Did zendesk route my reply correctly, or should I email again?

September 22, 2023 10:48 AM

I submitted something for publication, and was psyched to get back a request for revision from the publisher's zendesk account. That request was auto-forwarded to my main inbox, a different email address. I replied from there by mistake, which I just realized. Did replying from a different account likely mess up the zendesk thread, such that I should reply again? Or was my first reply likely received, so I should sit tight and not pester them again yet?

The publisher's email From line is in this format: [e-mail], and the signed-by line is zendesk.com. It starts with these auto-generated lines:
##- Please type your reply above this line -##
Your request (xxxxxxx) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.

The email was sent to me at, let's say, [e-mail]. I always have all emails from there auto-forwarded to another address, let's say [e-mail]. When I replied, I replied from the latter one by mistake. With zendesk, does that mean it may not be routed correctly? I only sent it four days ago, and then realized my mistake just now. If the publisher already has my reply in hand, I don't want to seem like I'm pestering them by emailing again. But if switching accounts means my reply might not have gotten routed correctly, I'd re-send my reply, this time from professionalsoundingaccount as I'd intended.

posted by daisyace to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

First place to check would be your Sent folder; see what address you actually replied to.
posted by sagc at 10:52 AM on September 22, 2023

Response by poster: I replied to the correct address, but from a different account than they'd emailed. My question is whether replying *from* a different account messes up the way that zendesk manages and routes reply threads.
posted by daisyace at 10:54 AM on September 22, 2023

Response by poster: E.g., this publisher receives a lot of submissions. I'm wondering if zendesk privileges/prioritizes emails from accounts that it has replied to already -- in this case to request a revision -- and sends others to some kind of 'unsolicited communications' slush pile.
posted by daisyace at 11:01 AM on September 22, 2023

Best answer: I use Zendesk at my work (domains industry), so I see this happen often. If you replied from another email but to the same ticket id/request #, your reply will still be filtered into the original ticket id/request #, it'll just show its coming from another email but still be in the same thread.
posted by Fizz at 11:15 AM on September 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Zendesk doesn't do that automatically - it's up to the publisher to have put in workflows to prioritise messages. I'm involved in zendesk stuff at work and our protocol which is pretty standard for helpdesks is to merge the two tickets if somehow they get split up with separate request numbers. If you have the same request number on both, you're fine. Otherwise, reply to one, list the two request numbers and ask the agent to merge the two tickets for you - it's super easy.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 11:17 AM on September 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I use Zendesk at work. As long as you’ve replied to the same email thread you’re fine, it will show up under the same ticket in Zendesk.

At my work it will happen all the time that someone who wasn’t on the original thread gets cc’d and sends a reply, and Zendesk sticks it into the same ticket no problem.

(Inside the Zendesk interface, each ticket looks basically like an email thread anyway.)
posted by mekily at 11:44 AM on September 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Perfect, thank you!
posted by daisyace at 12:11 PM on September 22, 2023

Zendesk has a variety of ways to detect threading of emails, and usually is pretty good about matching emails.

This article explains the logic that is used, in the context of a user who might've replied to an older email and changed the subject.

Things like In-Reply-To headers are easy to thread, but the tool has some other ways if the headers are wiped out, such as using subaddressing. If you sent a response to [e-mail], then Zendesk will thread that with ticket 2345.

Depending on the publisher's configuration, there may be a link in your notification that takes you to a "My Requests" page or an individual request. You might have to create a Zendesk password to visit it. It can show you your entire ticket history. If they've enabled that feature, you
posted by Mad_Carew at 2:08 PM on September 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

If they've enabled that feature, you can view the request and see the conversation history.

Let's work on finishing our sentences, Mad. Might help if you're trying to communicate or anything...
posted by Mad_Carew at 3:20 PM on September 22, 2023