Question

Ticket threading in tickets between FreshService and FreshDesk


Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Hi,

In our company we have a FreshService account for internal support and several FreshDesk account for communication with external requesters.

A problem we are facing with this setup is that when starting a conversation in FreshService and sending a message to an adress in one of the FreshDesk accounts, the replies always create a new ticket.

I´ve tried to add the ticket subject in the FreshService ticket subject, i´ve also added the ticket URL and ID in the ticket descriction but since the FreshDesk reply adds the FreshDesk ticket ID in the subject a new ticket is always created.

Does anyone have a solution to this problem? All tips are welcome!


18 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

Hello @Manrod are you using the Freshservice-Freshdesk Integration that allows communication in tickets to reflect in both instances?

https://support.freshservice.com/en/support/solutions/articles/50000003818-freshservice-freshdesk-out-of-the-box-integration

Hope that helps!

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

We are not using the integration since it only works for one FreshDesk account and we have four

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

@Manrod Well that would make it difficult wouldn’t it 😆. So...just so I can understand the process, you create a ticket in Freshservice, who do you set the requester as? Is it an email address of a Contact in Freshdesk? Or is it one of the Freshdesk Support email addresses?

Then when a reply by the requester is sent it created tickets in Freshservice or Freshdesk? Appreciate you adding some more context here. Just want to make sure we can understand the process and hopefully find a solution for you.

Thanks.

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Sure :)

We create a ticket in FreshService and send it to a FreshDesk support email adress.

When the FreshDesk agent replies the reply gets added to the ticket in FreshService.

When the FreshService agent replies a new ticket is created in FreshDesk.

Userlevel 6
Badge +11

Hi @Manrod .

Are you using the Ticket ID in the expected format: Between square brackets and beginning with #:
[#NNNNNN] ?

 

Freshservice works in a way that for every incoming ticket via email, the the following things are checked to understand whether the email is a reply to an already existing ticket.

 

A
1. Ticket ID - Format must be [#INC-123]
and an additional check is:

B
if the sender's address is one of the following:
1. Requester's email address
2. ALL Agent's email address
3. Email address(es) in the CC
4. Email address(es) to which the ticket was forwarded

For the email to be threaded the condition is:
(A1) AND (B1 OR B2 OR B3 OR B4) 

 

 

Elvis.

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

 

The ticket format should be correct but I´ve tested different formats.

As you can see in the image above. The first ticket sent from FreshService is send with #INC-26234. The Reply from FreshDesk threaded into the FreshServie ticket with no problem. The problem appears when we reply once again from FreshService. The second reply created ticket #686802 above

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

Sure :)

We create a ticket in FreshService and send it to a FreshDesk support email adress.

When the FreshDesk agent replies the reply gets added to the ticket in FreshService.

When the FreshService agent replies a new ticket is created in FreshDesk.

Ok now that makes more sense. I think @eeha0120 mentioned the correct format for email threading. And from what I can tell both products thread emails in the same manner. You might be able to use workflow automator to grab those newly created tickets and merge them with the primary ticket. Not the most elegant way. And that is if the adding of the correctly formatted Ticket ID doesn’t thread correctly.

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

 

The ticket format should be correct but I´ve tested different formats.

As you can see in the image above. The first ticket sent from FreshService is send with #INC-26234. The Reply from FreshDesk threaded into the FreshServie ticket with no problem. The problem appears when we reply once again from FreshService. The second reply created ticket #686802 above

And this makes sense the reply from freshservice to freshdesk is not tagged with the Freshdesk ticket ID, so freshdesk doesn’t know what ticket to add that reply thread to. What happens if you were to change the subject line of the reply from freshservice to include the Freshdesk Ticket ID in the same manner you included the Freshservice Ticket ID?

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

The reply from FreshService to FreshDesk har this subject added

 

 

Should it be any other way?

 

By the way, the subject line in FreshDesk is set up in the same way

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

That reply template only will include the freshservice ticket ID which technically means nothing to Freshdesk. Your reply to freshdesk would need to have the Freshdesk ticket ID in the subject line so that it routes it to the correct ticket in freshdesk.

I am thinking that this is going to be more tricky than anticipated since the only way to set the subject line of a reply from within a freshservice ticket is to do so by editing the template. And that would be tremendously tedious to add the Freshdesk Ticket ID in the freshservice template prior to clicking “Reply” from within the ticket. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

I wonder if there is a way to update the subject line of the email reply from either the Freshservice API, utilize workflow automator, or look at a third party automation service like MS Power Automate to trigger the changing of the subject line to include the associated Freshdesk Ticket ID before it hits your freshdesk support email address.

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

I´ve tried to find a solution for quite some time now so I guessed it wasn´t easy.

 

But at the same time I wonder. Is our company alone with this problem? Don´t other companies use both FreshDesk and FreshService internally?

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

I´ve tried to find a solution for quite some time now so I guessed it wasn´t easy.

 

But at the same time I wonder. Is our company alone with this problem? Don´t other companies use both FreshDesk and FreshService internally?

Yes they absolutely do, which is why the integration was developed, but I guess they didn’t anticipate multiple freshdesk instances within one company.

We can keep brainstorming some ideas. Let’s rope in some extra talent @BrynCYDEF @ggallaway @keefe.andrews @daniel.soderlund, do you all have any additional ideas or potential solutions for @Manrod?

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

As I believe was mentioned above. How about a workflow automator that takes the FreshDesk ticketID and adds it to the ticket subject? 

Userlevel 6
Badge +11

Hi - thanks for the shout out.

I work with a bunch of different SAAS Help Desk portals and have found that keeping tickets on both sides threaded is a major headache that mostly has to get solved on the other side (i.e. not FS).

@zachary.king is correct - you are only sending the FS ticket ID so FD doesn’t know where to put the reply.

1 possible idea is to manually edit the FS subject line to include the FD ID like so

FS subj line:  User needs tape

FD:  Re: User needs tape [#FS ID]

-→ FS ID gets applied by auto email notif

FS: read FD and edit subj line as:    Subj 1 user needs tape [#FD ID]

-→ FD ID gets added by auto email notif

Send reply from FS subj line:  Re: Subj 1 user needs tape [#FD ID] [#FS ID]

Maybe FD will understand?

HTH

Bryn @ CYDEF

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

I believe it would be to much work for us to add the FD ticket ID to every ticket manually but i think I have an idea how to do it with an API through the workflow automator.

 

Thanks for the help so far!

Userlevel 6
Badge +11

Unfortunately the straight-up Workflow automation doesn’t include either Subject Line or Description edits.

However maybe you can use the API as you mention - do keep us posted - I would love to know more!

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

I used an API to add the correct “sender” when creating a child ticket so i think I can use the same type of solution to get the ticket ID somehow and add it to the ticket. I´ll try it out and let you know ;)

Reply