The Ticket Field Manager app

Controlling which fields agents see and must fill in. Useful, and a way to make forms unbearable.

Controlling which fields agents see and must fill in. Useful, and a way to make forms unbearable.

Set it up

1. Install the app.
2. Define the rules: which fields appear or are required, and when.
3. Test as an agent on a real ticket.
4. Ask an agent whether it helps or gets in the way.

What it is good for

• Hiding fields that do not apply to this kind of ticket.
• Requiring a field before solving, where the data genuinely matters.
• Showing a field only to the group that uses it.

Required fields have a cost

An agent who cannot close a ticket until a field is filled will fill it, with whatever gets them past the block. Then you have complete data and inaccurate data, which is worse than incomplete data you knew about.

Require a field only where somebody genuinely reads the value.

Hiding beats requiring

Removing fields that do not apply speeds everybody up and costs nothing. That is where most of the value here is.

Ask what happens to the data

Before making a field required, find out who reads it and what they do with it. A field required for a report nobody opens is pure friction.

Test as an agent

Not as an admin. Rules that look sensible in configuration produce a form that fights the person filling it in, and only they can tell you.

Review it after a month

Ask the team whether any rule gets in their way. The ones that do are producing bad data, not just irritation.

See also

• Designing a form that helps agents and customers both
• Reporting on custom fields
• Creating multiple ticket forms