Community Actions: Add, Reply, Follow Topics and Convert Posts to Tickets

Community Actions: Add, Reply, Follow Topics and Convert Posts to Tickets

A support community is where you can share specific questions, propose an idea or simply start a discussion relating to a particular topic with other users who are just as interested in the conversation. You can also respond to posts created by your customers to further engage with them. And if there is a customer who is posting content unrelated to the chosen topic, a moderator could step in and police that person. Let us learn how you could perform each of the above activities in detail. 

Add Topic
You can create a new topic under a category in your community forums. It can be either a discussion, question, idea, problem or an announcement, as these are the various topic types available in your Zoho Desk community. To add a new topic:
  1. Click the [Module] Tab from the top bar.( For e.g. Dashboard, Community, etc.)
  2. Select Community from the Modules menu.
  3. In the Community Overview page, click the  icon from the top panel. 
  4. In the Add New Topic page, specify the category and the forum you want to place the topic in from the drop-down list.
  5. Select a Topic Type. You can choose between Discussion, Question, Idea, Problem or an Announcement.
  6. Enter the Subject and the Description for your topic.  
  7. You can add an attachment that is existing in your desktop. Click the Desktop link under the Attachments section to upload a file.
  8. You can choose to be notified, whenever a new reply is received for this topic. Also, you can make the topic as a sticky post, so that it appears above the other topics in the category. You must check these options under the Notifications section. 
  9. You can choose to send this post as an email to your colleagues. Enter up to five email addresses separated by a comma.
  10. Click Publish.
If you'd like to save your work and come back to it another time, click Save as Draft. Once you do save a draft, a respective notification will appear under the Show My Drafts link in the upper-right area. You can also click Preview to view how your post looks like to other users. 

Reply to Topic
You can respond to a community post in two ways - a regular response or a comment to an existing response. To leave a regular response in a topic:
  1. Open a topic to view its details.
  2. In the Topic Details page, click Reply located below the original post or from the bottom of the page. 
  3. In the Reply Editor window, enter your response in the content area.
    You can check the Follow this Topic option to keep track of the responses made in it.
  4. Click Publish. 
You can leave a comment when you would like to express your opinion about a particular response in a topic. To leave a comment:
  1. Open a topic to view its details.
  2. In the Topic Details page, click Comment in a response. 
  3. In the Reply Editor window, enter your comment in the content area.
  4. Click Publish.
You can also leave a private response to keep your views confidential from the community. A private response can be viewed only by the topic author and the person who posted it. To post a reply, click Private Response located under Actions in the right panel. 

Follow Topics
You can follow topics to keep track of the updates and responses made to them. When someone responds to a topic that you follow, a chat feed and an email notification will be sent to your mailbox to update you about the post. To follow community topics:
  1. Open a topic to view its details.
  2. In the Topic Details page, click Follow this Topic in the upper-right area.
The topic will be added to your watch list. You can always choose to unfollow the topic when required. 

Converting Posts into Tickets
The forum posts that are published by your end-users can be automatically converted into a ticket. However, when this automation is switched off for a category, agents can manually convert a topic into a ticket. To convert a topic into a ticket:
  1. Open a topic to view its details.
  2. In the Topic Details page, click Add as Ticket located under Action in the right panel.
You will be notified about the topic being added as a ticket. Agents can now respond to the topic from within the ticket.