Single Customer creates duplicate tickets

[Christina Monti]

Our setup uses /servicedesk/customer/portals as a front-end presentment for customers to submit issues, which are then managed in the Service Management project. I'm finding that the same customers are creating more than one ticket and often are discussing the same problem. This creates issues as a single managing resource because I can respond in one way on a ticket vs. another way on the second ticket. What makes this more difficult is that there is no connection in the tickets to identify that they have submitted a second ticket. 

I want to identify when a single customer creates a ticket and try to deflect the duplicated issue so we have a single communication thread. Alternatively, if I could tie the customer issues into the service management system so I don't have to say the same things to the same customer. 

I'd love a plugin, but I can't find one that describes my problem. I'll take automation suggestions, but I didn't know how to build this experience without it being clunky. 

[Susan Waldrip]

Hi @Christina Monti , welcome to the Community!

Is it possible to use the first submitted request as the "original" request, add subsequent requests' Reporters and Request Participants as Request Participants on the original request and copy/paste any different info on those requests to the original, and then cancel the duplicate requests? That way everyone would be on one request and (if your notifications are set accordingly) they would all be notified about that one request. Alternatively, if the customers submitting multiple requests actually work together, it could be a problem that's solved with a bit of training that they need to decide who's submitting the request and include the other folks in the Share + (portal) or cc: field (email). Please post clarification if I misunderstood your problem, thanks!

[Christina Monti]

Hi Susan, 

That's the tricky part: the same email address submitting two requests for the same issue. 

I could use automation to identify when an email address submits a ticket within a day and then automate the action. But I'm unsure what the action should be; maybe it should be linked to the original ticket. 

As I described to Mikeal, this is a typical example: Susan will write a ticket for "Need desperate Help" with information about the problem and then submit another ticket for "X isn't working," which is what is described in the first ticket. 

In this scenario, because I don't have any indicators that "Need desperate Help" is the same customer as "X isn't working", I'm ultimately managing the tickets differently. 

[Susan Waldrip]

Ah, it's the same person submitting multiple tickets for the same problem. Ugh, yes, that's not fun. 😊 It sounds more like a training issue than the need for an automation or app, since your customers aren't using the system correctly. Maybe they need a reminder that they can add a comment to their original request asking for a response or status (beyond those provided already by JSM) instead of submitting another ticket. Otherwise, you'll spend a lot of time fixing things. If you find a better solution, please let us know!

[Mikael Sandberg]

Hi @Christina Monti,

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

There is a feature in JSM that can find similar requests that you could use for this.

It can be enabled if you go to Project settings > Features. It is a manual process currently, but hopefully this will evolve in the future so you could use automation with it 🤞🏻.

If you want to use an app you could use one of the ones that can merge issues, I was actually looking for this and found a couple of apps that can do this.

[Christina Monti]

Hi Mikael, 

Thank you for the warm welcome! I do have that feature turned on, unfortunately that field is only looking for similar messaging within the Summary of a ticket. I'm finding that e.g. Susan will write in a ticket for "Need desperate Help" with information about the problem and then submit another ticket for "X isn't working" which is what is described in the first ticket. 

I'll definitely be going through that list of apps!

Thanks, Christina.