Thanks to everyone who joined our Help Desk Admin HUG on January 13!
We covered a lot of ground on help desk setup, AI features, and how teams are using spaces and views. Here are answers to the questions that came up, organized by topic so you can jump straight to what matters for your team.
If your question didn’t get answered here (or you have other questions top of mind), come chat with me at our AMA February 9-13.
Getting Started with Help Desk
Does Help Desk replace tickets?
Asked by: Karen Young (@KarenY)
Answer: For a Support team, Help Desk replaces the Inbox. Everything in Help Desk is a ticket, so you use them together.
What is the primary reason why you would use Help Desk without using a ticket?
Asked by: Peter Becker (@PBecker76)
Answer: As I said above, everything in Help Desk is a ticket. Our goal is to enable users to use Help Desk without having to visit the ticket record or the ticket object page individually. The primary reason for using Help Desk is that Help Desk has all the features users need to answer support requests at scale.
Can you explain the objects being used in Help Desk? With the Inbox, Tickets and Conversations get messy.
Asked by: Lindsey Slader (@Dataslayder)
Answer: Help desk is designed to simplify managing conversations + tickets together (we heard a lot of feedback that this was difficult in inbox!). In help desk, everything is a ticket (you don’t need to worry about a separate conversation owner or status). Each ticket can have one or more conversations, which represent the actual communication thread with the customer.
Do all users need a Service Hub Pro or Enterprise Seat to use Help Desk?
Asked by: Torry Armor (@Torry)
Answer: Users can view, respond, and edit tickets in help desk without a Service Seat. Much of the more advanced functionality that’s tied to core efficiency in a support rep’s workflow—things like automated assignment, viewing SLA indicators, and macros—are seated.
Non-seated users must have either Sales Access or Service Access turned on in order to view help desk.
Organizing Tickets: Spaces and Views
How should we think about Help Desk for drastically different constituencies and content/process/automation needs?
Asked by: Joshua Oakes (@Oakes)
Context: For example, orgs with entirely separate lines of business, internal vs external audiences? Especially with AI tooling, how do we effectively silo things to prevent cross contamination in the customer experience and admin/management experience?
Answer: We generally recommend using a combination of permissions, spaces, and views (managed through Views Customization in help desk settings) to segment work across support teams. Together, these tools ensure tickets surface in the right places so reps can stay focused, while also restricting visibility so users only see the tickets they’re meant to access. We also have work in flight to support segmentation for AI tooling—stay tuned!
We currently have one inbox for USNA, one for EMEA, and one for APAC service. Spaces would be how we could segregate tickets the same way, correct?
Asked by: Dale Gearhart (@DaleGearhart)
Answer: Yes! We recommend organizing your users into three teams (if you haven’t already), setting up routing for each team, and then creating one space per team. Tickets routed to a given team will automatically appear in that team’s corresponding space.
Are Spaces similar to custom views you could set up in Help Desk?
Asked by: Courtney Compton (@CCompton85)
Context: I have a client that has multiple teams/shared emails using Help Desk and think spaces could help them with views.
Answer: You can think of spaces as dedicated work areas for each team. Tickets that are routed to or assigned to a team will appear in that team’s space views. These views can be managed through Views Customization in help desk settings. Tickets can be moved between spaces by updating the “Assigned team” property on the ticket.
Is it possible to set default views and spaces for different teams?
Asked by: Chel Morse (@00000)
Context: Running into issues with users mixing up Unassigned (outside of an assigned team space) and Unassigned (inside their assigned team space, where they are expected to work.)
Answer: Yes, global default views like Unassigned can be managed at the user, team, or portal level via Views Customization in help desk Settings.
Any update on being able to put views into folders?
Asked by: Chel Morse
Answer: Transparently, the concept of “folders” on the sidebar isn’t a current priority for the team. We’ve recently added the ability to reorder views, as well as drag views to the “Less” dropdown for easily hiding.
Will views also be available to see associations to custom objects?
Asked by: Karen Waldon (@KarenDWaldon)
Context: You mentioned views based on contacts but custom objects are always needed.
Answer: Right now we support creating views based on associated Contact and Company. Appreciate the feedback though, we will pass this along to the team!
Where do I find how to setup ticket views by the type of customer?
Asked by: Brent Reed
Answer: You can create custom views filtered by any ticket, contact or company property. Here’s how:
- In Help Desk, in the left side bar click the plus sign next to “”Less” > Create global view> Enter a name
- Add filters for contact, company or ticket properties like “Customer Type” or custom properties you use to segment customers
You can also filter by associated company properties if your segmentation lives there. Learn more about creating views in Help Desk.
The Ticket owner filter lists every HubSpot user—surely this should only be those with access to Service Hub?
Asked by: Serey Neou-Thormann (@SyN-Thmn)
Answer: This is valid feedback and others have mentioned it as well. The owner filter showing all users (not just those with Service access) can make the list harder to navigate, especially in larger portals. I will pass this along to the product team!
Team Collaboration
Can I split a ticket/conversation to send some comms to a separate inbox that is not managed on the helpdesk?
Asked by: Gillian Lovering (@GLovering)
Context: We have service and support on help desk but sales team uses deals and conversations to manage pipelines.
Answer: Right now, you can’t split a ticket and send part of it to an inbox outside Help Desk. When you split a ticket, both pieces stay in Help Desk—they just become two separate tickets you can route to different views or agents. Splitting a ticket is probably most useful if a) you need reporting on that (i.e. you need another ticket for this other, new sales issue) and b) the other team in question needs to take some action on it. Another way you could collaborate with sales if those two reasons aren’t that important is to use Notes. (e.g. tag the sales team in the original ticket).
Otherwise here’s what you can do instead: If you need to loop in a team that’s not using Help Desk (like a non-support team managing their own inbox), your best bet is to forward the relevant messages manually. Split the ticket first to keep your Help Desk workflow clean, then forward the specific communication to that team.
If we use a workflow to split a ticket instead of continuing to manage new messages through the original ticket, how do we prevent the original ticket from reflecting a long “open” time based on the new closed date when it is reclosed?
Asked by: Chel Morse
Answer: This depends on the workflow you’re using. There is a ticket reopening management workflow template that allows you to manage re-opened tickets using a workflow.
The way that workflow works is that technically it allows that original ticket to re-open temporarily. But in the workflow there’s an action called “copy ticket,” which is split ticket in the form of a workflow action. That action copies over the message that caused the ticket to be reopened, sets a few ticket properties on the new ticket at the user’s discretion, and contains an option to re-close the original ticket. When that original ticket is closed, it retains its original close date.
If you are using a custom built workflow and creating a new ticket, the original create date would not fall back to the original.
SLAs and Working Hours
A big pain point for us is the native HubSpot SLA only tracks time to email response. We mostly use text message and phone calls. Will those activities natively be tracked in Help Desk?
Asked by: Meredith McVadon (@MereMcV)
Answer: I totally hear you on this. At this time, I don’t have any specific timelines for you from the product side. That said, we’re continuing to invest in calling and SMS, and how those channels integrate into help desk. Keep an eye out for updates!
Can we please have working hours added to native ticket-related properties?
Asked by: Chel Morse
Context: Like time to assign to rep, etc. Holding off because “working hours is tied to different humans/time zones/etc.” is missing an easy win for smaller companies that measure workdays in the same time zone hours regardless of where their reps are working from.
Answer: We want to hear more about this use case, Chel! The team will reach out to you.
Is there a way to have an SLA not count for weekends? So just business days?
Asked by: Brent Reed
Answer: Yes! SLAs can absolutely respect business hours and skip weekends.
When you set up an SLA policy, you can define your business hours—including which days of the week you’re actually working. If you only work Monday through Friday, set your business hours to reflect that. The SLA timer will pause outside those hours, so weekends won’t count against your response or resolution times. Make sure to use “time to first response in SLA hours” and “time to close in SLA hours” in your reports to make sure your reports are considering the set working hours.
Here’s how to set it up:
- Go to Service > Help Desk > SLAs
- Create or edit an SLA policy
- In the policy settings, define your SLA schedule for specific days and hours
- SLAs will only count time during those hours
There are more details in the SLA knowledge base article if you want to dig into the setup.
Is there a way to pause SLA based on regional holidays?
Asked by: George Torres
Context: For example, the US team is off for MLK day, so all customers/companies in the US region will pause SLA. Easter is a holiday in the EMEA region and SLA will pause for customers in that region.
Answer: Right now, there’s no native way to pause SLAs for regional or company-specific holidays. Our product team is aware of this, but it is not currently prioritized on the roadmap.
When SLA settings are changed, will the Ticket properties related to SLAs for past tickets automatically recalculate and adjust?
Asked by: Arjun T (@AT32)
Answer: No, SLA property values are calculated at the time the ticket meets (or misses) the SLA criteria. If you change your SLA settings, it won’t retroactively recalculate past tickets. Only new tickets, or tickets still in progress, will use the new SLA rules.
That said, we’re actively working on a feature that will give you the option to retroactively apply updated SLA settings to existing tickets. This capability is expected to enter public beta in the next few weeks.
How many different types of SLAs can you create?
Asked by: Katie Tavella (@KTrubinski)
Answer: There’s no limit to the number of SLA policies you can create in a portal. Each SLA can have its own criteria, time frames, and targets. However, you can only use one SLA type at a time. For example, if your SLAs are defined by ticket pipeline, you can’t also define separate SLAs by priority at the same time. To combine multiple dimensions, like pipeline and priority, you’d need to use conditional SLAs within a single SLA policy. Learn more about setting up SLAs.
Automation: Macros and Workflows
Curious about the benefits of macros over workflow automations. Has anyone migrated from an automation that did something similar to a macro?
Asked by: Chel Morse
Answer: Great question! Here’s the difference:
- Workflows run automatically based on triggers (no human decision needed)
- Macros let reps apply a bundle of actions with one click (human decides when to use it)
Use macros when your reps need to make judgment calls about which actions to take. Use workflows when the action should happen automatically every time certain conditions are met.
For example:
- Macro: “Close and send CSAT” (rep decides when ticket is actually resolved)
- Workflow: Auto-assign tickets based on category (happens without rep input)
Many teams use both—workflows handle the automatic routing and macros give reps quick actions for common scenarios.
Can macros also trigger actions on external sites, like Linear?
Asked by: Stuart Munro
Answer: Not directly. Macros can only update HubSpot properties and take actions within HubSpot (like sending emails, updating ticket properties, creating tasks). If you need to trigger actions in external tools, you’d use workflows with webhook actions or custom code instead.
A workaround: You can trigger a workflow using a macro. So, if you have a workflow set up to fire a webhook or custom code action, you can use a macro to trigger it using the “enroll in workflow” macro action.
Ticket Assignment and Capacity
Is it possible to make fields mandatory before our support team moves tickets from one stage to another?
Asked by: Bhumika Bhatia (@Bhumika_Bhatia)
Context: We need this to be reflected in the Board view as our support team uses board view to move tickets from one stage to another.
Answer: Yes, required properties are already supported in help desk!
Additional context: Set up required properties for tickets to ensure reps fill in critical information before moving tickets through your pipeline.
Just to confirm on the capacity issue, if I set my reps’ capacity at 100 assigned tickets, more could be assigned and it would be flagged that they are over capacity?
Asked by: Judy Hall (@JHallCSM)
Answer: More could be assigned directly, but automatic assignment will stop until they have capacity.
If you’re at capacity and there are unassigned tickets assigned to your team, will they auto-route to you if you come below capacity?
Asked by: Jon Kohlmeier (@JKohlmeier)
Answer: Right now, they stay unassigned. You can create a workflow to go through the unassigned and try to assign to agents. We do have a very scrappy waitlist option that we plan to make more robust in the first half of this year.
Is there a view to when queuing function will be added within Help Desk?
Asked by: Stuart Munro
Context: It’s been a big blocker for us that tickets generated outside of opening hours just sit unassigned even when users become available. It will be a huge step.
Answer: There’s a waitlist feature currently in alpha that the team plans to make more robust in H1 2026.
My team is too small to have teams within the team. Can you have 1-person “teams” or can these options be translated to individual people instead of teams?
Asked by: Judy Hall
Answer: Yes, you can create a team with just one person in HubSpot. Some features (like spaces and assignment rules) are designed around teams, but single-person teams work fine if that fits your structure better than assigning everything individually.
AI Features
Moving forward, is the reply recommendation only going to be available if you have deployed customer agent?
Asked by: Christy Sicard (@CSic)
Answer: Reply recommendations will be a method of deploying customer agent. So you will not need an active customer agent live and talking to your customers in order to use reply recommendations.
Reply recommendations will be a manual, driver-controlled mode of using customer agent. Basically, rather than toggling on reply recommendations and managing content sources over in help desk settings, you can toggle it on and manage content sources in customer agent settings. There will not be a requirement to deploy a live customer agent in order to use reply recs.
Learn more about reply recommendations
Are there plans for the AI Agent to reply within the Customer Portal?
Asked by: George Torres
Context: We have the Customer Agent connected to Help Desk, but sometimes when a customer starts a live chat with the AI Chatbot, the customer replies via the Customer Portal window and the AI tool just stops replying completely—the customer is just hung out to dry with no hand-off or warning.
Answer: Thank you for sharing this feedback. While we don’t currently have plans to add customer portal support in the near future, we’ll be sure to take this input into consideration as we plan ahead.
Is the doc and training updated for handoffs?
Asked by: Jeff Kushmerek (@JKushmerek)
Answer: Yes! Here’s the Knowledge Base article: Set up and customize the customer agent’s handoff process
Reporting and Analytics
Will there be new “native” or “out of the box” reports available for Help Desk?
Asked by: Meredith McVadon
Context: Would LOVE more reports that actually aid managers in making decisions and overseeing quality. I don’t use hardly any of the native ticket reports because we don’t find them helpful for team management. They don’t show growth over time per user, don’t show time between stages, and only follow email SLA.
Answer: Hi Meredith! Thanks for this question in the Admin HUG -It sounds like you’ve connected with Marc on this!
Summary isn’t visible—I am on core seat/Super admin. Do I need paid service seat to view this?
Asked by: Bhumika Bhatia
Answer: Yes, Summary, Analyze, and Coaching Tabs require a Service Seat to view.
Is the filter set in the summary tab for a single team or multiple teams?
Asked by: Serey Neou-Thormann
Context: For example, we are onboarding the technical UK team first—we have other support teams across Europe.
Answer: The Summary tab can be filtered by team, so you can view metrics for specific teams or across multiple teams. This is helpful when rolling out help desk gradually or when you want to compare performance across different groups.
CSAT and Surveys
We have just migrated from Zendesk to HubSpot Help Desk and it’s been great so far. We are missing the CSAT survey though. I can see I can set up one in surveys, but how can I automate survey to be sent as soon as the ticket is closed and resolved?
Asked by: Bhumika Bhatia
Answer: You should be able to set this in the “Recipients” tab of survey settings.
Additional context: When creating your CSAT survey, you can set it to automatically send when a ticket reaches certain status (like Closed). Learn more about automating surveys.
Feature Requests and Product Feedback
Can Service users have access to the meeting recording tool soon?
Asked by: Chad Hohn
Context: CS and Support both need meeting recordings but it’s not always feeling like it’s worth assigning them a sales seat just for that and no other benefits they don’t already get from their Service Seat.
Answer: We hear this a lot, Chad. Because of that, the team is expanding notetaker access this year. I don’t have a specific timeline, but keep an eye out for this one.
Are there any plans to automatically have the Ticket ID populate in the subject line of Help Desk communications?
Asked by: Connor Blake
Answer: Right now, we don’t have a way to update the Subject line of a Help Desk communication with the Ticket ID. This is on the product team’s radar, but we don’t have a timeline on it.
Betas Mentioned
| Create and View Notes in Help Desk (Replacing Comments) | HubSpot Login and Sign in |
|---|---|
| Help Desk Search Improvements | HubSpot Login and Sign in |
| Skill-based Routing: Delay Before First Assignment | HubSpot Login and Sign in |
| Support Multiple Main Teams for Full Functionality | HubSpot Login and Sign in |
| Assigned Teams Are Now Editable in Help Desk | HubSpot Login and Sign in |
| User-based ticket capacity limits for all open tickets | HubSpot Login and Sign in |
| User-based ticket capacity limits by ticket type | HubSpot Login and Sign in |
| Help Desk Coaching Tab with New Metrics | HubSpot Login and Sign in |
More Questions?
If your question didn’t get answered here (or you have other questions top of mind), come chat with me at our AMA February 9-13.
Thanks again to Kyle & D’Ana for having us!
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