Agents spend most of their working time on the case page. Knowing all the functions and features of the interface helps to process cases faster and more efficiently.
There are several key blocks on the case page:
additional panels — they display user data, recent cases, custom blocks, and data on the connected integrations;
Case header
The header of the case displays the channel, number, and subject of the case, which can be easily edited. Please note that the customer is able to see the subject you specified if you are communicating through the email channel, as well as in the list of cases in their personal account in the help center when communicating via other channels.
When you double-click on the case number, is copied to the clipboard. A single click "rewinds" the correspondence to the very beginning.
The right part of the header also displays the status of the case (open, pending, or closed) and the icons of additional information panels. They allow you to track additional information related to the case and the user.
Additional panels
Changelog
Clicking on the icon activates the mode for displaying the history of actions in a case. A rule has been triggered, status, assignee, priority, or other parameters of a case have been changed — each step is displayed in the correspondence with the time and the person who has performed the change. If an agent has not added his/her photo to the profile, just hover over the avatar area to see his/her name.
User data
Clicking on the icon opens an information panel, which displays the user's data, his/her last 5 cases, and a link to quickly go to the list of all cases from this user. You can also display custom fields here if necessary — to do this, select the "User data" form when configuring.
You can edit the user data or leave notes. When you add an email address or phone number via plus, we merge the accounts, displaying all user cases regardless of the account they were created through. So, if a customer first wrote to you, let's say, in Telegram, and then you continued communicating by email, you will see all correspondence with them through different channels in one list.
Media Library
When you click the Media Library icon, instead of the message feed, an area opens where we display the media content contained in your correspondence. Switch between tabs to quickly access messages that contain files, images, or links.
Integrations panel
Data from third-party services that you have set up integrations with is displayed in two ways. If you have 1-2 integrations connected and not a lot of information, you can display them in the information panel along with the user data, right under the list of the customer's recent cases. But often it is more convenient to use a separate panel, which can be opened by clicking on a separate icon.
You can also display data from third-party resources in Deskie: your administrative panel, CRM system, project management system — this can be any information related to your client that is not available in Deskie. This problem is solved by placing your JS file on the page of a particular case.
Sidebar display logic
By default, all the right sidebars can be minimized or kept open at all times. But if you have a small monitor, or if you use a browser window that is not full-screen width, when open, the sidebar overlaps the main part, rather than shifting it.
If the correspondence area is not wide enough (less than 600 pixels), we intentionally do not show the right sidebar so that it does not take up much space. The agent opens it when necessary and then closes it immediately (by clicking on the information icon or clicking on the main area).
Correspondence
1. Quoting.
In writing a response, an agent can quote a customer's message in whole or in part. Read more.
2. Forwarding
The customer's message can be forwarded. To do this, put the cursor on the desired message and click on the forwarding icon. In this case, the addressee receives only the specific message. Most often this functionality is in demand if you need a pinpointed help from colleagues from departments that are not connected to Deskie.
To forward all correspondence, use the respective item in the "Additional options" menu of the "Case parameters" panel (left). Learn more here.
3. Detaching a message
Sometimes a customer asks several questions, which are not interrelated, and they need to be separated into different cases. You can detach the message literally in two clicks: click on the icon and confirm the action in the pop-up modal window. The new case inherits the parameters of the main one: status, group, assignee, and subject (which can be changed, of course).
This functionality works in cases received through the email channel. The logic of the division of chats is slightly different. Learn more about it here.
4. Response editing
If you are communicating by email, you can edit your response or the customer's message. Of course, the initial message will not be changed in the recipient's email service interface, but an updated version of the dialogue will be available in their customer account in the help center. You can also delete the unnecessary message.
The fact of editing or deleting is displayed in the case's changelog, so don't be afraid that this action might be hidden by your agents. However, the account administrator can restrict agents' access to these actions (Administrator's account — Team — Agents).
5. Link to a specific message
Just click on the customer's message or agent's response and copy the link from the address bar of your browser. Note that only agents of your company who have access to Deskie and are authorized in their account can open it.
6. Read receipts.
Deskie keeps track of when a customer receives and reads your response. For emails, we display an "eye" icon in the lower right corner of the message if it has been opened by the recipient.
a. When you hover over the icon, a tooltip appears. If the customer has already viewed the agent's response, the tooltip displays the time and date of viewing.
b. The icon is added only for the last agent's answer. Moreover, if there is a customer's response after the agent's reply, we don't show the icon, as it is already clear that the user has read the message.
c. The tracking pixel, which is inserted at the end of the agent's response, is used to detect whether the message was read or not. Some email services do not upload images by default, so it's impossible to detect the fact of viewing in 100% of cases.
d. Viewing a case in the help center is also counted.
e. If the agent's response was sent to several addresses (through Cc and Bcc), we perceive any opening. That is, in this scenario we do not determine which of the users viewed the response.
f. If a message has been viewed several times, only the first time is recorded and displayed in the tooltip.
In chats we use the common two-tick system for channels of this kind: one indicates that the message was delivered, and two indicates that it was viewed.
7. Formatting panel
The message editing window for asynchronous communication channels (email, ideas, FB posts, Insta posts) is equipped with a full-fledged editor.
You can use it to put a bold or italic font to parts of messages, underline, change text color, add links, create bulleted lists with or without numbering, insert images, code, and emojis. If your response consists only of emojis, we send them in an enlarged size.
Images can also be added to the message from the clipboard using the paste function via the right-click menu or the standard keyboard shortcut ctrl+v or by drag-and-drop.
You can attach a file of up to 20 MB to your message. If you want to send a larger file, we recommend that you use any cloud storage service that's convenient for you and attach only a link to your message.
You can attach a file through the menu or by drag and drop. If the reply box is out of sight when you drag and drop, the correspondence scrolls to the end.
In addition, we track words and phrases in the text indicating that the message should contain an attachment, and if there is no attachment, we display a modal window when sending a reply, specifying whether the agent remembered to attach the file.
You can also add a note addressed to your colleagues. Read more about communicating with your colleagues via notes here. You can also use the macros menu to send a predefined response. Learn more about how to set it up and use it here.
Chat editor doesn't support HTML formatting, but you can leave notes to your colleagues, attach files, use emojis and activate the macros you need via the menu.
8. AutoSave feature.
Everything you write in any of the cases, but do not send, is saved: you can reload the page, go to other sections, respond to other cases, and even close the browser.
a. There is no limit to the number of saved responses. You can prepare responses for at least a hundred cases. The main thing to remember is that the answers are stored for 24 hours.
b. Deskie saves each change of text, i.e. autosave does not start after a certain time interval (for example every 10-30 seconds). As a result, you always get the latest version of your response.
c. A nice bonus: autosave works even when you switch from one device to another. You can start writing your response on your computer and finish and send it from your tablet.
However, the web version and mobile apps do not sync unsent responses/notes.
Case parameters
To the left of the correspondence field, you can see a panel of case parameters. You can quickly add labels, increase or decrease the priority of the case, change the assignee and the group, as well as the emails — as the recipient and sender. If you add an email to the "Recipient" field which is not yet in the database, a new user is created. As a sender, you can specify any of the emails connected to Deskie.
Here you can also add addresses for sending a response to additional addresses (Copies and Blind Copies).
You can also place additional fields here — when creating them, select the "Case Fields" affiliation and the "Case parameters" form.
At the bottom of the panel, there is a drop-down menu "Additional options". It can be used to schedule the reopening of a case, forward the whole correspondence, merge it with another case, mark it as spam, or move it to trash.