Problem

An Agent will generate an email using one of the 5 methods outline below but they change the TO address and change the subject line however the response will route to an existing ticket:

1. An Agent will forward an existing email in their inbox from Outlook to Zendesk
   • Agents can forward an email the one time to themselves in Zendesk but cannot forward the same email multiple times to themselves
2. An Agent will navigate to their sent folder in Outlook and forward the email from Outlook to Zendesk
3. An Agent will select Reply/Reply all on an existing email in their Outlook but erase the subject line/TO address in Outlook and send to Zendesk
4. An Agent is using a email template/draft within Outlook and reuse that same template to send multiple individual emails
   • Signature templates are not impacted
5. An Agent forwards an email received from Zendesk to another Zendesk support address

Answer

When a new email is recieved, Zendesk scans for any 'In-Reply-To' ID on the email. If the 'In-Reply-To' ID matches an existing ticket Message-ID, then the email is added as a comment on an existing ticket.. Zendesk does this regardless of any changes to the email (subject, body, TO, CC, etc).

All Message IDsIn-Reply-ToandReferenceslines should contain unique values. If one of these lines uses a static Message-ID or email address, Zendesk will thread incoming emails into the same ticket.

Troubleshooting steps

How to check the Message ID/Reply-To/References address on a ticket

1. Navigate to the tickets
2. Select the 3 dots beside in the inbound reply
3. Select View Original Email (only visible on inbound replies to Zendesk that weren't started on a side conversation)
4. A new window will open and go to Source (it may take a few seconds for the source to load)
5. Scroll for Message ID/Reply-To/References as that is what links the replies together. When they are the same, the ticket gets threaded together.

6. Here is an example of an email that was forwarded from Outlook to Zendesk with a new subject line and 'To' address:

   

   • The Message IDs in this example were the same, so the message threaded together

Confirm with Agent (Service Desk)

If the above steps are completed and it is a case where the comments from the same User for unrelated Clients are appearing on the same ticket, use the macro IT - Service Desk- Zendesk Common Replies - Replies threading on existing/wrong ticket

After the macro is used, if the Requester comes back to us disputing the information, we want to confirm how the replies are being sent to Zendesk. 

• We want to ensure that the Sender is not removing all of the text from another email conversation and resending it or just changing the Reply-To address.
• The Sender is not forwarding an existing conversation multiple times. 
• The Sender is not reusing a "template" they have saved in Outlook (it should always be copied and pasted into a NEW email)
• The Sender is not resending emails that originated from Zendesk

Options

Consultants that are in the model

1. Consultants should be utilizing side conversations as much as possible (do not use -int email to forward to Zendesk to create a ticket)
2. Create a ticket in Zendesk manually and copy the text from an existing email into the ticket
3. Follow the process outlined: Zendesk Best Practice - Consultants Only - Forwarding Emails from INT Outlook Email to Zendesk – BGRS

Here is a resource they can reference: Zendesk - Consultant: Why is an email updating an unrelated ticket instead of creating a new ticket?

Consultants not in the model or Suppliers

1. To create separate tickets within Zendesk and the previous thread/template is needed, manually copy the necessary email content into a BRAND NEW email and send it to the support address.
2. Take the Outlook email thread and make it an attachment. Then attach the email thread to a BRAND NEW Outlook email and send to Zendesk
3. Have the User create an Outlook Signature to replace any existing Outlook email templates 

Here is a resource Suppliers can reference: Best Practices for Suppliers when communicating with Sirva