Avoiding Agent Collision Over Tickets
It is quite common for an agent to start replying to a ticket without knowing that another agent is already working on it. It eventually ends up with customers receiving more than one response to their support ticket. This sort of chaos can occur not only with the responses but also for other related actions like saving a draft, updating a field, leaving a comment and the like. With so many chances for overlap, it is critical to know how each agent is interacting with tickets, to stop duplicate efforts and increase agent productivity.
This is where the agent collision detection system in Zoho Desk comes in. This function not only displays notifications for user presence but also provides information on the most recent activities performed on a ticket from the time you start looking at it. The collision alert will display a notification bubble showing the number of active agents when you and someone else are simultaneously viewing a ticket. The notification bubble will glow red ( 
) when the system recognizes the presence of another agent on a ticket. Once you click to see the notification, it will turn blue ( 
). Typically, there are three types of collision alerts: user presence monitor, activity tracker, and floating alerts.
Note:
- Collision alerts are available only on Professional and Enterprise.
User Presence Monitor
The user presence monitor will display pictures of the agents who are active and inactive on a ticket. The active agents are those who are viewing or replying to the ticket, while the inactive are those who viewed the ticket but have navigated away from it. You can hover over the pictures with your mouse to see their username and status.
Besides the notification, certain visual cues will tell you how your agents have interacted with a ticket. For example, the agents outlined in blue are currently viewing the ticket, while those with faded pictures had recently viewed the ticket but navigated away from it. For the latter, the time at which the agent left the ticket will also be displayed.
Activity Tracker
While you may know the presence of other agents viewing the same ticket as you are, it can be difficult to determine what actions they have taken for that ticket. This lack of information about how the agents are interacting with the ticket will result in duplication of effort or simply no work at all if one agent assumes that another agent will be working on the ticket.
With activity tracker, you can view a live feed of the actions performed by agents who are interacting with the same ticket as you are. When the system detects a collision in a ticket, you will receive alerts for anything that is changed until you navigate away from that ticket. You must click the agent collision flag to view recent activities on a ticket. Unread activities will appear highlighted on a faint blue background, while read activities will be displayed on a white background.
Floating Alerts
There are certain actions which need immediate attention of the agents when they bump into their peers over a ticket. These kinds of actions are conveyed through floating alerts. These small, floating messages pop up over the left panel within the ticket detail view and will allow you to easily see and act upon all of the latest activity within a ticket. These alerts will disappear after a few seconds.
You will receive float alerts when an agent:
- Looks at the ticket
- Drafts a reply
- Replies to the ticket
- Leaves the ticket
- Leaves a comment
- Edits a comment
There are a couple of other collision alerts that will appear as a prompt-box. For example, you may reply to a ticket by ignoring an agent who is already drafting one. Now, when you click Reply, the system will prompt you that an agent is already preparing a response and if you would like to continue. Concurrently, the other agent will also be prompted that you've just started to reply to the ticket and if they would like to continue with their draft.
Besides the above situation, prompt-box alerts are also displayed when an agent:
- has deleted the ticket, asking if you want to restore and stay on the ticket
- has moved the ticket to a different department, asking if you would like to access it in the new department
These real-time updates will help you stay on top of updated tickets and never miss a beat. With float alerts, you can do all this without losing the changes you've made or ever needing to refresh a page.
Collision Chats
Group chat within tickets gives you a quick and easy way to communicate with the agents who are colliding with you on a ticket. You can quickly ping them about who is going to respond to the ticket or what they think will be the best solution for it. You can do all this without getting up from your desk. You can also initiate a one-on-one chat or a group chat with the agents colliding over a ticket.
To initiate a one-on-one chat:
- Open a ticket to view its details.
- In the Ticket Details page, click the Flag icon (
) to open the Agent Collision window.
- Hover your mouse pointer over an agent and click the Chat icon (
).
A chat window titled with the name of the Ticket ID will be opened.
To initiate a group chat:
- Open a ticket to view its details.
- In the Ticket Details page, click the Flag icon (
) to open the Agent Collision window.
- In the Agent Collision window, click Group Chart.
A group chat window titled with the name of the Ticket ID will be opened.
You can click Leave to leave a collision chat at any time.
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