We are overall very satisfied with the Service Helpdesk and Customer Portal. The usability is intuitive and the direction is absolutely right. However, in daily operations we see several limitations that affect transparency and efficiency.
1. Full Timestamp Visibility
Currently, only the date is displayed in ticket details. The exact timestamp (HH:MM) is missing for:
- Ticket creation
- Comments
- Email replies
For SLA tracking, escalation handling, and incident reconstruction, precise timestamps are essential.
Request: Display full timestamps (including time and ideally timezone) for all ticket activities.
2. Clear Visibility of Email Replies
Email responses are technically visible but hidden under “show more” and not clearly distinguishable in the timeline.
Request: Display email replies prominently in the main ticket timeline, clearly labeled and immediately visible.
3. Customer-Editable Ticket Attributes During Lifecycle
Currently, ticket properties such as Impact and Urgency cannot be modified by the customer after ticket creation. In real-world scenarios, attributes like these may change as additional information becomes available.
More generally, certain defined ticket properties should remain editable for customers throughout the ticket lifecycle.
Request:
Allow configurable ticket properties (e.g., Impact, Urgency, or other defined attributes) to remain editable for customers after ticket creation, including change history tracking.
4. Default Dashboard Filters
There is no way to define default filters in the customer portal. Our users should always land on:
- “Owned by organization”
- “Open” tickets
Request: Allow organization-wide (and optionally user-level) default dashboard filters.
5. Customer-Specific Portal Configurations
Different customers have different operational and governance requirements (e.g., visible fields, editable attributes, workflows, SLA logic).
Request:
Allow separate portal configurations per customer (or per company), including:
- Visible ticket properties
- Editable fields
- Default filters
- Optional feature toggles
6. Automatic Email Footer / Signature Stripping
When customers reply via email, long email signatures, legal disclaimers, and historic reply chains are often included in full. This clutters tickets and reduces readability.
Request:
Implement improved automatic stripping of:
- Email signatures
- Legal disclaimers
- Repeated reply history
- Common footer patterns
This would significantly reduce noise in tickets and improve operational clarity.
7. Customer Escalation Button
Customers currently have no structured way to escalate an open ticket.
Request:
Introduce an “Escalate” button in the customer portal that:
- Marks the ticket with a visible status or label (e.g., “Escalated”)
- Logs the escalation event with timestamp
- Triggers a dedicated notification to a predefined person or group
- Optionally enforces a comment/reason field for escalation
This would provide a transparent and structured escalation mechanism aligned with SLA-driven service models.
These improvements would significantly enhance transparency, SLA governance, and overall operational efficiency for professional service organizations.