee Recipients list.
- I am the Ticket Manager: I'm the Ticket Manager for this Ticket. This means that even if I'm not in the Ticket's Recipients, I will get the email for this Ticket when I'm marked as the Ticket Manager.
- I am the Ticket’s Account Manager: I'm the Account Manager for this Ticket, or the Ticket Manager. This means that even if I'm not in the Ticket's Recipients, I will get the email for this Ticket when I'm marked as the Account Manager for this Ticket's Account.
Note that all options apply only if the user has the appropriate privileges to view the relevant Ticket. For example, when choosing "All", the user will receive all emails relating all Tickets which this user is privileged to see. For more details regarding privileges see Ticket Privileges.
Ticket Privileges
Inbox
A Ticket's read/unread can basically be modified only by the Ticket Manager. Other users can view the status, but cannot modify it if the Ticket is not assigned to them.
In special cases, it is possible to allow other users to change the read/unread status for other users, by providing them with the following privilege option.
The privilege can be defined via File > User & Privileges > Privileges:
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Regular Expression (Advanced)
When Commit Email Connector processes email replies coming from Customers or Employees, it adds the text of the reply to the Ticket History. It is a challenge to add only the actual new text in the last reply to the Ticket History each time, since most email replies include the whole thread and it should ignore all of the text related to previous communications. The Regular Expressions feature lets you define advanced rules for removing repeating text from incoming emails, prior to logging the Email text in the Ticket History. This feature is used by Commit Email Connector when processing incoming emails and logging them in the Ticket history.
CommitCRM comes populated with a predefined set of expressions which work well with several email formats, such as Outlook®, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. Regular Expressions can be viewed and set up via the main Settings menu under Regular Expressions.
In cases when the existing set of rules failed to discover “old” text, such as when your customers are using not-so-popular email clients, or when they customize the way a popular email client work, you may wish to add new rules so the “old” text will be identified and removed next time an email is received.
Note: In case “old” text has made its way to the Ticket History, you can select to Edit the Email Message text and manually remove it. To edit the message in CommitCRM select the More Actions > Edit Email Message option, from the Email Message entry in History. Each new rule includes a name and the actual Regular Expression formula. CommitCRM supports standard regular expressions formulas (as used by the Perl scripting language). Regular Expressions are a powerful tool, however, it requires deep understanding of how they work. To learn more about regular expressions search the Web for “Regular Expressions”, or “Regex”. This is an advanced option and only users who have the relevant privilege in CommitCRM have access to edit the expressions.
Allowing users to edit the Regular Expressions is done via the Privileges window, using the Regular Expression privilege.