Preventing Duplicate Tickets for the Same Customer/Job

[pzmoore]

We’re experiencing a high number of duplicate or multiple tickets being created for the same customer or service request. This happens when different external parties (e.g., agents, customers, or partners) send separate emails or submit new forms about the same issue, and HubSpot creates a new ticket instead of linking it to the original one.

We can’t use the merge ticket option because it changes the original ticket number, which we need to keep for tracking purposes.

Is there a recommended way or best practice to prevent multiple tickets from being created for the same case- for example, through workflow automation, email association rules, or form settings? At the moment, we’re seeing about 5–8 tickets generated per single service request, which is causing a backlog in our help desk.

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @pzmoore,

---

@pzmoore wrote:

We’re experiencing a high number of duplicate or multiple tickets being created for the same customer or service request. This happens when different external parties (e.g., agents, customers, or partners) send separate emails or submit new forms about the same issue, and HubSpot creates a new ticket instead of linking it to the original one.

We can’t use the merge ticket option because it changes the original ticket number, which we need to keep for tracking purposes.

Is there a recommended way or best practice to prevent multiple tickets from being created for the same case- for example, through workflow automation, email association rules, or form settings? At the moment, we’re seeing about 5–8 tickets generated per single service request, which is causing a backlog in our help desk.

---

The original IDs are still retained under "Merged Ticket IDs":

If you can't prevent the creation of these tickets (which I don't think you can, as you can't force a person not to something), merging seems to be the only option to me. All options you mentioned (workflows, association rules etc) apply after the fact.

If you're seeing 5-8 tickets per single service request, there also seems to be an education issue. Have you investigated why it is that up to 8 people submit the same information? For example, if you started to send an email to these tickets that it will be closed because it has been submitted previously be person X, that could be one option to explore to reduce ticket volume, as contacts start to realize that other team members are doing the same thing.

Lastly, you could look into the customer portal: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/inbox/set-up-a-customer-portal

There is an option for contacts to see their company tickets – which means that they might not resubmit it if it's already listed in the portal.

Best regards