The agent side of Helpie is two screens: the Dashboard, built for working through today’s queue, and All Tickets, built for finding things. This page covers both, plus everything that happens inside a ticket — statuses, assignment, replies versus private notes, the close-out note, and logging a ticket for a customer after a phone call.
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Dashboard vs All Tickets
Dashboard is the working view. A stats bar across the top shows Open, Closed today, and Avg response (today). Below it, the open queue sits in the left pane and the selected ticket opens in the right pane — you can work down the queue without ever leaving the page.
All Tickets is the finding view. It’s a filterable list of everything, past and present. Filter by status, by source (Web, Email, Admin, Chat — which door the ticket came through), or by assignee. Columns show Subject, Customer, Status, Priority, Source, Assignee, and Last activity.
Which view the All Tickets page defaults to is up to you: under Helpie > Settings > General, the Agent default ticket view setting offers My open tickets, All open tickets, or All tickets.
Bulk actions
Tick several tickets on the All Tickets list and the bulk actions menu offers:
- Close — moves them to Resolved
- Mark waiting on customer
- Assign to me
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Inside a Ticket
Open any ticket and the top bar holds the three levers: Status, Assignee, and Priority (Low, Normal, High, Urgent). Change any of them and click Update. Status changes can email the customer and assignments can email the agent — both notices are optional and covered in Email Log.
Below that is the message thread — every message labelled by who wrote it: Agent, Customer, AI Assistant, or System. Messages arrive in order regardless of whether they came through the website, the chat widget, or a customer’s mail app (see Helpdesk Emails for how email replies find their way in).
Replies vs internal notes
The reply box at the bottom has one important choice, and it’s worth being deliberate about:
- Public reply (emails the customer) — goes on the thread AND lands in the customer’s inbox, with a secure link back to the ticket.
- Internal note (agents only) — stays on the thread for your team’s eyes. Customers never see it, on the website or by email. Internal notes wear a badge in the thread so nobody mistakes one for a sent message.
The sidebar has a second, separate notes area (Internal notes) for observations that aren’t part of the conversation flow — with types like General, Flag, Verbal agreement, and Post-resolution. Handy for “customer confirmed refund by phone” moments.
The sidebar
Alongside the thread you’ll find:
- Customer — who you’re talking to, with a “logged in” badge for account holders. For guests whose email matches an existing WordPress account, Helpie offers a one-click Link to @username so their history connects up.
- Linked order — when WooCommerce is active and the ticket relates to an order, the order number, status, and total sit right there.
- Recent tickets — up to five other tickets from the same customer, because context is half the job.
- Export — Export this ticket downloads a plain-text file of the full thread. Useful for records; see Privacy & Personal Information for the bulk version.
The close-out note
When you move a ticket to a closed status, Helpie asks one small question before it lets go: “Capture a note about this customer?” Tickets purge after your retention window, but a one-sentence note — “prefers email over phone”, “had trouble with the checkout on Safari” — persists on the customer’s profile for next time. Helpie drafts a suggestion from the thread; you can accept it, edit it, pick a category (General, Preference, Contact method preference, Feedback), or click Skip — just close ticket and move on. No pressure either way.
The audit history
Every ticket carries a collapsible Audit history at the bottom — each status change, assignment, and priority change, with the old value, the new value, who did it, and when. Six months from now, when someone asks why a ticket bounced between three agents, the answer is written down.
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Custom Statuses
The built-in statuses — Open, In Progress, Waiting on Customer, Resolved — can’t be deleted, but you can add your own under Helpie > Settings > Statuses. Each custom status gets a label, a slug, a colour, and a sort order.
One checkbox matters more than it looks: Counts as closed? Tickets in a closed-counting status are treated as resolved for reporting and for retention purges. If you add an “Escalated” status, leave it unticked — those tickets are very much still open.
Which status new tickets start in is set under Settings > General (Default status for new tickets).
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Logging a Ticket for a Customer
Sometimes the support conversation starts on the phone. The customer explains the problem, you sort it out or promise to — and now that conversation exists nowhere. The Add ticket button (top of the All Tickets page) fixes that.
You enter three things: the customer’s email, a subject, and a message — the message is written as your reply, so phrase it to the customer (“Thanks for calling! As discussed, we’re sending a replacement…”). Optionally assign the ticket to an agent, then click Create ticket and email customer.
Here’s what happens:
- The ticket is created with source Admin, in your default status.
- Your message is recorded on the thread as an agent reply.
- The customer receives exactly one email: your message, plus a secure sign-in link so they can view the ticket and reply — no password, no account needed. (There’s no separate “ticket created” confirmation — the customer didn’t write in, so that email’s wording wouldn’t make sense.)
- If the email matches an existing account on your site, the ticket links to it automatically, so it also shows up when they’re logged in.
From there it’s a normal ticket. The customer replies from their inbox or the portal, and the conversation threads on like any other.
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Common Questions
Can a customer see internal notes if they have the ticket link?
No. Private messages and sidebar notes are never included in the customer’s view of a ticket, on the website or in email.
What’s the difference between an internal note in the reply box and a sidebar note?
The reply-box internal note sits inline in the conversation (“before my next reply, know this”). Sidebar notes sit apart from the flow (“about this ticket in general”). Both are agents-only.
Who appears in the Assignee dropdown?
Administrators and anyone with the Helpie Agent role. Roles and capabilities are managed under Settings > Permissions.