A ticket's status tells your team whose move it is. It also decides what the customer sees in the portal, which counts the ticket appears in, and whether the SLA clock is running.
There are five statuses. A ticket can move between them many times.
The five statuses
Open
The ticket needs you. Every new ticket starts here, whichever way it arrived.
Customer responded
The customer has written back, so the ball is in your court again. It's set automatically whenever a customer replies, whatever the status was before. That includes a closed ticket, which reopens as Customer responded and counts as reopened. It stands out from brand-new Open tickets so you can see who's waiting on a follow-up.
Pending
You've replied and you're waiting on the customer: for information, a confirmation, or for them to try something. Replying to the customer sets Pending automatically, so you rarely set it by hand. The SLA clock pauses while a ticket is pending, because the wait isn't yours.
On hold
You're waiting on someone other than the customer: a supplier, a courier, another team, a scheduled change. The SLA clock pauses here too. Use it honestly. Parking a ticket on hold to dodge an SLA shows up in the reports.
Closed
The work is done. Closing a ticket sends the customer a short satisfaction survey (if your desk has surveys switched on). If the customer replies later, the ticket reopens as Customer responded.
Changing the status
- Automatically: a new ticket is Open, your reply makes it Pending, and a customer reply makes it Customer responded.
- The buttons at the top of a ticket: Open, Pending, Close and Silent close.
- The Status menu in the ticket's side panel: any status, including On hold.
- Send & close: reply and close in one step (
Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Enterin the reply box). - Keyboard: on a ticket,
Shift + Ccloses it andrjumps to the reply box. Closing needs Shift so a stray keystroke can't close a ticket by accident. - Many at once: tick tickets in the inbox and use Mark open, Mark pending, On hold or Close.
Close or Silent close?
Close sends the satisfaction survey. Silent close closes the ticket without the survey, for spam, duplicates, or tickets the customer has already said are sorted. Either way, the customer can still reopen the ticket by replying.
What the customer sees
In the customer portal, and on the ticket link in your emails, the customer sees Open, Pending, On Hold or Closed. A ticket they've just replied to shows as Open: Customer responded is only for your team.
Common mistakes
- Closing because the customer went quiet. Leave it Pending, or set up an automation to close pending tickets after a number of days with a final message.
- Leaving everything Open. Open should mean "we need to act now". If you've replied, it's Pending. If you're blocked by someone else, it's On hold.
- Closing without a final message. Even a one-line confirmation saves a confused follow-up. Send & close does both.
Automations
Triggers and automations can change status for you, for example closing Pending tickets after 7 days without a reply. Admins set these up in Settings → Automations. See Triggers and automations.