How to change the requester on a forwarded email ticket in Zendesk

To change the requester on a forwarded email ticket in Zendesk, install Leverwell and add the example action set "Fix a forwarded email". Its Set requester step picks the original sender from the From line in the first message. On the ticket, the agent clicks Preview on the set, checks the new requester, and clicks Apply. The old requester stays on as a CC, an internal note records the change, and Undo reverses it.

Why forwarded tickets go wrong

When a colleague forwards a customer's email into Zendesk, the colleague is the sender, so the ticket is created with them as requester. Replies then go to your colleague instead of the customer. Leverwell's job here is to move the ticket to the right person, in one step that shows the result first.

Set it up once (admins)

1. Open Leverwell from the left navigation bar and go to Action sets.
2. Click Add the two examples. This adds "Fix a forwarded email" and "Remove outside CCs". Or click New action set and build your own.
3. Check the Set requester step. Under New requester, choose The original sender of a forwarded email (From line in the first message). Leave Keep the old requester as a CC on, its default.
4. Add your own domains to Never use addresses on these domains, so the forwarding colleague is never picked as the customer.
5. Keep the other two steps. The example follows Set requester with Set organization (the requester's default organization) and Add CCs from the first message. Steps run in order, so both use the new requester.
6. Try it under Try it on a ticket: enter a forwarded ticket's number and click Preview. Nothing is written.
7. Choose who can run it and where it's offered (Ticket sidebar, Runs on many tickets or both), then Save action set.

Run it on a ticket (agents)

1. Open the forwarded ticket and find Leverwell in the apps panel.
2. Click Preview on "Fix a forwarded email". Leverwell reads the ticket fresh and shows the requester and CCs before and after.
3. Click Apply. The change and an internal note are written in one update.

Requester sources

An address with no Zendesk user becomes a new end user, which is Zendesk's own behavior.

Fix a backlog (Bulk plan)

The example is offered in the ticket sidebar only, so first turn on Runs on many tickets for it and save. Then open Leverwell > Run on many tickets, choose the action set and a view or a search, and click Preview. Untick any ticket to leave it out, then Apply to N tickets (up to 1,000 per run). Tickets are changed one at a time. The result shows a run id and Undo this run.

Undo

Undo on the result, or in "Leverwell on this ticket" at the bottom of the panel, puts the old requester back and adds a note. CCs are undone person by person. If someone changed the requester again after Leverwell did, undo leaves it alone and says so; Undo anyway overwrites it. End users created by the change stay in Zendesk.

What it costs

Leverwell's Ticket plan is $50 a month per Zendesk account, with every action from the ticket sidebar for any number of agents and action sets. The Bulk plan is $99 a month per account and adds runs on many tickets. Both have a 14-day trial with a card, billed monthly by Zendesk. Every step is in the Leverwell documentation.