Changing the default privacy of ticket comments

 

Fastpath: Admin Center > Objects and rules > Tickets > Settings

Your agents reply to customer tickets by adding comments to them. They can do this either through the Zendesk Support web interface, or by responding to the ticket using email or another messaging channel.

This article includes these sections:

• About public and private comments
• Making agent comments private by default

About public and private comments

You can configure ticket comments in one of two ways:

• Public: Ticket comments can be seen by the customer. Public comments are written on the Public reply (or messaging channel) of the ticket comments field. For example, here's where agents can add public replies from the ticket interface

  

• Private: Private comments (known as internal notes) can be seen by agents, but cannot be seen by the customer. These are great for discussing tickets internally with your team without having to involve the customer. For example, here's where agents can add private comments from the ticket interface:

  

Making agent comments private by default

By default, when an agent adds a comment, the comment becomes public. For example, if the agent wants to add a private comment to the ticket from the ticket interface, they must first select Internal note. If they forget, the customer will see what they write.

If you prefer, you can configure ticket comments from agents to be private by default. Then, when an agent adds a comment from the ticket interface, they will need to select a public channel (such as email or chat) instead of an Internal note if they want the customer to see the comment.

If CCs are enabled, you can also change the default comment privacy for end user CCs. See Configuring CC and follower permissions.

To configure private ticket comments as the default

1. In Admin Center, click Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Settings.
2. In the Comments section, deselect both these options: Agent comments on all tickets are public by default and Agent comments via email are public by default.

   

   If you don't have the Zendesk Agent Workspace enabled on your account, the option names vary slightly. Deselect both these options: Agent comments by web are public by default and Agent comments via email are public by default.

   

Note: For information about comment privacy when email replies are involved, see Understanding when email replies become public or private comments.