Tickets¶

Agents can communicate with customer users via email, phone or SMS, and agents can communicate with other agents via notes. Additionally, it is possible to start processes, which can affect both agents and customer users.

The communication for all of these is managed by using tickets. This means, OTRS will convert any type of communications into tickets, and it will add the related messages as articles to the ticket.

Create Ticket¶

Use this screen to add a new ticket to the system. The ticket create screen is available from the main menu and from the action menu, as well as from the customer and customer user cards.

When agents start the communication, they can create email tickets, phone tickets, process tickets or SMS tickets. All communications result in a ticket, and the first message is added to the ticket as an article.

Email Ticket: Email ticket is used to send an email to the customer user or to other recipients when the ticket is created.
Phone Ticket: Phone ticket is used to record the information gathered during a phone call with the customer user. When the ticket is created, no email will be sent to the customer user. The ticket is treated as if it was originally created by the customer user.
Process Ticket: Creating a process ticket will start a defined process. The agents and the customer users have to follow the steps that are provided by the process. Any message created during a process ticket will create new articles in this ticket.
SMS Ticket: SMS ticket is used create a ticket and send the first article via SMS to the customer user. SMS ticket has a limited body size to fit the text to SMS length restrictions.

The following section explains how an agent can create a new request in the agent interface for the customer user. Creating email tickets, phone tickets and SMS tickets are almost the same, so the following sections will describe the ticket creation in a general manner.

Properties Widget¶

The Properties widget is used to create the request for the customer user. This widget consists of four sections: Customer, Assignment, Service Level Management and Communication.

Customer

In this section, the customer user for whom the new ticket is being created can be selected. The customer user can be selected by typing the name into the field or by using the customer address book next to the field. Using the wildcard character * is possible to search for the customer user.

Select Customer User

Customer User *: The person for whom the ticket is created.
Customer ID: This field will be auto-populated by selecting a customer user.

Assignment

In this section, the queue to which the ticket should be assigned, as well as the owner and the responsible of the ticket, are selected. The queue selection is mandatory.

Queue And Owner Selection

Queue *: The queue into which the new ticket will be placed.
Owner: The owner is the agent who will actually work with the new ticket.
Responsible: The responsible agent will be responsible for the ticket. This agent has the same permissions as the owner.

Note

This feature is not enabled by default. It needs to first be activated by an administrator in order to use it.

Service Level Management

In this section, the priority and the next ticket state can be selected.

Priority And State Selection

Priority *: New tickets have a 3 normal priority by default. Select another priority if you want to change it.
State *: New tickets are in an open state by default. Select another state if you want to change it.

Communication

In this section, a message much like you would find in an email client can be entered. This section is different for phone tickets and email tickets.

In the widget configuration of this widget, it is possible to set whether the next screen after creation of a ticket is the create screen again or the detail view of the created ticket.

Write The Message

From *

This field is available only for phone tickets, and it is mandatory. This is because a phone ticket is treated as if it was created by the customer user.

To *

For an email ticket, this will be the person for whom the ticket was created. This will be used in the To field of the email that is generated.

Note

Usage of wildcards (*) is also possible. Enter two asterisks (**) to list all customer users.

For phone tickets, the To field is read-only and will be auto-populated with the queue selected in the previous section.

Cc

Select other customer users as carbon copy of the email, if needed. This field is displayed only for email tickets.

Bcc

Select other customer users as blind carbon copy of the email, if needed. This field is displayed only for email tickets.

Text Template

It is possible to select a text template for the new ticket. The content of the template will overwrite existing texts.

Subject *

The subject of the ticket is like the subject of an email.

Body *

The body text of the first article of the ticket.

Signature

This field is only applied to email tickets and appends a pre-configured signature text to the body text.

Relevant Knowledge

This field is not visible by default, but it displays related Knowledge Base Articles based on the keywords entered in the Subject and/or the Body fields. Clicking on a knowledge base article opens the knowledge base article detail view.

The related knowledge base articles are displayed as the agent types, so the list of suggested knowledge base articles is updated after any word typed into the Subject and/or the Body fields. The suggested knowledge base articles are sorted based on the number of matched keywords.

Attachments

It is possible to add attachments to the ticket. Click on the field to add an attachment, or just drop some files here.

Time Units

Enter any amount of time that is to be used in time accounting.

Ticket List¶

The ticket list shows tickets based on the list’s configuration. The visible columns and the filter configuration can be changed using the Customize Organizer menu item in the Personalization menu.

Ticket List

The title column contains the subject of the last article created by a customer user. If no customer article can be found, the title column contains the subject of the latest agent or system article.

If there are articles in a ticket that the agent did not read yet, the ticket is displayed with bold text in the ticket list and marked as unread. When an agent selects a ticket and reads all its articles, it will be marked as read and will be displayed with normal text in the ticket list.

Clicking on a ticket in the list opens the detail view of the ticket.

Ticket List Actions¶

The ticket list supports some actions that can be performed on many tickets at the same time. To enable the bulk actions, the agent has to select at least one ticket in the list and click on the pen icon.

The eye icon allows agents to watch or unwatch tickets. With this function, an agent can subscribe or unsubscribe to information about the ticket’s changes. An agent who is watching a ticket will be notified in the same way as the owner or the responsible of the ticket.

Note

This feature is not enabled by default. It needs to first be activated by an administrator in order to use it.

If the selected tickets are not locked to the agent, they will be automatically locked while performing the bulk action. This needs to be confirmed by clicking on the Lock and Continue button.

Lock and Continue

Note

If the agent does not have permissions to lock the selected tickets, a notification message will inform the agent about the tickets that cannot be locked. It is possible to continue with the bulk action, but the listed tickets will not be affected.

The following actions are available:

Change Properties

This action allows agents to change the properties of the selected tickets.

Change Properties

The following properties can be changed:

State
Queue
Owner
Priority

Link Tickets

This action allows to link the selected tickets together or with a parent ticket. The linked tickets will be displayed in the Linked Tickets widget of the ticket detail view.

Link Tickets

Do not link: Select this option if the selected tickets should not be linked. This is selected by default.
Link together: Select this option to link the selected tickets together.
Search field: The search field allows the agent to search for another ticket. Using a wildcard * is supported. The selected tickets from the ticket list will be linked to the original ticket by the search field.

Merge Tickets

This action allows agents to merge the selected tickets to the oldest one or to any other ticket.

Warning

The merge action cannot be undone.

Merge Tickets

Do not merge: Select this option if the selected tickets should not be merged. This is selected by default.
Merge to oldest: Select this option to merge the selected tickets to the oldest one.
Search field: The search field allows the agent to search for another ticket. Using a wildcard * is supported. The selected tickets from the ticket list will be merged to the original ticket by the search field.

Write Email

This action allows agents to write an email message to customer users found in the selected tickets. The body of the email will be added to the selected tickets as an article.

Write Email

Recipients: This field is read-only and contains all recipients from the selected tickets.
Subject: This text will be the subject for the emails to be sent and the subject of the article to be added to the selected tickets.
Body: This text will be the body for the emails to be sent and the body of the article to be added to the selected tickets.
Time Units: Enter any amount of time that is to be used in time accounting.

Write Note

This action allows agents to write a note for the selected tickets. The body of the note will be added to the selected tickets as an article.

Write Note

Subject: This text will be the subject for the emails to be sent and the subject of the article to be added to the selected tickets.
Body: This text will be the body for the emails to be sent and the body of the article to be added to the selected tickets.
Visible to customer: If this checkbox is checked, the note will be visible to customer users in the external interface.
Time Units: Enter any amount of time that is to be used in time accounting.

Click on the Execute Bulk Action button to perform the selected action. After executing the bulk action, the selected tickets are automatically unlocked. To prevent this, unselect the checkbox Unlock after bulk execute. In this case, the affected tickets remain locked.

Ticket Detail View¶

Use this screen to see the details of a ticket. The ticket detail view is available if you select a ticket from a ticket list.

Ticket Detail View Widgets¶

Like other business object detail views, the ticket detail view is also highly customizable. Some of the following widgets are displayed with the default installation, but others have to be added in the screen configuration.

Drafts Widget

This widget shows the new articles that have been saved for later work. This widget is displayed only when at least one draft has been saved.

Clicking on an item in the list opens the draft to continue editing it.

Drafts Widget

Communication Compact Widget

This widget shows all articles of the ticket in a table view. There is an Expand All or Collapse All button in the header to expand or collapse the content of the widget.

Communication Compact Widget

The column with the arrows informs about the direction of the article. Articles can be incoming or outgoing messages, as well as internal messages.

Articles in the communication of a ticket can come from different channels. The column Channel informs about the channel of the according article.

The column with the information icon shows additional article information, for example if the article is marked as important.

The last column indicates whether the article has attachments or not.

Expanded Communication Compact Widget

Clicking on an article will display the detail view of Articles. Unread articles are displayed with bold text. Clicking on the Expand all button at the top of the widget expands all articles and marks all articles as read.

The symbols that are displayed within the message box show information that belong to this message. The symbols outside only show information about the sending status of the message.

Communication Stream Widget

This widget shows the articles of a ticket in a different format than in the widget Communication Compact. The articles are displayed as symbolic speech bubbles next to the authors’ avatar images with the title and first few lines of the article.

Communication Stream Widget

The article direction is represented by the avatars of each side. Avatars on the left side represent the incoming articles, and avatars on the right side represent the outgoing articles. The icons near the avatars represent the channel through which the article was sent.

Clicking on an article will display the detail view of Articles. Unread articles are displayed with bold text. Clicking on the Expand all button at the top of the widget expands all articles and marks all articles as read.

The symbols that are displayed within the message box show information that belong to this message. The symbols outside only show information about the sending status of the message.

Properties Widget

This widget shows the properties of the ticket. The properties are presented as small cards within the widget.

Properties Widget

Most of the cards have a pen icon in the top right corner. Clicking on this icon allows agents to directly edit the property.

People Widget

This widget can be used to display user cards of the people who created the ticket or who are set as owner or responsible for it.

People Widget

Customer Information Widget

This widget shows information about the customer and the customer user of the ticket.

Customer Information Widget

The cards show the number of open and closed tickets. If the customer user is online, the icon is active in the Chat section. Using this icon, the agent can start a chat with the customer user. Clicking on the icons in the Create section opens the create ticket screen. From the Action section, it is possible to edit the customer user or the customer. The Map section contains a link to view the customer’s address on a configured map. The URL in the Web section points to the customer’s website. The Social section contains links to some social media pages or search engines that are related to the customer user or the customer.

For unknown customers, only a Show All Tickets button is displayed in this widget.

Linked Tickets Widget

This widget shows the linked tickets, but the widget is only displayed when at least one ticket is linked to this business object. New links can be added with the Link Objects action. Existing links can also be managed there.

Linked Tickets Widget

Linked Knowledge Base Articles Widget

This widget shows the linked knowledge base articles, but the widget is only displayed when at least one knowledge base article is linked to this business object. New links can be added with the Link Objects action. Existing links can also be managed there.

Linked Knowledge Base Articles Widget

Linked Appointments Widget

This widget shows the linked appointments, but the widget is only displayed when at least one appointment is linked to this business object. New links can be added with the Link Objects action. Existing links can also be managed there.

Linked Appointments Widget

Attachments Widget

This widget can be used to display attachments to the articles. The attachments can be downloaded and, for the images, a preview function is supported.

Attachments Widget

Ticket Detail View Actions¶

The following actions are available in the ticket detail view.

Ticket Detail View Actions

Communication

This column groups the following actions together:

Add Note: This action allows agents to create a note for ticket and to add the note as article to the ticket. Notes are only visible to agents by default.
Add Phone Call Outbound: This action allows agents to add a note about an outgoing phone call to the ticket.
Add Phone Call Inbound: This action allows agents to add a note about an incoming phone call to the ticket.
Send Email Outbound: This action allows agents to send an email and to add the email as an article to the ticket. This screen is very similar to an email client screen.
Send SMS Outbound: This action allows agents to send an SMS message and to add the SMS content as an article to the ticket.

Note

Additional contract is needed to use this action.

Organization

This column groups the following actions together:

Lock Ticket or Unlock Ticket: This action allows agents to lock or unlock the ticket. If an agent locks the ticket, the agent will be the owner of the ticket.
Change Free Fields: This action allows agents to change the free fields of the ticket, for example the title of the ticket.
Merge Ticket: This action allows agents to merge one ticket with another ticket.

Warning

The merge action cannot be undone.
Watch Ticket or Unwatch Ticket: This action allows agents to subscribe or unsubscribe to notifications about the ticket’s changes. An agent who is watching a ticket will be notified in the same way as the owner or the responsible of the ticket.

Note

This feature is not enabled by default. It needs to first be activated by an administrator in order to use it.
New Appointment: This action allows agents to create an appointment related to the ticket. The new appointment will be linked to the ticket and will be visible in the Calendar Overview.
Close Ticket: This action allows agents to close the ticket.
Delete Ticket: This action allows agents to delete the ticket.

Note

This feature is not enabled by default. It needs to first be activated by an administrator in order to use it.
Link Objects: This action allows agents to link other business objects to the ticket.
Move Ticket: This action allows agents to change the queue of the ticket. Queues are like folders for tickets. A ticket can belong to only one queue at a time.
Set Pending Time: This action allows agents to set the pending time of the ticket.
Change Priority: This action allows agents to change the priority of the ticket.
Mark as Junk: This action allows agents to mark the ticket as junk or spam.

Note

This feature is not enabled by default. It needs to first be activated by an administrator in order to use it.
External Link: This feature provides an easy way to display external links in the ticket action menu.

Note

This feature is not enabled by default. It needs to first be activated by an administrator in order to use it.

People

This column groups the following actions together:

Change Owner: This action allows agents to change the owner of the ticket.
Change Responsible: This action allows agents to set or change the responsible of the ticket.

Note

This feature is not enabled by default. It needs to first be activated by an administrator in order to use it.
Change Customer: This action allows agents to change the customer and the customer user of the ticket.

Views

This column groups the following actions together:

Print Ticket: This action allows agents to print the ticket to a PDF file and to download it.
View History: This action allows agents to view the history of the ticket. The history contains all operations that happened with the ticket in the past, along with timestamp and username of the person who took the action.

Sidebar¶

The sidebar gives a quick overview about what agents are involved in the ticket: who is the ticket’s owner, who is the ticket’s responsible, and which agents are watching the ticket.

Sidebar

Involved agents are indicated with a pen icon when hovering the mouse over the sidebar. This means that the agent has performed some actions on the ticket, for example changed the properties or added articles.

The agents who are watching the ticket are indicated with an eye icon when hovering the mouse over the sidebar.

The dark green border around the avatar image means that the agent is the owner of the ticket, while the responsible agent has a light green border around the avatar image.

Tickets¶

Create Ticket¶

Properties Widget¶

Customer Information Widget¶

Customer User History Widget¶

Customer History Widget¶

Ticket List¶

Ticket List Actions¶

Ticket Detail View¶

Ticket Detail View Widgets¶

Ticket Detail View Actions¶

Sidebar¶