Side conversations via email

Ref: B11 · Track: Channels · Time to complete: ~4 min

Why this matters

You often need help from someone who isn't a Zendesk agent — a supplier, a regulator, another team's mailbox — without letting the customer see that back-and-forth. That's what side conversations are for.

What a side conversation is

A parallel thread attached to a ticket: - Hidden from the customer (they never see it). - Visible to anyone with access to the ticket (agents, team leads, admins). - Can send and receive email outside Zendesk. - Kept permanently with the ticket for audit.

Think of it as a CC thread that lives inside the ticket instead of cluttering your inbox.

When to use an email side conversation

• Asking a supplier for stock information.
• Checking with legal/compliance on a tricky question.
• Looping in a shared inbox (finance@yourcompany.com) that isn't a Zendesk group.
• Escalating to a specialist who only works via email.

Not the best fit when: - The person is a Zendesk agent — just assign the ticket or @mention them. - The person is in Slack/Teams — use a Slack side conversation (B12). - You need something tracked as its own ticket — create a child ticket (B13) instead.

How to start one

1. Open the ticket.
2. In the right sidebar, find Side conversations.
3. Click + Create side conversation.
4. Pick the type: Email.
5. Fill in: - To — external email address(es). - CC — optional. - Subject — defaults to the ticket subject; edit freely. - Body — your question.
6. Click Send.

The recipient receives a normal email from your Zendesk email address. Their reply comes back into the side conversation, not into the ticket's main thread.

What happens next

• The recipient's reply appears in the side conversation panel, alongside the ticket's main conversation.
• You can reply back as many times as needed — it's just a mini-inbox inside the ticket.
• The customer (on the main thread) sees none of this.
• When the external thread is done, mark the side conversation resolved to keep the sidebar tidy.

Things the customer can't see

• Nothing in the side conversation ever leaks to the customer unless an agent deliberately copies content into a public reply.
• The external recipient can't reply to "all" into the main thread — their email lands only in the side conversation.

But: you are the bridge. If you paste external content into a public reply, now the customer sees it. Be careful.

Access control

By default, anyone with access to the ticket can see all side conversations on it. If your Zendesk plan supports it, admins can restrict who sees specific side conversations (e.g. legal-only).

Gotchas

• Sending to an external person who doesn't know what Zendesk is — they see an email from support@yourcompany.com and might get confused. Add a one-line explanation in the first message.
• Replies threading into the ticket's main conversation by accident — happens if your admin has set up certain triggers oddly. Test in sandbox.
• Not resolving — the side conversation panel gets cluttered. Resolve each thread when its back-and-forth is done.

Quick check — have you got this?

• You need stock info from a supplier who uses plain email. Side conversation or public reply?
• The customer asks "what did the supplier say?" — can you paste part of the side convo into the public reply?
• Does the customer see the side conversation anywhere?

Related articles

• B12 — Side conversations via Slack or Teams
• B13 — Customer callbacks requested from phone tree
• A07 — Public reply vs internal note