Automation rules that run on time triggers in Freshdesk allow you to bring your workflows into your helpdesk and define specific actions based on time and event-based triggers. 


For example, say a customer submitted a ticket but the agent was unable to provide a resolution because the information was inadequate. The agent has responded asking for more details but the email has gotten buried in the customer’s mailbox so the ticket has been in the ‘Waiting on customer’ status for a couple of days now. Traditionally, your agent will have to remember the ticket, go back, and send another reminder email. 


With these automation rules, you can set up a simple rule to send out reminder emails automatically, if the customer hasn't gotten back with the information in, say, 48 hours. 

 

These rules run once every hour and process all recent tickets - tickets updated in the past 30 days. The rules are processed sequentially, but a rule may cause certain actions that trigger subsequent rules.


A quick guide to creating an automation rule to run on-time triggers:

  • Login to the helpdesk as an Administrator.

  • Go to Admin > Workflows > Automations.



  • Click on New Rule under the ‘Time triggers’ tab.

  • Give your rule a name.

  • Use the dropdown list and define the conditions necessary to act as the trigger for this particular rule:

    • You can add additional conditions by clicking ‘Add new condition’.

    • Specify whether ALL conditions need to be matched, or just ANY one, in order to trigger the rule

    • You can also perform OR operations on dropdown ticket fields (default and custom).

  • Add the first task you would like to perform by selecting an Action from the dropdown list.

    • For example, to set ticket status as Open, select ‘Set Status as’ in the first dropdown list and choose ‘Open’.



  • Add multiple conditions/actions by clicking on the Add new condition/Add new action button, and the Trash icon to remove the condition/action.

  • Once you've finished setting up all the conditions and actions, click Preview and Save.
  • For every rule you create, a summary will be auto-generated while the rule is being set up. This will be the description for that rule and can be edited if need be.
  • Click on 'Save and Enable' to save and enable this rule on your helpdesk.


All the rules created will be visible under Admin > Workflows > Automations > Time Triggers tab, where they can be activated, deactivated, edited, cloned, or deleted. If you want to create another rule that is very similar to an existing one, use the ‘Clone’ option to duplicate that rule and later make the necessary modifications.


Note:

  • The conditional elements are not case-sensitive. So if you're setting a rule that acts on tickets with the subject as 'Refund', the rule will get activated regardless of whether you use 'Refund' or 'refund'.

  • You cannot specify more than one keyword in a condition i.e if you're setting up a rule to act on tickets with the subject 'refund' or 'payment', you have to specify only one keyword per condition (i.e a condition for 'refund' and one for 'payment' - in the same rule) and select the Match ANY condition radio button.

  • If you're setting up a rule to act on tickets with a subject containing 'refund', tickets with the words 'refunded' in their subject will also match the rule. Similarly, a rule which is supposed to act on tickets with the subject 'wants a refund' will also act on tickets with the subject 'want a refund now'. However, tickets with the subject 'refund' will not be acted on by this second rule.

  • These rules that run on time trigger run only based on Calendar hours and get executed appropriately.


Refer to this article to understand how to set up time trigger automation rules on Custom Objects.


Watch this video for an overview of this automation rule: