Zoho Desk Tickets - Parent/Child Tickets

Zoho Desk Tickets - Parent/Child Tickets

A ticketing system allows businesses to manage customer requests and support enquiries efficiently. In some organizations ticketing systems are also used to manage internal processes, such as HR, IT requests, and employee grievance, to ensure things stay streamlined.

In most cases it is common to see tickets for a similar issue or related query from one or many users.

For example:
  1. You may receive multiple tickets from customers during an outage
  2. A request to replace a faulty product from many buyers
  3. Order enquiry, return, and refund requests from a customer

In the above cases, the person who is handling the request will have better context if the related tickets are interlinked. They can easily refer to the relevant ticket and understand the issue before replying. Moreover, it will allow them to maintain a well-organized database where information can be found easily.  

Zoho Desk facilitates parent-child ticket relationships. It provides an option to select one ticket as a parent and associate a similar ticket to it as its child. 

Business scenarios 

Here are some scenarios that businesses come across routinely where parent-child ticketing can simplify the issue management. 

Lapse in critical transaction due to unplanned system outage

Sudden interruption in service can make the day tough for customer support teams. Tickets pour in from all channels making it difficult for the support agents to reply and close them individually. One of the tickets can be marked as a parent ticket, and the related ones as its child tickets. This will establish a parent-child relationship, allowing agents to close only the parent ticket, which will automatically close all the child tickets saving their valuable time. 

Seeking no dues clearance for employee exit 

When an employee resigns from the organization, most departments are required to issue a No Due certificate or letter to ensure there are no outstanding dues. Tickets created in each department can be considered as child tickets and linked to the parent ticket created in the HR department. The parent-child relationship will ensure that HR can close the ticket only when all the child tickets are closed. In other words, an employee's exit process can only begin after No Due has been received from each department. 

In some cases, if a child ticket is reopened, the parent ticket will automatically reopen acting as a checkpoint to prevent any oversight. 

Order, replacement, and refund enquiry for a product

In the ecommerce business, it is common to receive multiple enquiries from a customer for a single product. For example, if a customer raises a request to enquire about an order and subsequent requests for replacement and refund, these three tickets can be linked through parent-child ticketing. 

The parent ticket about the order enquiry can be automatically closed once the child tickets on replacement and refund are closed. Automatic closure will ensure that tickets do not remain open needlessly by reducing dependency on agents, and preventing inadvertent delays due to manual intervention.

Coordinating cross-departmental resources for employee onboarding 

When a new employee joins a company, the HR department has to work with other departments such as Asset Management and Admin team to complete the onboarding process. With parent-child cross-department linking, this can be achieved. The HR team can create a parent ticket that contains all the details of the candidate, their role, and the timeline for onboarding.

The Asset Management department can create a child ticket that tracks the list of assets and tools to be assigned to the candidate.
The admin department can create a ticket to track their ID Card, office access, and other required access to be enabled as per the candidate's role.

With this cross-department ticket linking, each department:
  1. Is clear about their responsibilities.
  2. Can work on assigned tasks parallelly.
  3. Has complete visibility on the progress.
  4. Can track updates within the ticket detail view
This also ensures all child tickets are closed before the parent ticket is closed for streamlined and collaborative onboarding.

Coordinating loan approval task

When a business approaches a bank for a loan for expansion, the customer relationship manager can raise a parent ticket with the customer details, loan request, customer interaction notes, all documents submitted, the timeline dedicated for the loan approval, and other relevant details. This ticket can act as a dashboard for this loan request.

Meanwhile, the legal team can create a child ticket using all the details available in the parent ticket. They can track what documents are required, draft loan agreements, and ensure all legal compliances are adhered to.

The operational team parallelly creates a child ticket to verify background information, loan eligibility, accounts, and the like, and link required accounts to the loan account to release the funds. Here, each department does not have to repeatedly add the customer details or loan request details to each ticket as all the information is available and accessible in the parent ticket. This eliminates duplicate work. Since teams can work parallel and update the individual ticket simultaneously, the loan approval process works faster, resulting in better customer satisfaction.

Availability

Permission Required
  • Users with administrative privilege can configure parent-child ticketing
  • Users with permission to update and create Tickets can link tickets as parent or child.
  • Professional and Enterprise editions

Parent-child ticketing is available in the Enterprise and Professional editions. If a user downgrades to the Standard edition:
  1. All existing parent-child ticket relationships are retained in the back-end to ensure no data is lost, but the Parent-Child subtab and List View indicators related to parent-child tickets will be removed from view.
  2. If the account upgrades back to the Professional or Enterprise plan, all previous parent-child configurations will be restored in the UI with full functionality.

Configuring parent-child ticketing

Zoho Desk allows admins to enable parent-child ticketing for the required departments. While setting up, they can select the preference based on the support process and ticketing system followed by the organization. The ticketing preferences you can choose are:

  • Automatically close child ticket when parent is closed - The agent can close the parent ticket, which will ensure all child tickets are closed. This option can be useful in cases where the same issue has been reported by multiple customers, as in the above example of system outage. An automatic response can be sent to the contact once the child tickets are closed. 

  • Allow agents to close the parent ticket only when the child ticket is closed - The agents can be restricted from closing the parent ticket if a child ticket is open. In the above case of employee exit processing the HR team cannot close the parent ticket unless all the child tickets are closed. 
    Note: The above two preferences are linked and cannot be enabled simultaneously. 

  • Automatically close the parent ticket once all the child tickets are closed - The agents need not close the parent ticket. It can be closed automatically if all the child tickets are closed. In the above instance for product enquiry, once the related tickets on replacement and refund are completed, the parent ticket is closed. 

Points to remember 

  • A child ticket can be associated with only one parent ticket. 
  • A parent ticket can be associated with a maximum of 200 child tickets.
  • Once the association is initiated a notification will be displayed that "child ticket association is initiated and will take a while to complete.   
  • While associating, only those tickets that are unassociated with any tickets are listed. 
  • A child ticket cannot be associated with further child tickets.
  • A parent or child ticket can be reopened if needed. 
  • If a child ticket is reopened, the parent ticket will open automatically. However, this will not reopen the other child tickets. 
  • Parent-child ticketing is department specific. 
  • Tickets from within a department and cross-department can be associated with each other. 
  • The following tickets cannot be associated as a child:
    • that are already associated as a parent or child. You can disassociate and associate them with another ticket.
    • that are archived, marked as spam or moved to recycle bin.
    • tickets for which you don't have permission.
  • Within the parent-child subtab of a ticket, users can update the ticket status and owner of a child and parent ticket. However, ticket statuses cannot be modified if they are associated with a blueprint. 


To configure parent-child ticketing
  1. Navigate to Setup > Customization > General Settings > Tickets.
  2. In General Settings for Tickets, go to Parent-Child Ticketing and click Configure.
  3. In the Parent-Child Ticketing Preferences page, click Select Departments to enable.
  4. Select the departments from the drop-down list and click Enable.
  5. Click on the department and select the preferences from the following options:
    1. Automatically close child requests when parent is closed
    2. Allow agents to close parent ticket only when all its child tickets are closed
    3. Automatically close the parent ticket when all the child tickets are closed.
  6. Click the Close icon to save the changes and exit the configuration page.

Linking parent-child tickets within the same department

Once parent-child ticketing is enabled, the tickets created in the respective department will display the parent-child tab in the tickets detail page. 


From this page, agents can:

  • Create a parent or child ticket
  • Associate existing tickets as a parent or child
  • Clone the ticket as a parent or child

To create or associate parent or child tickets
  1. In the Tickets module, select a ticket and click the Parent-Child tab.
  2. Click Associate Parent/Child Ticket drop-down and choose + Create new child ticket or + Create new parent ticket.
    Alternately, click Associate Child Tickets or Associate Parent Tickets drop-down and click Create Child Ticket or Create Parent Ticket as required.  


  3. In the Add Ticket page, enter the details and Save. 
  4. The ticket will be associated as a parent or child as selected. 

  5. Click Associate existing Ticket, and select the available tickets from the list view and click Associate.  

To clone the ticket as parent or child

  1. In the Tickets module, select a ticket and click the Parent-Child tab.
  2. Click the drop-down next to Create Child Ticket and select Clone this ticket as a parent or child.

  3. In the Ticket Detail page, edit the required information and Submit.

Linking cross-department tickets as parent-child 

Points to remember for cross-department association:
  1. Parent-child ticketing must be enabled in all required departments to be able to associate a ticket with each one properly.
  2. Agents can link tickets only with departments to which they have access.
  3. Ticket closing condition will depend on the configuration enabled in the parent department. Each department can configure its own preferences, but the ticket will comply with the configurations made in the parent department only.
  4. If a parent ticket is shared with another department with full access, the receiving agent can link child tickets, even if they do not have access to the department where the parent ticket belongs.
  5. When the parent-child feature is disabled in a department, existing relationships between tickets are retained to ensure continuity. However, agents can no longer create new relationships in the disabled department.
  6. When a department is disabled, the admin chooses a new department to move all the tickets; the new department is called the destination department. If a department is disabled, the parent-child relationship for the ticket will be retained in the destination department only if the feature is enabled there.
  7. While moving a ticket, if the destination department has the feature enabled, the relationship will be retained; otherwise, the relationship is revoked.
  8. The department of each associated ticket is displayed in the Parent-Child subtab.
To associate cross department parent-child ticket linking:
  1. Navigate to the Tickets module.
  2. Create a ticket or open an existing ticket.
  3. Click the Parent-Child subtab.
  4. Click the Associate Parent dropdown.
  5. Alternately, click the Associate Child Tickets or Associate Parent Tickets dropdown.  
  6. Click on the current department to select the department from the dropdown for cross-department association.
  7. Select a ticket from the department as "child ticket" or "parent ticket"
  8. Click Associate.

Dissociating tickets from parent-child relationship

As per ones requirement, tickets can be dissociated from the parent-child relationship. 

To dissociate tickets

  1. Select a Ticket and click on it.
  2. In the Tickets detail page, click the Parent-Child tab.
  3. Hover on the ticket you want to dissociate.
  4. Click the Dissociate icon (  ).

  5. Click Dissociate in the popup. 

Parent and Child ticket indication in the list view

The relationship type through which each ticket is associated to other ticket is  displayed next to the subject line in the ticket list view. This helps agents quickly identify if a ticket is linked to another and understand whether it is a parent or child ticket without going to the detail page.


Peer child tickets displayed under the Parent-Child subtab

In a parent-child ticketing system, when there are multiple child tickets associated with one parent ticket, all the child tickets are considered as peer tickets to each other. 
Under the parent-child subtab the agent can view the other child or peer tickets helps which can help them get a better context of the issue, even when they are only working on isolated child tickets. 
For example, if a parent ticket tracks updates for various education loans, multiple child tickets are associated to it which track the interest rate for different types of education loans. An agent can refer to peer tickets that are about interest rates for different types of education loans for reference and get a better understanding of interest calculations. 



Mass update for child ticket under Parent-Child subtab


The purpose of associating multiple child tickets with a single parent ticket is to group related tickets together under one subtab. This provides agents with better context and complete visibility that helps them resolve issues faster with with more efficiency.
While agents can update individual tickets, such as changing ticket status or assigning an owner from the child ticket subtab, performing other actions typically requires opening each child ticket in the ticket detail view. This process can be tedious and prone to error.

Enabling mass actions on child tickets addresses this challenge. The Parent-Child subtab lists all the associated tickets, the agents can select multiple tickets and perform an actions, which reduces redundant work, maintains consistency, and eliminates chances of inadvertent  errors.

Agents can select up to 50 child tickets at a time and perform the following actions:

Dissociate the child tickets from the parent

If a parent ticket is tracking an issue, but some child tickets no longer need to be associated with it because they are unrelated, agents can select multiple child tickets and dissociate them from the parent ticket. 
For example, a parent ticket that is tracking an issue related to interest rate updates in different loans has multiple tickets from the different loan services associated to it as child tickets. However, if one of the loans is no longer being offered or processed, the child tickets related to that loan can be dissociated from the parent ticket using this mass action. This would ensure that those child tickets are no longer tied to the ongoing issue of interest rate updates, but can still be managed independently.

Assign the child tickets to an agent or team

If a parent ticket is assigned to a specific team member, but the child tickets need to be handled by a different agent, those child tickets can be reassigned to the appropriate team member without affecting the parent ticket's assignment. This allows a team to distribute work based on expertise and workload without changing the parent ticket's assignment.
For example, if a customer requests a home loan and subsequently enquires about education and related updates, these can be linked as child tickets since all of them belong to the same person. However, if the education loans are handled by a separate department, then it's best to assign the tickets to them to maintain appropriate conversation. In such cases, all the child tickets related to education loan and related interest rates can be bulk assigned to the respective team. 

Update field value in child ticket

When a parent ticket progresses to a new stage, agents might want to update the status of the child tickets at the same time, particularly if the child tickets are closely linked to the same resolution flow.
For example, before the beginning of a financial year, the bank revises their loan interest rates. The update on revised interest rates will be on hold until the board approves the new rates. Once approved, instead of manually updating each ticket, the agent can use a mass update to automatically apply the revised interest rate to all related parent and child tickets. This ensures that the updated values are consistently applied across all tickets, reducing the chances of errors and saving time for the agent.

Sending a reply for child tickets 

Mass reply in parent-child ticketing allows agents to send a single reply to multiple child tickets at once. Let take the above case; if the revised interest rate is not applicable to a car loan, then agents can select all the child tickets for  car loan and send a mass reply to everyone about the exemption. 

Close

In the parent child ticket associated, the agent can select and close a bunch of child tickets. 
For example, a parent ticket is tracking a software update issue, and each child ticket associated is the individual issues reported. After troubleshooting, while some users have reported that the issue has been resolved, some users are still facing the same problem. In this case, the agents can select all the child tickets for which the problem is resolved and mark them all as Closed, without affecting the status of unresolved child tickets or the parent ticket. 

Delete child tickets

If certain child tickets are duplicates or irrelevant, agents can delete them in bulk. This helps clean up the ticket queue without affecting the main parent ticket.

Apply macro to child tickets

When a parent ticket is resolved, and several child tickets need a standard response or action, agents can use a macro to apply the same message or action to all child tickets in the selection. 
For example, a parent tickettracking employee onboarding process can associate  individual candidates as child tickets. Once the tasks such as sending the welcome email, completing the IT request form, enrolling in the ID card form, and finishing the mandatory compliance course are completed, the agent needs to update the status of all child tickets to "Completed" and assign a follow-up task to HR for final documentation.
The agent can create a macro that automates these actions across all relevant child tickets at once. This macro can:
  1. Send the welcome email to the new hire
  2. Update the status of all child tickets to "Completed"
  3. Assign a follow-up task to HR for final documentation

NotesNote: A macro can be applied to the child tickets both before or after the parent ticket is resolved.                                             

Revoke blueprints from child tickets

If a blueprint is applied to a parent ticket and its child tickets, the agent can revoke that blueprint from multiple child tickets at once. This action could be used if the child tickets need to follow a different process than the one set by the parent ticket.

For example, an e-commerce platform recalled a product and created a parent ticket. All related tickets are linked as child tickets. While most tickets are for exchanges, some customers have raised tickets for returns and refunds. Agents can select all return and refund tickets and revoke the product exchange blueprint from them. 

Update resolution

If the parent ticket's resolution is marked e.g., "Issue Resolved – Software Updated", agents can mass update the same resolutions in all the child tickets at once.

To mass update child tickets
  1. Navigate to the Ticket module.
  2. Open the required parent ticket from the ticket list view.
  3. In the Ticket detail view, click the Parent-Child subtab.
  4. Select the required child tickets.
  5. Select the desired mass action. 

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