This guide outlines the essential rules for handling Support tickets in Zendesk. Whether you are working on a brand-new email or managing a follow-up ticket, these best practices ensure we provide timely, HIPAA-compliant support while keeping our Zendesk ecosystem clean and accurate.
⏰ Master Your Time & AUX Codes Schedule adherence is critical to keeping the queues manageable! Please be highly mindful of your statuses:
- Meals & Breaks: Take them exactly as scheduled to ensure we have proper coverage.
- "Busy" Status: This should be used strictly for quick water or bathroom breaks. Limit your general "Away" time so we can stay fully staffed on the floor.
🎟️ The "Take a Ticket" Rule If you have downtime between calls, you should be actively working tickets; always moving from oldest to newest.
- Pro-Tip: Take the ticket regardless of who it is currently assigned to! That agent might be Out of Office or scheduled strictly in Genesys for the next few days. If it's in the view and needs a reply, grab it and solve it!
🛑 The Golden Rule: Account Verification (HIPAA)
You must verify the member's identity before discussing any account details. If a member opens an email ticket regarding their account but does not provide enough identifying information, you cannot proceed with troubleshooting. Sometimes the ticket will come in with UUID and account info present. In those instances you do not need to ask for verification. If you are unsure please review this article How to Navigate Through PHI Verification.
How to Verify a Member
Reply to the member using the Macro: Vida Account Verification
Macro Preview:
"Hello, Thank you for contacting Vida Health Support. Under HIPAA, Vida Health applies best practices to ensure the safety and privacy of all our members. To verify we are communicating directly with a Vida member, please respond with all of the following details: First and Last Name, Email Address associated with the account, Zip Code, and Date of Birth..."
🔥 Agent Tip: Customize the opening/closing of this macro to acknowledge the specific issue they wrote in about. It makes the experience feel human, not robotic!
Third-Party Callers (Spouses, Parents, Pay Org Reps)
If someone reaches out on behalf of a member, we need the member's explicit permission to speak with them. If it is a clinical third party for example a pharmacist or providers office please refer to this article Clinical Third Party Call Handling
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Action: Reply using the Macro:
Vida Account Verification - Permission Request
✉️ Email Ticket Management Best Practices
Every message from a member must receive a reply. Never leave a member wondering if their issue is being handled.
Never Leave 'Open' Without a Reply: If a ticket needs to sit in the 'Open' queue while you investigate, you must send a public reply letting the member know you are looking into it. Use the existing 'Ticket Escalated to internal team' macro or write a custom update.
Take Ownership: Whenever you reply to a ticket, click "Take It" in the Assignee field. Unclaimed tickets disappear from the main views and can easily be lost.
Answer Everything: If a member asks three questions in one email, ensure your reply addresses all three.
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Employment/Spam Inquiries: Escalate business/employment inquiries via Slack. If instructed to treat as spam, use the proper tags and submit the ticket as 'Solved'.
✅ Solving the Ticket & Using Knowledge Base Articles
If you can resolve the member's issue using our internal knowledge base, follow these steps to ensure our internal data stays rich and searchable.
Find the Solution: Locate the relevant Help Center article.
Link It Internally: Paste the URL of the internal knowledge article you used into a Private Comment on the ticket.
Share It Publicly: If the article is public-facing, link it in your public reply to the user!
Copy, Paste, and Personalize: Copy the troubleshooting steps from the article, paste them into your public reply, and personalize the tone to fit the member's specific situation.
Set to Solved: Submit the ticket as Solved.
Note: Zendesk will automatically reopen any 'Solved' ticket if the member replies. If you asked the member a question and are waiting on them, you can safely submit the ticket as 'Solved' (or 'Pending' depending on team preference) to keep your queue clean.
What if I can't solve it?
If no article exists and you cannot resolve the issue, assign the ticket to the Tier 2 for escalation, be sure to leave an internal note describing the resources/steps you tried, and why you were unable to properly escalate or resolve the ticket.
🔄 Handling Follow-Up & Merged Tickets
Follow-Up Tickets
Once a ticket is closed, it cannot be reopened. If a member replies to a closed ticket, Zendesk creates a "Follow-up" ticket.
If it's the exact same issue: Proceed without re-verifying (assuming they were verified on the original ticket).
If it's a brand new issue: You must re-verify the member using the verification macro.
How to Merge Duplicate Tickets
When a member contacts us multiple times about the same issue—often due to disconnected or abandoned calls—merging their tickets helps us resolve their request faster and keeps our queues organized.
🛑 CRITICAL HIPAA WARNING: Verify the Requester Always double-check that both tickets are from the exact same requester. If you accidentally merge tickets from two different users, the requester of the closed ticket will automatically be copied (CC'd) on the new ticket, resulting in a major HIPAA violation.
Validate with the Member
Before you hit merge, always confirm with the caller that the multiple tickets are indeed about the exact same issue.
Suggested Script: "I noticed you reached out a couple of times recently. Just to make sure I have all your information in one place, were those contacts about the same issue?"
Merge the Newer Ticket into the Older Ticket
Once confirmed, always merge the newer ticket into the older, established ticket. You can do this using one of the two methods below:
Method 1: The "Merge Suggestions" App (Recommended & Fastest)
The most efficient way to handle duplicates is by using the Merge Suggestions feature. This allows you to combine tickets directly on the same page without clicking back and forth.
On the right-hand side of your Zendesk workspace, click the Related tickets icon (it looks like a small ticket).
Look for the Merge suggestions section to see tickets the system has flagged as potential duplicates.
Check the boxes next to the tickets you need to merge.
Click Merge to combine them instantly.
Method 2: The Member Profile (Alternative)
Because members don't always mention right away that they've called previously, checking the member's account for existing issues is a great habit. You can manually review and merge duplicate tickets by navigating directly to the user's profile screen.
📞 Scheduling Callbacks from Email Tickets
If a member emails requesting a phone call, or if an issue is too complex for email:
Select the “Customer Support Form” in the ticket fields.
Add the agreed-upon date to the “Call Back Date” field.
Add the time (in Eastern Time) to the “Call Back Time” field.
Set the ticket status to ‘On-Hold’.
Check your 'Callback' queue daily. (Pro-tip: Set a reminder in your Google Calendar!)
👤 Maintaining the Zendesk User Profile
Clean data is the backbone of good support. Every verified email ticket must be associated with a complete Zendesk User Profile.
If the requester name is just an email address (no profile exists):
Open the profile by clicking on the email address.
Add the member's First and Last Name.
Add the Paying Organization (Org). (This is critical for SLA tracking).
Add their Date of Birth (DOB) and Zip Code in the user fields.
[ 🖼 INSERT IMAGE: Zendesk profile sidebar highlighting where to add Name, Org, DOB, and Zip ]
If the member emails from a new address but already has an account:
Do not just work the ticket under the new email. You must merge the new email address into their existing, verified profile so all their ticket history stays in one place.
[ 🔗 INSERT LINK: Guide to Merging User Profiles in Zendesk ]
Proactive Support — Creating Outreach Tickets
Objective: Sometimes we need to initiate contact with a member rather than waiting for them to come to us. When creating a proactive outreach ticket, you must follow this exact sequence to ensure our reporting metrics (like First Reply Time) aren't ruined.
⚠️ The Golden Rule of Outreach Tickets-You MUST submit an Internal Note FIRST before ever sending a public reply. If you send a public reply first, the SLA timer will run in the background until your next reply, destroying our response time metrics.
📝 The 5-Step Outreach Workflow
Set Requester: Add the member's email in the Requester field.
Take Ownership: Assign the ticket to yourself.
Subject Line:
Vida Support - Issues with [Insert Issue]Internal Note (CRITICAL): Write an Internal Note summarizing the outreach.
Submit: Click Submit as New. (Only AFTER this is done should you draft and send your public reply!)
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