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 Zendesk Support default automations
- Automations 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).
You can have up to 500 active automations at a time. Each automation must be less
than 65kb.
- In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon (
) 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.
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)
- Click Preview match for the conditions to test your automation by previewing the tickets that match the conditions that you have 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.
- In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon (
) 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.
To clone an automation
- In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon (
) 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.
- In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon (
) 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.
- In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon (
) 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.
- In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon (
) 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.
2 Comments
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?
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.
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