Assignment & Reassignment
Give every ticket an owner — assign to yourself, a colleague or a team, and hand work over cleanly.
Assignment decides who is responsible for a ticket. It is not optional bookkeeping: a ticket with no owner cannot be replied to.
Why Assignment Is Required
The composer stays locked until a ticket has an owner. This prevents the two failure modes every shared inbox suffers from:
- Duplicate replies — two agents answering the same customer minutes apart
- Silent drops — everyone assuming somebody else picked it up
An unassigned ticket is visible to everyone but owned by nobody, and it sits in New with an amber edge until that changes.
The Three Ways to Assign
| Route | Best for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Quick assign | Taking a ticket without reading it first | The person + button on a list row |
| Assign bar | Taking a ticket you have just read | Above the composer in an unassigned ticket |
| Ticket Details | Assigning to someone else, or reassigning | Panel → Assignment → Change |
Assign a Ticket to Yourself
Open the New view — or find any row with an amber left edge.
Click the person + button on the right of the row.
Alternatively, open the ticket and click Assign to me above the composer.
The status pill turns to Assigned, the ticket moves to your Mine view, and the composer unlocks.
A system note is added to the thread recording who took the ticket, so ownership history is always visible.
Assign to a Colleague or Team
Open the ticket.
Click the dropdown next to Assign to me, or open Ticket Details and click Change under Assignment.
Choose a team or an individual. Online / offline availability is shown next to each person.
The ticket is assigned instantly and appears in that person's Mine view.
Team vs Individual
| Assign to a team | Assign to an individual | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can respond | Any member, subject to permissions | That person |
| Shows in Mine for | Nobody in particular | That person |
| Use when | You want the fastest available person | The work needs a specific skill or owner |
You can assign several people to one ticket. The list row then shows the first assignee's avatar
with a +N badge — hover it for the full list.
Reassigning
Reassignment changes the owner of an already-assigned ticket. Reach for it when:
- An agent is going offline or on leave
- The issue needs escalating
- Another team is better placed to handle it
Leave a private note explaining where things stand. This is the handover.
@mention the new owner in that note so it reaches their @Mentions view.
Open Ticket Details → Assignment → Change and pick the new owner.
The ticket leaves your Mine view and enters theirs. A system note records the change.
Reassigning without a note is the most common reason customers have to repeat themselves. Always leave the context behind — it takes ten seconds and stays on the ticket forever.
Picking Up a Closed Ticket
Closed tickets cannot be reassigned in place — they are a finished record.
Assigning one, or clicking Reopen, opens a new ticket for the same customer and carries the previous assignees across. The closed ticket keeps its number, close time and result.
Bulk Assignment
To hand several tickets to one person at once:
Click the select (✅) icon in the toolbar to enter selection mode.
Tick the tickets you want to move.
Choose the assignee and confirm.
Useful at shift changes, or when redistributing an absent colleague's queue.
Permissions
Assignment is not gated by role. Anyone who can open the Inbox can assign any ticket they can see, to anyone — the limit is visibility, not permission:
| Role | Can assign |
|---|---|
| Super Admin | Any ticket, to anyone — no channel scoping applies |
| Admin | Any ticket on the channels their teams grant |
| Staff | The same channel scope, minus any assigned tickets their organisation hides from them |
Best Practices
- Assign as soon as a ticket arrives — an unowned ticket is nobody's problem
- Route to a team when you are unsure who should take it
- Reassign when availability changes, rather than letting a queue stall
- Avoid ping-ponging tickets between agents; it fragments the history
- Close tickets once resolved, so ownership lists stay honest
Related Pages
- New — the unowned queue
- Private Notes & @Mentions — writing a handover
- Closing & Reopening