Customizing default email notifications for CCs and followers

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<div class="note fastpath">
<span class="fastpathtitle">Location: </span> <span class="ph">Admin Center &gt; Objects and rules &gt; Tickets &gt;
Settings</span>
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<p class="p">You may be wondering how email notifications for CCs and followers work. For
example, how and when notifications are sent to CCs and followers, and how
to change the text in the email notification to be specific to your
company’s needs.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">By default, email notifications for requesters and CCs are controlled
by two <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828984346" target="_blank">standard triggers</a> in Support.
These default triggers also define the email subject and body text that is
included in email notifications. You can customize the text in email
notifications to requesters and CCs by changing these default triggers. </p>
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> You can also create custom triggers and automations to send custom email
notifications to requesters and CCs (see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828286234" target="_blank">Creating business rules for CCs and
followers</a>).</div>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Email notifications for followers are handled differently. Followers
get email notifications when comments are added to tickets they are
following. Followers don't receive email notifications for their own
comments. There’s no way to disable email notifications to followers (other
than to stop using followers by turning off <strong class="ph b">Enable followers</strong>), but
you can customize the text in email notifications to followers using <a class="xref" href="#topic_vb5_sqr_jhb">the followers email
template</a>. For information about the privacy of comments
created by follower replies, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842992538" target="_blank">Understanding when email replies
become public or private comments</a>.</p>
<p class="p">This article includes these sections:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic-1__ul_plz_qqr_jhb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_gtn_3gg_khb">Understanding how email notifications are sent to CCs by default</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_gpn_zhg_khb">Customizing default triggers for email notifications to requesters and CCs</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_vb5_sqr_jhb">Understanding how email notifications are sent to followers by default</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_fmt_vqr_jhb">Customizing the follower email template for email notifications to followers</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="p">For a complete list of documentation about CCs and followers, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836035866" target="_blank">CCs and followers
resources</a>.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_gtn_3gg_khb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Understanding how email notifications are sent to CCs by default</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Triggers define when email notifications are sent to CCs (but
not followers) by default. There are two default triggers in Support
that control this behavior. They are:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_gtn_3gg_khb__ul_htn_3gg_khb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><strong class="ph b">Notify requester and CCs of received
request</strong></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><strong class="ph b">Notify requester and CCs of comment update</strong></li>
</ul>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">These triggers are important to CCs because they both include
an action called <strong class="ph b">Email user + (requester and CCs)</strong>. This
action (in particular the “and CCs” part) is what causes CCs to
receive email notifications. </p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">If you don’t have triggers that include the <strong class="ph b">Email user +
(requester and CCs)</strong> action, CCs do not receive email
notifications. We recommend that you do not delete or modify these
triggers without carefully considering how email notifications to
CCs are affected. For more information about default triggers, see
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828984346" target="_blank">About the standard Support
triggers</a>.</p>
<p class="p">It's also important to note that the trigger action <strong class="ph b">Email user +</strong>
<strong class="ph b">(requester and CCs)</strong> is suppressed when internal notes are
added to a ticket. The trigger still fires and performs any other
actions that may be included in the trigger, but the email message
is not sent. You must include a public comment if you want to use
this action to send an email
message.
</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If your Zendesk Support account was not migrated to the new
CCs and followers experience (released in May 2019), be
aware that for CC'd users to receive notifications, agents
must add a public comment to the ticket before solving it.
For more information about migrating your account to the new
experience, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408839371418-Migrating-to-CCs-and-followers" target="_blank">Migrating to CCs and
followers</a>.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_gpn_zhg_khb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Customizing default triggers for email notifications to requesters and CCs</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">You can customize the text in email notifications to requesters and CCs
by editing the <strong class="ph b">Notify requester and CCs of received request</strong>
and <strong class="ph b">Notify requester and CCs of comment update</strong>
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828984346" target="_blank">standard triggers</a>. You
must be an administrator to customize default triggers.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To customize default triggers for email notifications to requesters
and CCs</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_gpn_zhg_khb__ol_ufp_c3g_khb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_gpn_zhg_khb__d9e1579" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Business rules &gt;
Triggers</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Click the title of the <strong class="ph b">Notify requester and CCs of received
request</strong> trigger to open it.</li>
<li class="li">Change the email subject and body text if needed. <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408887218330" target="_blank">Placeholders</a>
are allowed. Remember to save your changes when you are
done.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_gpn_zhg_khb__image_itn_3gg_khb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/cc_default_trig_recieved_request_cc.png" width="600"></p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note" id="topic_gpn_zhg_khb__note_s2y_trf_2zb">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Some placeholders are
suppressed if the ticket meets certain conditions.
See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408833443226" target="_blank">Understanding
placeholder suppression
rules</a>.</div>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">Repeat these steps for the <strong class="ph b">Notify requester and CCs of
comment update</strong> trigger.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_vb5_sqr_jhb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Understanding how email notifications are sent to followers by default</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">By default, the follower email template (and subject line)
include some <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408887218330" target="_blank">placeholders</a>. For
example, here’s what the template looks like before you make any
changes:</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_vb5_sqr_jhb__image_hh2_vrr_jhb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/cc_follower_email_template.png" width="600"></p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">You can update the template to include any text that you want
and use placeholders such as:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_vb5_sqr_jhb__ul_hfy_sqr_jhb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">ticket.cc_names</strong> or
<strong class="ph b">email_cc_names</strong>—Returns the names of CCs on the
ticket.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">ticket.follower_names</strong>—Returns the names of
followers on the ticket.</li>
<li class="li">When used, the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886858138#topic_giz_opl_rc" target="_blank">ticket.follower_reply_type_message</a>
placeholder causes the <strong class="ph b">Reply to this email to add a
comment to the request</strong> or <strong class="ph b">Reply to this email
to add an internal note to the request</strong> to appear
in email notifications.</li>
</ul>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">For more information about these and other available
placeholders, see the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886858138" target="_blank">Zendesk Support placeholder
reference</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_fmt_vqr_jhb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Customizing the follower email template for email notifications to followers</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">The follower email template only appears and can be configured
when then <strong class="ph b">Enable follower</strong> option is selected. You must be an
administrator to configure the followers email template. </p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr"><strong class="ph b">To customize the follower email template</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_fmt_vqr_jhb__ol_gsy_vqr_jhb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_fmt_vqr_jhb__d9e1488" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Tickets &gt; Settings</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">CCs and followers on tickets</strong> to expand it.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Make sure the <strong class="ph b">Allow followers</strong> check box is
selected.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">In <strong class="ph b">Customize your follower email</strong>, type the text
that you want to include in the subject line of email
notifications to followers.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">In <strong class="ph b">Create your email text</strong>, type the text that
you want to include in the body of email notifications to
followers.<p class="p">If needed, you can click <strong class="ph b">Back to
default</strong> to replace the text in the email
template with the default text.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
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