Zendesk Public Replies and Internal Notes Explained
Video
A public reply emails the customer. An internal note is visible only to agents, and it is what carries a ticket into another group without a rewrite.
Chapters
What each one does
A public reply goes to the customer on the email address they wrote in from, and it becomes part of the conversation they can read back. In this ticket Sarah Johnson asks where her order is, and the reply tells her it is with the carrier and being monitored.
An internal note sits in the same thread, marked in orange, and the customer never sees it. It is for the agents on the ticket and for the other groups that work it.
The note is the handoff
The agent has already found the cause. The shipment is held at the regional hub because of bad weather, and that belongs in a note rather than a reply, because the next person to open the ticket needs it and the customer does not.
This ticket then moves from customer support to vendor support. The note saying the order is delayed by weather and needs urgent attention is what the receiving group reads instead of the whole thread.
