Skip to content

How the Helpdesk Works

In Daktela, customer requests are tracked as tickets. Every ticket lives in exactly one category β€” the category decides who can work with the ticket, which SLA deadlines apply, which statuses and form fields agents use. Agents find their tickets through views, which are saved filters over all tickets. Most tickets are created automatically from incoming emails; calls, chats and messages from other channels can be merged into tickets too.

When you are ready to build, follow Set Up Your Helpdesk β€” it takes you through all the steps in the right order.

The Journey of a Ticket

The Journey of a Ticket diagram

  1. An incoming email becomes a ticket (or is appended to an existing one if it is a reply). The email queue sets the ticket's category; email routings can refine its parameters. See How Email Works for the channel side.
  2. The category's profiles decide which agents can see and work the ticket. From here it can reach an agent three ways: it waits in a view until someone picks it up, the category's own Distribution setting assigns it to the agent with the fewest open tickets, or a ticket distribution rule pushes it into a ticket queue or a priority flow.
  3. The ticket's deadlines are calculated from the category's SLA and working hours. The first qualifying reply counts as the response; closing the ticket counts as the solution.
  4. Agents work tickets from views, set statuses and use macros for one-click actions.

The Building Blocks

Building block What it does Where to set it up
Categories The home of every ticket: which profiles can work it and its distribution, SLA and working hours, statuses, notifications and the ticket form. Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ Categories
SLA Response and solution deadlines per priority. Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ SLA
Time groups The working hours used for SLA calculation. Settings β†’ Workflows β†’ Time groups
Views Predefined ticket filters agents work from, assigned per profile. Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ Views
Statuses Labels agents set on tickets, per category. Settings β†’ Workflows β†’ Statuses
Macros One-click buttons that combine ticket actions (set status, reopen, send and close…). Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ Macros
Custom Fields & Forms The ticket form agents fill in, defined per category. Category detail, Relations β†’ Form
Email queue Turns incoming emails into tickets and sets their category. Settings β†’ Routings β†’ Queues
Ticket queue Pushes tickets to agents instead of waiting for someone to pick them out of a view, and grows their score against the SLA deadline while they wait. Settings β†’ Routings β†’ Queues
Ticket distribution rules Decide which tickets enter distribution, where they go and at what priority. Settings β†’ Tickets β†’ Distribution Rules
Priority Flows Score tickets alongside calls, chats and messages on one scale, so agents are offered the most important work first. Settings β†’ Routings β†’ Priority Flows

How Views, Categories and Profiles Work Together

A view is a predefined ticket filter that groups together tickets based on their parameters (either set up in the email queue or email routings, or selected manually in the ticket). Because views work like filters, a single ticket is commonly part of several views at the same time – e.g. one based on its category, one based on its status and one based on the time since the last activity.

A view is accessible to all users whose profile includes it. However, to see the tickets contained in the view, the profile must also include the tickets' categories (the Tickets area's category scope). This means that different users can see different tickets in the same view.

In the example below, there are 3 users whose profiles all include the view "Leads".

  • UK Sales Person only sees tickets in the "UK Leads" category in the view.
  • FR Sales Person only sees tickets in the "FR Leads" category in the view.
  • Sales Manager sees tickets in both categories in the view.

Diagram of three users who all have the Leads view but see different tickets, depending on which categories their profiles include

Before You Start

  • Administrator access to the Settings section of Daktela.
  • A working email channel if tickets should be created from emails β€” see Set Up Email.
  • A list of agents who will work the tickets and the profiles they use.
  • Your service levels β€” how fast you promise to respond and resolve, and during which working hours.

Ready? Continue to Set Up Your Helpdesk.