Merging Tickets

Customer service team is the main point of contact for customers who are looking for resolution to their issues or answers to questions that they cannot resolve on their own.

Sometimes, customers reach support through multiple channels for the same problem, creating more than one ticket. This creates an unnecessary surge in the number of tickets and the agent often finds it difficult to work on the same issue across different tickets. This leads to redundant efforts and repetitive communication for the customer. To handle such tickets, agents can merge similar tickets into one and ensure communication is streamlined and prevent duplication of records.

Let's look at a scenario to understand this further.

A customer struggling to sync his  email to a mobile device reaches out to the support team through email, chat, and also raises a ticket in the help center with different subject.:

1. Email: “Unable to sync email.”
   
2. Chat: “Email account issue.”
   
3. Help Center: “Unable to sync email with new device.”

In this scenario, the customer has created tickets through three different channels for the same issue. If different agents or the same agent handles each ticket, this can result in duplicate effort and inconsistent communication. There is also a possibility that an agent responds to a ticket to which another agent has already replied. To prevent such confusions and streamline the resolution process, it's best to merge similar tickets.

Availability 

Permission Required
Users with Find and Merge permission can merge tickets.                                                                                             
Check Feature Availability and Limits

In both cases, merging similar tickets can greatly enhance efficiency. By merging multiple tickets into one, agents can provide a unified response, streamline the resolution process, and minimize repetitive efforts, ultimately improving the support experience for both the customer and the team.

Note:

1. Only tickets from the same department can be merged.
2. Once the tickets are merged, they cannot be unmerged.
3. User can merge up to five tickets at a time.
4. By default, the first ticket created will be the master ticket. Users can also select a master ticket manually.
5. Threads from the merged tickets will also be shown in the help center to the contact of the master ticket. 
6. Tickets that have been merged with the master ticket can be found in the Recycle Bin. It can also be restored by agents. (Setup > Data Administration > Recycle Bin).
7. Emails and other records, including comments, replies, and attachments, will be saved within the merged ticket and organized chronologically based on their time of creation.
8. While merging, users can select whether the value of the master ticket or other ticket should be retained. For example, if Contact Name, Account Name, Subject, and Product Name have a value in other tickets (but not in the master ticket), and you want to retain them, then you can select those fields in the desired ticket. Those values will automatically reflect in the master ticket once merged. 
9. However, values in the ticket created time, time to respond, and ticket on hold time fields will only be taken from the master ticket. Users cannot edit the master ticket.  
   
10. 
    

To merge tickets

1. Navigate to the Tickets module.
2. Select the Department. 
3. Select the tickets that need to be merged. 
4.  Click Merge from the Mass Actions .
5. In the Merge Ticket page, select the fields whose data should be retained in the master ticket.
6. Click Merge.
7. Click Yes, Merge to confirm.        

Users can also merge tickets of the same contact or account. 

To merge tickets from the timeline

1. Navigate to the Ticket module and open the desired ticket. 
   
2. Click Timeline in Ticket detail view.
   
3. Select the tickets to be merged.
   
4. Click Merge.  
   

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