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.

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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.

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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 to the left of the Send button.

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

You can also choose to have the Send status as a different status than Resolved. To find out more about choosing different ticket statuses, click here.

- Typed Responses:

• Manually type the body of your message and click Send. You can choose to manually change your send status to: 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 the shortcut _ (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 enable you to send a message to an email address different from the customer's linked email while keeping all conversations within the same thread. If the external recipient replies back, that message will also appear in the same ticket 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: The 'from' email address for an external email will change for each ticket. It will look something like this: "ticket-external-0-6y4vqsbf@xsell.co"   

• Shared 

Sharing a ticket allows you to send the entire ticket thread to an external email address. When you use the Shared ticket option, a link to the ticket is sent to the email recipient. The recipient will have to enter a 6-digit verification code that will also be sent to their email in order to access the ticket. This link will be valid for 3 days. After that time, they will lose access to the ticket. 

Note: Any message you type in the reply box to your external email recipient will appear as an 'External note' in eDesk. When the email recipient responds back to the ticket, it will also appear as an External note.

• AI Reply (Agent Assist)

  When an incoming message matches an AI classification, the associated AI powered summary will be assigned. The AI powered summaries will show inside the ticket above the Reply box.

• Select an AI powered summary to preview or edit its associated AI powered response in the Reply Box.
• Click Send.

To find out more about AI reply options in eDesk, see here.

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 Quick Reply (Agent Assist)

• When an incoming ticket matches an AI classification, an AI powered summary is assigned to the ticket and a Sparkle icon is displayed by that ticket in the Mailbox. 
• Select the Sparkle icon to display a pop-up showing the original message, the AI powered summary, and an AI powered response that's based on the Primary template. Learn about the Primary template here.
• To send the AI powered response in your reply to the customer, select Send reply. This allows you to respond in one click, without clicking into the ticket
  
  Alternatively, click in the Reply Box for the AI-powered response and edit the text, or type in your own message instead. Or if you want to see more suggestions for AI-powered responses, select the ticket in the Mailbox listing to open it. 

Pro Tip: Click the column header to view all tickets with a Sparkle icon.

To find out more about eDesk's AI 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.

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Further Readings

To find out more about AI powered responses in eDesk, click here.

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