Create and respond to tickets in help desk

Use help desk to navigate between existing tickets and create new ones without having to leave the workspace. Support agents in your account can create, respond, and comment on help desk tickets to manage customer issues more efficiently.

Users with Super Admin or Account Access permissions can also set default email addresses for teams when responding to tickets in help desk.

Understand automatic ticket creation in help desk

• By default, tickets will automatically be created from channels connected to help desk. For example, if you've connected a form channel to help desk, tickets will be created automatically for any form submissions.
• One-to-one emails sent from an email address connected to help desk will also create new tickets. However, if you send a one-to-one email from within an existing ticket, the response will be added to that ticket's thread and will not create a new ticket.
• To prevent duplication, tickets are not automatically created from rule-based chatbots connected to the help desk. Learn more about creating tickets from rule-based chatbots.

Create tickets in help desk

Create tickets manually or by sending an outgoing email (BETA). 

Create tickets manually 

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Help Desk.
2. In the help desk workspace, click the + Create ticket button in the top left.
3. In the right panel, enter your ticket details. If you want to customize which properties appear here, click Edit this form at the top of the panel. The following fields are required by default:
   
   • Ticket name: provide a description for this ticket.
   • Pipeline: assign this ticket to a specific pipeline you've created.
   • Ticket status: choose a specific ticket stage from the pipeline you've selected.
4. To associate a company or contacts with the ticket, click the Company and Contact dropdown menus, then search for the company or contacts. Learn how to associate the relevant company or contact activities to the ticket.
5. When you create a ticket manually, a conversation won't be automatically associated with the ticket.
   • To create a conversation, click Add contact.
   • Once you associate a new or existing contact, the reply editor will appear, and you can begin composing a message to the contact.

Create tickets by sending an email 

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Help Desk.
2. In the help desk workspace, click the + icon in the top left. Then, click Send email. 
3. In the pop-up box, enter the recipient's email address, a subject, and your message. Learn more about sending one-to-one emails. 
4. Click Send and create ticket. 

Ticket properties such as pipeline, status, and ticket owner will be generated by HubSpot tools. If the generative AI tools and features setting is turned on, AI uses the message content to generate ticket details

Respond to tickets in help desk

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Help Desk.
2. Click a ticket to view the corresponding conversation.
3. In the right sidebar, view details about the associated records (e.g., contacts, companies, and deals). To view the ticket activity timeline, click the History tab. This tab displays all related activity, including when the ticket was created, status changes, workflow or list enrollments, merges, and more. To edit the tabs shown on the right sidebar, learn more about customizing the right sidebar in help desk. 
4. By default, your reply will be in response to the most recent message in the thread. To reply to a specific message, hover over the message click the reply icon in the top right of the message.

4. Use the reply editor to respond to an incoming email, chat message, form submission or phone call:
   • To expand the reply editor while typing your response, click and drag the reply editor, or click enlarge Expand to open it in a pop-up window.

• • If you need to CC or BCC additional recipients, add more recipients in the To field, or edit the From email address, click the menu verticalMenu in the top right to expand the editing options.
  • You can click the down dropdown arrow next to the From name to switch between the From addresses of your connected team email channels. You can also set a default email address to respond to tickets from in help desk.

• • Enter a reply, using the toolbar in the bottom left to add rich text formatting (e.g., bold, italics, etc.). To add hyperlinked text, click the link link icon or copy and paste the hyperlinked text directly into your message. You can also click Insert and select an option to attach content from another tool in HubSpot, including:
    • Knowledge base articles
    • Snippets
    • Video
    • Meetings
    • Documents
    • Quotes
    • Templates

5. Unsent messages you start typing will be automatically saved as drafts. This allows you to leave a ticket and return later, or access it through the drafts view in the left panel without losing your progress. Drafts are only visible to the user who created them.

6. If the visitor you’re responding to was originally unknown but later provides their name or email address, you can associate them with a contact:
   • Locate one of the messages the visitor sent and click the search magnifying glass icon.
   • In the right panel, click the Create new tab to create a new contact or click the Add existing tab to associate the visitor with an existing contact. This will also associate their ticket and your conversation with them. At the bottom of the panel, click Save.

7. To send the reply, click Send. You can also reply and update the ticket status in a single action:

   • In the bottom right, click the dropdown arrow next to the Send button and select a ticket status. The ticket statuses of the ticket's current pipeline will show here.
   • If the selected ticket status is conditional, you'll be prompted to enter the required properties.
   • Once you've selected an option, the email will be sent and the ticket status will be updated.

   Please note: if you’ve enabled automation settings for tickets, the workflow Change ticket status when an email is sent to a customer will automatically be edited to prevent the ticket status from reverting.

Comment on a conversation

Use the Comment tab to notify another team member of the conversation. This comment will not be visible to the contact. For tickets created from incoming calls, the Comment tab will only appear if an outbound email is drafted or sent.

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Help Desk.
2. Click a ticket to view the corresponding conversation, along with details about the associated records (e.g., contacts, companies, and deals).
3. In the Reply editor, click the Comment tab.
4. Type @ and your team member's name, then enter your message.
   • Use the icons across the bottom of the email editor to modify your text style, insert a link, or upload a file.
   • To add a document, snippet, meeting link, knowledge base article, quote, or video in your response, click Insert.
5. Click Add comment. A notification will be sent to the team member with a link to the conversation.

Update the ticket status

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Help Desk.
2. Click a ticket to view the corresponding conversation.
3. In the right sidebar, click the Ticket status dropdown menu and select a status. Learn more about setting up ticket statuses and pipelines.

End a live chat and keep the ticket open (BETA)

If you've opted into the Close a chat and keep the ticket open in help desk beta, you can end a live chat while keeping the associated ticket open. This allows your team to follow-up offline, via email or call. This is useful when you need to take a conversation offline to investigate an issue or gather information from another team. 

Please note: once a chat is ended, it cannot be reopened. 

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Help Desk.
2. Click the ticket to view the corresponding conversation.
3. In the reply editor, click End chat.
   
   
4. If no email is associated with the visitor, a pop-up box will appear. click End chat to confirm.

In the reply editor, the default channel will change from Live chat to Email.

Manage tickets in help desk

After creating and responding to customer issues in help desk, you can edit, follow, split, merge, move, or delete your tickets. This helps your team stay up-to-date on recent ticket activity and keeps the ticket list organized. Learn more about managing tickets in help desk.