Can agent directly reply to client via email

arunostkt

I set up osticket 1.9.4 . I am new to this. I configured it by email fetching and it works perfectly. My question is , can agent directly reply to the clients ticket via email. That is when a ticket is generated by client agent got a notification in Gmail. By replying to that from gmail, the client will got the reply and also the reply will be updated in Osticket. Is it possible and how? Please help.

ntozier

Agent email replies are logged as internal notes on the ticket.

farmersWPSD

This only works with clients from what I've seen, not web. This USED to work with both, but at one point quit.

Chefkeks

As ntozier already said, the replies are taken as an internal note and this makes totally sense to avoid different confusing responses from several agents to one user, so for example:User Alice opens a ticket... she e.g. asks for an installation of a software.Agents Bob and Charlie receive an email that Alice opened a new ticket and wants the installation of a software. Bob responds and says "NO, installation not possible" and at the same time Charlie responds and says "YES, installation is possible". So now Alice would be totally confused.To avoid such situations osTicket notes email replies from agents as internal notes instead of sending them to the end user. The above situation could not happen in osTicket since there is the "agent collision avoidance" feature which locks a ticket for the defined time (Admin Panel > Settings > Tickets > Agent collision avoidance) so that double / confusing responses shouldn't be possible.Hope that explains the sense why osTicket acts like that ;)

bikehounds

We are also looking for a way for agents to reply via email because our agents are in the field and almost never at a desktop computer.At my other job, we only have two agents and they work opposite shifts so there will never be a collision. I'd like them to be able to answer via email.For both of these organizations I am trying to transition from pure email based replies to an issue tracking system which maintains the appearance to customers and agents that it's still "just email" and doesn't require login by either party for basic back and forth (login would be required for advanced features).IMHO a more elegant way to handle this would be:1 - allow replies through email as an option and let the admin decide whether it's worth the risk of collision.2 - add an option where the first reply via email locks the issue to that agent until someone logs in and reassigns it. in this case if two agents reply at the same time, whichever email actually comes through the pipe first gets precedence, and any emails from any other agents default to internal notes unless the ticket is reassigned to them.In the mobile age, replying direct to end users via email seems like a necessary function...Thanks for listening!! :-)

bsaxon

I would love to see a global setting (or within some mechanism) to specify agent email replies as internal notes or as replies to users.

ntozier

So to that people who want this feature I have a question. How do you propose to handle the following situations:1. Agent001 replies to ticket via email. Agent002 also replies to the ticket via email. They both say basically the same thing. Should both replies be sent to the User (customer)? Should only the first? In the case of assignment on reply, who should the ticket be assigned to?There are no ticket locks when it comes to email.2. Agent001 replies to ticket via email. However Agent002 has already replied to the ticket using the web UI.The ticket is now assigned to Agent002.Should the ticket be reassigned? Should the late response be ignored?Should the late response also be sent to the client?What if answer 2 contradicts answer 1?

Chefkeks

@[deleted]Personally I think the only way to solve this, is that it's (pre-)required that a ticket is already assigned to an agent.Then I think it could work like I wrote a few hours ago in the thread here:http://osticket.com/forum/discussion/comment/96791/#Comment_96791When it comes to re-assignment I think, when the agent has the option enabled that his email responses are taken into osTicket as replies to the end user, the agent shall then be informed via an email when a ticket is re-assigned to another agent. Just in case the internal activity email alerts are disabled.

bikehounds

I'd say:Situation 1: Agent 002's response gets posted as an internal note and he gets an auto reply to his email saying that agent whomever already answered and to log in to the system if he wants to reply furtherSituation 2: Same - any email an agent sends to a ticket that has been claimed by someone else, it goes to internal note instead and that agent gets an email notification saying "reply not sent - posted internally instead"Another thing I would love is to close a ticket via email. For instance by replying with **close** or something in the body... or is something like this already possible?

bikehounds

@[deleted] I see some other threads on this have been closed - that's a bit frustrating since now we can't respond to discuss how this might work - so we should start new threads? Is this concept still on the radar? It seems like it's a necessary function for some users :-) Thanks!

ntozier

Q: since now we can't respond to discuss how this might work - so we should start new threads?A: @[deleted] you have already responded with your reply to this thread. We do not need more than one thread discussing the same thing... So I do not understand your response saying that you cannot respond. To answer the question directly, No. You should reply to this thread. Since you are the only one to reply to this thread in about 3 months... I wouldn't expect too much traction.Q: Is this concept still on the radar? A: You have commented about two different features in your last two posts... so I'm not sure which one you are asking about. So here is my reply to both of the features you discussed:Replies via Email: The devs have not specified to me recently if this is or is not on the radar. There are a number of threads about this particular topic including some I have seen in the last week which indicate how to modify the source to achieve this yourself. Closing Ticket Email: This has never been on the radar since it is easy to do with a canned response when you update the ticket and close it.

quepasa

@[deleted] Could you post a link to the threads that have the info on how to modify the source to allow staff to reply by email? I searched for "email agent reply" and "email staff reply" but couldn't find the thread(s) you were referring to.Thanks.

ntozier

Here's one:https://github.com/osTicket/osTicket-1.8/issues/2242

quepasa

@[deleted] Thank you.

ntozier

Welcome.

jeffwong

Even some prevention is required but this function is really necessary, can leave to administrator decide whether enable it or not.I think the user who use of osTicket for real world desktop support will refuse this function because they want to maintain the quality of support for customers.As an user like me, I would like to manage on hand cases and work together with my team, shall I prefer an easy way to reply the ticket.

jgallien

The reasoning for limiting agent email replies to internal note is very flawed.

All that needs to happen is the first agent response assigns the ticket to that agent and that response gets sent to the user. All subsequent responses from additional agents get posted as internal notes. SIMPLE and NEEDED!

ntozier

jgallien This conversation appeasers to have died 6 years ago.

In the intervening time [Feature Requests] are now done over on github where you can open an issue report and pre-fix the title with [Feature Request].
here:
https://github.com/osTicket/osTicket/issues/new/choose

KevinTheJedi

@jgallien

All that needs to happen is the first agent response assigns the ticket to that agent and that response gets sent to the user. All subsequent responses from additional agents get posted as internal notes. SIMPLE and NEEDED!

This isn't exactly true. What stops someone from somehow getting access to the email thread and simply masquerading as the Agent and replying via email? When Agents are required to reply in the system they have to login using their own credentials and reply in the UI. There you know in fact that the responses came from the Agent and had proper Collision Avoidance to prevent duplicate/multiple responses from multiple Agents.

Cheers.

KevinTheJedi

Locking this thread as it's old....and very tired.