Request Channel Type in JSM: How to Report on Ticket Sources

The request channel type shows how a request was created in Jira Service Management: through the customer portal, email, chat, the widget, an agent, or the anonymous portal. Jira stores it as a property of each request, not as a field, so you can’t see it in queues. Below you’ll find each channel and two ways to report on them.

No matter how a customer submits a request to service desk agents, a common problem persists - the lack of clear information about where the ticket originated. Although this information appears in individual tickets, it isn’t presented as a field, making it inaccessible in queues or issue navigators. This is where the problem arises for leaders and agents in understanding customer behavior and creating the best-customized portal for them. Moreover, not infrequently through, these agents lack information for resolution.

So how do we know where tickets came from, and what channel is more frequent?

In this article:

• What are request channel types?
• How to create a request channel type report? What to do, and what not necessarily.
• ITSM reporting – best practices and benefits.

What Are Jira Request Channel Types?

Customer Portal - Jira Service Desk Main Request Channel

Jira Service Management’s leading customer support feature is the service desk portal, which allows users to create and track requests. If your customer portal is not only for one purpose, you can set up request types that correspond to the kind of ticket, like “Report a bug,” “Request system access,” “Bitbucket Software Change,” or whatever you need. You can configure them in space settings. Then those tickets go to agents’ queues and wait for resolution.

This is one way to provide your customers a place to submit a request with Jira service desk. But it’s not the only channel to report a bug or requirement. You can capture requests from various channels depending on how you have configured your customer support process.

Email as Jira Request Channel Type

This one is the default. When you start your journey with a service desk project, the support inbox is created. For example, the summary is the email title, the description equals the body, and the attachment will be transferred. And that way the email will become a Jira ticket.

Of course, you can use an already existing email and configure how this request type channel will appear in Jira as an issue. You can connect the inbox you want.

This is one of the most common request type channels for most companies. Customers use it as usual email, and it’s convenient and already familiar to them.

Chat as Jira Request Channel Type

Why not use a normal chat as a customer support channel? It’s simple to use, familiar to everybody, and doesn’t require hopping between tools and windows. You can integrate Slack or Microsoft Teams to use the chat as a Jira request channel. All you have to do is associate request types with this channel. You can read the detailed instructions here.

All requests that are created with Slack or Teams are classified as created via API.

This is a very popular solution for internal use - after all, everyone in the company has access to Slack or Microsoft Teams.

Widget as Jira Request Channel Type

If you would like to embed a request form on your website or in an app, you can, and with complete control. You can decide what it will look like and the fields attached in project settings and get a preview. Tailor a color, background, button, and confirmation message.

Before embedding a widget on your website, remember that you have to be a project administrator, and the customer portal must be set up as open.

In project settings -> channels, is a code to paste into your website to embed the widget. So it’s a piece of cake!

Requests Raised by Agents

Sometimes agents create requests for customers, for example during a call. This is the most time-consuming channel, because the agent has to enter everything by hand and often doesn’t have the full context. When customers can use other channels, agents save that time for resolving requests.

Customer Portal But Anonymous

As you probably know, you can set up a portal as open. Then it doesn’t require customers to log in with an Atlassian account. Among other things, you must set it up if you want to use a widget.

You can set up a portal for:

• customers added to your service project
• customers with an account on your site
• existing customers explicitly added to your service project
• and for those without accounts and without logging in.

In the last case, you can let anyone enter a customer portal and raise a ticket. This ticket source will be different from portal one. It’s a good solution if you know that your customers don’t use Atlassian products, but you still want to provide them with one source of knowledge base.

From Which Channel Do You Receive the Most Tickets? Service Desk Reports Metrics

Let’s start with why we should know where our tickets come from. Does it make a difference? Yes, a lot.

Monitoring service desk metrics related to the origin of Jira tickets is crucial for gaining insights into the efficiency and effectiveness of the ticketing system. By observing which channels are the most used, we can identify trends in the types of issues reported.

For instance, we can discover that most bugs are reported via email, suggesting a preference for this method due to its convenience for customers.

Additionally, analyzing the significant number of tickets created through an anonymous portal, where users don’t log in or create accounts, allows us to evaluate the impact on ticket completeness. Do agents have to ask more frequently when handling such tickets?

These metrics help us evaluate user behavior, identify potential areas for improvement, and ensure the overall effectiveness of our support system.

In Short, You Should Monitor Jira Request Channel Type Metrics Because:

• Trend analysis - identifies trends in reported issue types and user preferences.
• Efficiency assessment - evaluates the efficiency of different channels.
• Completeness of tickets - assesses the completeness of submitted information.
• User authentication impact - examines challenges faced by agents with non-authenticated users.
• Enhanced user support - enables tailored support strategies for specific channels.
• Continuous improvement - highlights areas for ongoing system improvement.
• Resource allocation optimization - aids in optimizing resource allocation for better support.
• Strategic decision making - informs strategic decisions based on accurate data.

How to Measure Request Channel Type in Jira

You have two options:

1. JQL filters on a dashboard. Atlassian explains how to filter requests by channel, for example request-channel-type = email. Create one filter for each channel and show them on a dashboard with the Filter Results gadget. It works, but you have to build and maintain a filter for every channel.
2. A ready report. ITSM Reports includes a Request channel type report that shows all channels in one chart, with no filters to maintain.

We made this dashboard with ITSM Reports for Jira Service Management, and it helps us to evaluate which channel is most popular among our customers.

“We monitor how customers create their tickets to streamline the process for them. The most requests were from email this year, so as you can see, this is the most convenient way for customers to submit requests to us. Although we have taken care of the links to the customer portal in our apps, we note that simply sending an email is most popular, so we put that in mind.” Katarzyna Pawlak, CPO at Appsvio

We also monitor other things like meeting SLA.

SLA – met %, ITSM Report for Jira Service Management dashboard

We keep an eye on our performance to know where numbers are heading down and to react immediately. What’s more, those dashboards are ready to read and use. Numbers are already analyzed, and data isn’t raw. You can use it right away in your presentation.

What Jira Service Desk Reports Are Good to Create?

• Request distribution over time - bubble-based heat map about when and what tickets are created. To allocate agents more efficiently
• Organizations - visualize how many customers are in the particular organization
• Assignee – Average CSAT - who has the lowest and highest CSAT score and why? This report displays agents with the best performance score.

We wrote a piece about 5 critical service desk reports: Top 5 critical service desk metrics to measure team performance.

Key Takeaways

Regarding service desk metrics, ITIL 4 emphasizes the importance of measuring and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of service desk operations.

How Should You Monitor Service Desk Metrics, and What Should You Avoid?

• Metrics should align with the overall business objectives and goals. Ensure that service desk metrics contribute to the organization’s strategic aims. Remember to decide which metrics are crucial for your team and focus on them.
• Focus on Customer Experience. Prioritize metrics that reflect the customer experience. Customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores and Net Promoter Score (NPS) are important indicators of how well the service desk meets user expectations.
• Compare data in different periods to get more comprehensive insights. Be consistent! Even a small break in measuring may have an impact on the result.
• Focus on the result of actions - ask why and how. Don’t be flattered with high scores - analyze it and ask yourself what the conditions of this peak are and the causes of worse results in different periods.

Benefits of Service Desk Reporting

• Access to distinct service desk data for informed decision-making.
• Effortless analysis through charts and diagrams in Jira dashboards without additional setup.
• Agent scoring to enhance customer support and team outcomes.
• Improved insights into team performance across multiple projects.
• Time saved with readily analyzed and presentation-ready data.
• Identification and elimination of bottlenecks and workflow issues.
• Continuous access to the most up-to-date information.
• Empowering leaders and managers with robust data capable of significantly boosting team performance.

There is only one thing you should do after reading this article - start monitoring service desk metrics and evaluate your team’s performance.

This article was updated on October 22, 2026.