There are a number of ways to respond to messages in eDesk. You can decide to send manual responses, AI responses, pre-written templates, and snippets, or even automated responses.
 


This help file will guide you through all the different ways you can respond to your customers in your eDesk account.

Before you start
 

  • You'll need to have access to the eDesk Mailbox to be able to respond to tickets. If you don't have access, you can request it from an admin user within your organization.
 
 

01 Responding inside a Ticket

This section will look at all the ways you can respond to your customers within tickets.

  • Reply Box

When viewing a ticket, click the pencil icon at the top of the page or the Reply icon below the message to open the Reply box.

You can schedule your response to be sent at a time of your choosing from the clock button next to Submit as.

Note: You can customize the time by clicking on Schedule message and choosing the date and time.

You can also choose to have it Submitted As a different status than Done. To find out more about choosing different ticket statuses, click here.

- Typed Responses:

  • Manually type the body of your message and click Submit As: To-Do, Waiting or Resolved.

- Snippets:

  • Type # (hashtag) and the snippet name to populate it.

To find out more about Snippets, click here.

- Templates:

  • Click the Template icon inside the Reply box.
    Choose a template from the dropdown or type _ (underscore) and the template name in the Reply box to display a list of all templates.

To find out more about Templates, click here.
 

- External:

  • External messages allow you to send a message to an external email address different from the one linked to the ticket while keeping all conversations in the same thread.
Pro Tip: for example, if a customer sends an email about a product, send an external message to your supplier so the conversation remains in one place, without the customer receiving the external message.


Note: if a message is not sent, a draft will be saved in the Reply box. 

  • AI Reply (Magic Wand)

  • When an incoming message matches the AI criteria, a category will be assigned. 
  • Like the Magic wand, once there is a template created for the assigned category, it will show inside the ticket above the Reply box.
  • You can view a preview of the full message by hovering on it.
  • Depending on the AI settings inside the account, simply click Select to populate the text in the Reply box then click Send.

02 Responding from the Ticket List

This section will look at all the ways you can respond to your customers within the ticket list view.

  • Bulk Actions

  • To respond to multiple tickets in one go, select the tickets from the list using the bulk actions check box.
  • Select Reply from the bulk actions dropdown list.
  • Select a template from the dropdown (and the language if relevant) or type a message yourself.
To find out more about bulk options in eDesk, click here.

  • AI Reply (Magic Wand)

  • When an incoming message matches the AI criteria, a category will be assigned. 
  • Once you have a Quick reply template set up for that category, you will see the Magic wand in the list of tickets. 
  • Hover over the Magic Wand to see a quick view of the Customer message and the suggested AI response.
  • This allows you to respond in one click, without clicking into the ticket.
  • Click the column header to view all Magic wand tickets.
To find out more about quick replies in eDesk, click here.

03 Automated Responses

Automated templates mean your customers receive responses at all hours and also help to reduce the workload by automatically replying to common questions.

- Auto Replies:

  • This option allows you to set recurring days and times for a message to send. 

  • For example, send the template each day, outside of office hours.

To find out more about Auto replies, click here. 
 

- Rule Only:

  • This option allows you to use rule conditions to trigger automated messages
To find out more about Rule-based templates, click here. 
 

- Out of Office:

  • This option allows you to set an out-of-office message for a specific date range.

  • For example, send the template in response to every incoming message while you are on holiday.

To find out more about creating an out-of-office reply, click here.


04 Other Information

  • Depending on your user settings, the ticket will be marked as Resolved or Waiting.

To find out more about Default Status settings, click here. 

Note: The ticket will only reopen if the customer replies.

Further Readings


To find out more about Message Rules in eDesk, click here.

Interested in learning more about using Templates in eDesk to save time, click here.