Automations are similar to triggers because both define conditions and actions that modify ticket properties and optionally send email notifications to customers and the support staff. Where they differ is that automations execute when a time event occurs after a ticket property was set or updated, rather than immediately after a ticket is created or updated.
Administrators can create, edit, and manage default and custom automations.
Topics covered in this article:
- Creating automations
- Editing and cloning automations
- Reordering your automations
- Deleting and deactivating automations
More information:
- About automations and how they work
- About the standard Support automations
- Automation conditions and actions reference
Creating automations
Administrators can create automations from scratch, as shown here, or create copies of existing automations to modify and use (see Editing and cloning automations).
Before creating automations, review the Essential facts for automations. You can have up to 500 active automations at a time. Each automation must be less than 65kb.
To add an automation
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Automations.
- Select Add Automation.
- Enter a title for your automation.
- Add the conditions and actions for your automation (see Automation conditions and actions
reference).
An automation is made up of three parts:
- Conditions to be met for the automation to run
- Actions to perform when the conditions are met
- At least one of the following: one action that cancels a condition after the conditions are met or a condition than can only be true once (see Ensuring your automation only runs once)
- Test your automation by clicking Preview match for the conditions to preview
tickets that match the conditions you specified.
This lists the tickets that match the conditions you specified. The automation will have no effect on any closed ticket listed in your preview. For more information, see Understanding when automations run.
- Save your new automation by clicking Create automation.
Editing and cloning automations
You can edit and clone automations. Cloning an automation creates a copy that you can modify and use for some other purpose.
To edit an automation
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Automations.
- Locate the automation you want to edit.
- Hover your mouse over the automation to display the options menu icon (
), then click the icon and select Edit from the options menu.
- Modify the title, conditions, and actions as needed.
- Select Update and Submit your changes.
You can create a copy of an existing automation to use as the basis of a new automation.
To clone an automation
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Automations.
- Locate the automation you want to clone.
- Hover your mouse over the automation to display the options menu icon (
), then click the icon and select Clone from the options menu.
- Enter a new name for your automation and modify the conditions and actions as needed. Note that all active automations can have some overlapping conditions, but they can't be identical.
- Click Create automation.
Reordering your automations
You can reorder your automations, but keep in mind that the order of your automations is important because all automations run (first to last) every hour. Actions in one automation may affect the actions in another.
To reorder the list of automations
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Automations.
- Open the options menu icon (
) at the top of the list of active automations, then click Reorder page.
- Click and drag automations to new locations as needed.
- Click Save.
Deleting and deactivating automations
If you decide that you no longer need an automation you can either delete it or deactivate it. Deleting it of course means that it’s gone and can’t be retrieved. You can instead deactivate automations. Deactivated automations are listed in a separate table on the Automations page and can be reactivated if needed.
To delete an automation
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Automations.
- Locate the automation you want to delete.
- Hover your mouse over the automation to display the options menu icon (
), then click the icon and select Edit from the options menu.
- Choose Delete from the actions menu at the bottom of the page, then click
Submit.
To deactivate/activate an automation
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Automations.
- Locate the automation you want to deactivate.
- Hover your mouse over the automation to display the options menu icon (
), then click the icon and select Deactivate from the options menu.
The automation is deactivated and displayed in the list of inactive automations.
- To reactivate the automation, select it from the list of inactive automations and select Activate from the options menu.
14 comments
Kristine LaBarbera
We'd like to automatically set a custom Ticket Schedule for Urgent incidents that come in on the weekends and holidays, and then update the schedule back to the standard Ticket Schedule service hours after the weekend/holiday passes. For instance, an Urgent ticket opens on a Sunday and the clock only needs to run until 5 pm on Sunday and then pick back up again for normal service hours on Monday (normal service hours extend beyond 5 pm). We have multiple schedules configured right now to accommodate for the different service hours for weekends and holidays, but we are trying to work through the automations/triggers needed to set the ticket to conditionally use the right schedule. Can you point us to any best practices for this type of scenario?
3
Christopher Sims
For both Triggers and Automations, have you considered some kind of creation environment to make it easy to learn? The kind of thing that I have in mind, would allow a new starter to use a GUI said interface would be made up of a series of dropdown controls. The first one would be labeled, condition 1. When I interacted with it, I could choose the kind of statement I wanted. There might be an edit field where I could input a value, followed by other controls that would allow me to choose the then and else pieces. Oh and Please ensure that said idea is friendly toward Screen reading technology.
1
Dana B
Hi
I am trying to set up an automation to send out a reminder to fill out a survey with a "click here" and a link embedded in "click here" however, I cannot find how to do this as the automation is not providing this option. I have used
Perform these actions: Notification:Email User.
Should I be using a different action? Please advise.
-1
Anne Ronalter
You are on the right track by creating another Automation.
What you now have to do is, create a second Automation that sends out a reminder using similar criteria as the initial CSAT survey Automation.
The initial one will run in the ticket Ticket like that: Satisfaction to Offered
You will now have to create a kind of reverse condition on the Automation so that it doesn't keep running on the ticket, therefore, you'll need to utilize a tag.
You will also need to make sure that the tickets are not set to Closed, before your customers have a chance to respond to the survey.
Closed tickets cannot be updated and because of that, also survey responses will not appear in a ticket if it is Closed.
Therefore, when setting this up, make sure that you keep the closing timeframe in mind.
1
Omman
I'd like to set an automation to automatically change ticket status to a custom ticket status called 'Jira Created' as soon as a user creates or links a jira ticket.
I am using jira_escalated tag for the trigger but its not working. Any insight?
0
Hiedi Kysther
Hi Omman,
![](/hc/user_images/EEMbPvm8hfnXWesCDb9_UQ.png)
Automations are time-based business rules. Based on your target workflow, I would suggest using Trigger instead. Here's an example configuration you could use:
Hope this helps!
0
Igneshkumar Patel
Hi There,
I was wondering if there is a way possible to extract a report with list of case details which sent emails based on a specific automatic - Can this be achieved?
Please advise.
Thanks.
Ignesh.
0
Christine
There is no pre-built metric that captures Automation usage in the Explore datasets. As an alternative, you can add another action on your Automation that adds a tag on the ticket whenever it fires, and you can make a report based on the tag.
Another option is you utilize the API to obtain trigger data usage within specific time ranges. For more information, see the article: Is it possible to get usage data on macros, triggers, and automation?
0
Cecilia Chen
Hello,
We would like to set up an automation that could close the ticket only if our customer does not reply to us in a period. It has to make sure that the last update is from an agent, not our customer, how do I set up the condition? thx![](/hc/user_images/01HMR9DZ2AAR4SPG1RX4RF3G0Y.png)
0
Jacob the Moderator
Hi Cecilia Chen
This is usually achieved based on a time-since pending condition, and often as part of a bump-solve flow, like the one detailed here:
Workflow recipe: Sending automated ticket reminders to customers.
Hope this helps you out.
0
Justin Brooks
Could we get an answer to Kristine LaBarbera's question? We are looking at switching to Zendesk, and this is the #1 priority for me to figure out before we switch. Time-based automations based on when a ticket is submitted is extremely high priority for my company.
0
Jacob the Moderator
Hi Justin,
Schedules allow you to define your opening hours, and triggers have conditions to detect if a ticket is received within or outside of those hours. This allows you to send targeted responses to set expectations with the requester, and if you want to, you could add additional complexity to the opening hours as well.
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/6749613539354-Trigger-an-action-based-on-ticket-creation-date/comments/6751437113242
I hope that helps.
1
Justin Brooks
Hey Jacob the Moderator,
That's exactly what we needed. Thank you!
1
Jacob the Moderator
Glad I could help Justin Brooks!
And welcome to the community! This is a great place to seek help should you need that when implementing, optimizing, or otherwise making changes to your Zendesk instance.
0