Handle a Ticket

There's a lot you can do within a ticket. A Ticket page is the hub from which you can:

• Communicate with your customer about the ticket
• View ticket updates and communicate internally
  • View technicians working on a ticket
• Manage the ticket
• Track time worked (automated time tracking)
• View a complete log of all ticket activity

Learn more about creating tickets in Atera 

 

To go into a Ticket page:

1. Click Tickets, from the left-hand panel. A list of all your tickets appears.

Note: If you rest the mouse over a ticket, a hover appears, displaying useful ticket information such as ticket priority and most recent comment.

2. Then click on the specific ticket you wish to open. The individual Ticket page appears.

 

Communicate With Your Customer About the Ticket

From within a ticket, you can communicate with your customer about the ticket through either email or chat. You can also create quick reply templates, allowing you to quickly and easily reply to tickets. Learn more

Your customer receives an email notification whenever you update the ticket. They can reply to this email, and their reply will automatically post to the ticket. Additionally, your customer can see all updates posted to the ticket on their customer portal, and reply on the portal as well. 

Important notes:

• Ticket comments sent via email or the customer portal are limited to 64K characters. If a comment exceeds this limit, it will be truncated in Atera with an ellipsis.
• Please be aware that there are some limits in place that may prevent the opening of tickets and comments in Atera. This includes restrictions on the size of email attachments, as well as limits on the amount of data that can be transported through our services. 

 

To communicate with your customer via email:

1. Click Tickets, from the left-hand panel. A list of all your tickets appears. 

2. Then click the specific ticket you wish to open. The individual Ticket page appears.

3. Type a message in the message box (make sure the drop-down menu above is set to 'Public Reply' (the default).

Note: You can easily add additional contacts and technicians to ticket comments with the '@' symbol—to include all relevant people in the conversation. Entering the '@' symbol in the message body (as well as the 'To' and 'CC' fields) opens a dropdown menu of all technicians and customer contacts. Selecting a technician/contact in the message body add them to the 'CC' field.

4. Click the Send Reply button. Your customer will receive your message via email (and will also be able to view your message within their customer portal).

 

To communicate with your customer via chat:

From the Actions dropdown menu, select Start Chat. Your customer will receive your chat request.

 

 

View Ticket Updates and Communicate Internally

You can view internal updates from other technicians, as well as post internal updates yourself.

Note: Customers will not be able to view these updates.

 

To communicate internally:

1. Click Tickets, from the left-hand panel. A list of all your tickets appears.

2. Then click the specific ticket you wish to open. The individual Ticket page appears.

3. Select Internal Note from the drop-down menu, then type a message in the message box.

4. Tag a technician in a ticket by using the '@' symbol in the message body or by adding their names to the 'To' or 'CC' fields. 
Note: When a technician is CCed or tagged on a ticket, they will receive a notification when an internal note is posted (see image below). The notification will include a link to the ticket itself as well as details about when the notification was created — it will remain in the notification center for 7 days.

5. Once you have added a message and tagged the relevant people, click Save Note. Your internal note now appears in the ticket and the technicians you tagged will receive a notification. 

Note: You can set the default technician response type by going to Admin > Settings > Tickets, selecting 'Public Reply' or 'Internal Note', and clicking Save.

 

 

 

 

View Technicians Working on a Ticket

You can see which technicians are currently working on a ticket in real time. Multiple technicians can be displayed, with five avatars (including your own) and a dropdown menu showing any additional technicians. 

Note: Your avatar and those of other technicians are separated by a vertical line, with yours to the left:

 

Manage Tickets

The menu bar gives you the following options (explained below):

1. Click Tickets, from the left-hand panel. A list of all your tickets appears.

2. Then click the specific ticket you wish to open. The individual Ticket page appears.

1) Technician: Click here to select a new technician to assign to the ticket.

2) Go to Agent: Click here to view the agent assigned to the ticket to begin resolving the issue.

3) Select Contract: Click here to select the contract the ticket is assigned to.

4) Public Reply / Internal Note: Click Public Reply and type a message to your customer in the message box below (it will be received/seen by your customer). Click the drop-down arrow to change the communication type to an Internal Note if you'd like your message to be viewable by other technicians in your company (but not by your customers).

Note: The latest communication/reply is laid out in bubble format. The conversation history displays in the Conversation pane below. You can maximize/minimize the history by clicking the + or - icon.

5) Add Time Entry: Click here to add a time entry. 

Fill in the details and click Add.
Note: You can set the default duration in your ticket settings (Admin > Settings > Tickets) or manually override the default here. 

6) Actions: Click the drop-down menu to select an action:

A) Merge: Click to merge the current ticket with another ticket.

B) Delete: Click to delete the ticket.

C) Sign Customer: Click to capture a customer signature (only supported for touchscreen devices).

D) Start Chat: Click to initiate a chat session with the customer.

E) New calendar event: Click to add an onsite support visit or time block to your Office 365 or Google Calendar, to work on the ticket. Learn more about Atera's Office 365 integration and Google Calendar integration

F) Time entries: Click to view time entries. You can edit entries, add new ones, or delete as needed.

G) Products and Expenses: Click to view the products and expenses and to add new ones. 

 

To add a new item to Products and Expenses (e.g. travel time to client site):

1. Click Actions > Products & Expenses > Add 

2. Fill in the product or expense details and click Add.

 

Activity Status

Activity statuses include Unread, Read, Awaiting Customer Response, and Awaiting Technician Response. They will update automatically, dependent on the actions performed. You can also manually override automatic updates to a ticket's activity status — from the Tickets page and within the ticket.

Unread - Refers to a new ticket that hasn't been read yet by either the customer or technician.

Read - A ticket that has been read by either the customer or technician.

Awaiting customer response - The technician has updated the ticket and is awaiting the customer's response.

Awaiting technician response - The customer has replied to the ticket and is awaiting the technician's response.

Note: The Activity Status is updated automatically based on communication between the technician and customer. It can be manually updated as well by clicking the    icon and selecting a status.

 

Manually edit the ticket status

You can manually override automatic updates to a ticket's Activity Status — from the Tickets page and within the ticket.

To edit the ticket's activity status from the Tickets page:

1. From Tickets, on the side panel, navigate to your desired ticket and hover over the activity status.

2. Click the dropdown and select from the following activity status options:

• Unread
• Read
• Awaiting customer response
• Awaiting technician response

 

To edit the ticket's activity status from within the ticket:

1. From Tickets, on the side panel, open the ticket. The Ticket page appears.

2. Click the edit icon. The Edit Activity Status window appears.

3. Select from the following activity status options:

• Unread
• Read
• Awaiting customer response
• Awaiting technician response

4. Click Apply. 

 

View a Complete Log of All Ticket Activity

You can also click on 'Ticket Activity' to view all activity since the ticket was opened, including changes to ticket status, priority, impact, type, product family, ticket merge, and title. You can also view chat initiation, comment and note additions, as well as change of contact and technician assignment.

 

The Ticket Activity page appears.

Contact Details 

You can view and link to associated contact details.

Connect Remotely

You can connect remotely to the contact's device.

Contact's Tickets

Now you can see the contact's last 5 opened tickets, and link to their Tickets page. 

Ticket Properties

You can change the Ticket Status (Learn more), Priority, Impact or Type by making your selection and clicking Update. 

 

Automated time tracking

The automated time tracker is by default set to run when you go into a ticket (this default setting can be changed by going to Admin > Settings, and adjusting the Tickets setting).

 

To view the automated time tracker:

1. Click Tickets, from the left-hand panel. A list of all your tickets appears.

2. Then click the ticket name to open. The individual Ticket page appears. 

The top bar shows the tracked time working on this ticket. You can stop the counter by clicking on the bar. If you do not stop the counter then the bar remains on the top of the screen, even after you change to another screen. The bar also gives you the option to return to the ticket and add manual time entries.