🎁 JSM Advent Calendar - Day 12: Internal vs. External Comments (Elf Whispers)

[#1]

🤫 Shhh! Don't wake the baby!

We’ve learned how to wrap gifts in bulk (Day 11). Now, we need to learn how to keep a secret.

The Scenario:

Santa and the Head Elf are arguing about whether a child has been good enough for a pony. They need to have this debate privately. If the child heard them arguing "I think he was too naughty in October!", it would ruin the magic.

The Reality:

HR issues are incredibly sensitive. You often need to ask a colleague or manager for advice before you reply to an employee.

• "Is this expense claim actually allowed?"

• "Does this count as a sick day or a personal day?"

• "Can legal review this wording?"

The employee (the requester) should absolutely not see this messy back-and-forth discussion.

The JSM Solution:

Internal Comments. JSM gives you two distinct ways to communicate on a ticket:

1. Reply to Customer: This sends an email to the employee. (The "Ho-Ho-Ho").

2. Add Internal Note: This creates a comment with a yellow background that is visible only to the HR team. (The "Elf Whisper").

🎁 Tip of the Day:

Treat Internal Notes like your private HR investigation log. Use mentions (like @LegalTeam) inside an internal note to get advice. They get notified, they reply internally, and the employee never knows the conversation happened—they just get the final, polished answer.

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❄️ Let’s chat: Be honest: Have you ever had a "Reply All" nightmare where you accidentally sent an internal opinion to the customer? 😱 Share your horror stories (or close calls) below.

[Dave Mathijs]

As the primary communication in JSM happens between an Agent (hopefully still a human agent) and their Customer (reporter, optionally request participants), I believe the default should be public comment and Internal Comments should only be used in the use cases explained above.

In use cases where the Internal Comment was set as default, I've seen customer comments hidden from the portal because the Agent forgot to change the comment from internal to public.