Use a Chat trigger for messaging to notify visitors if a department or group is offline. The below trigger recipe offers a way to send a message to visitors requesting a new messaging conversation when all agents in a specified group are offline.

The workflow includes the steps below.

  • Step 1: Create the trigger
  • Step 2: Test the trigger

Step 1: Create the trigger

To create this workflow

  1. Open Chat, and create a Chat trigger.
  2. Give the trigger a name, such as "Notify for offline department" and a description
    Chat trigger creation.png
  3. For the option Channel, select Messaging
  4. For the option Run trigger, select When a visitor requests a chat
  5. Under Check conditions, select Check all of the following conditions
    • Department | Equals | Support Group <group_id>
      • This condition requires manually typing "Support Group", followed by the group ID. You can find the group ID using the List Groups API endpoint. Enter the URL https://yoursubdomain.zendesk.com/api/v2/groups and copy the ID number from your intended group to use in your Chat trigger. After you enter the first condition, select the + button to add another condition
    • Department status | Department Name | Offline
      • In Agent Workspace, departments and groups are merged. When a Chat trigger references a specific department it refers to the group by the same name
        Chat conditions.png
  • Under Perform the following actions, add:
    • Send message to visitor | Customer Support Team | Our team is offline at the moment. We will respond as soon as we are able, during our working hours of M-F 8am - 5pm EST
    • Customize the message using own business hours and preferred language
      Chat trigger action.png
Tip: Messaging trigger access for Zendesk accounts is being moved from the Chat Dashboard to Admin Center in phases. If your messaging triggers do not appear in the Chat dashboard as described in this article, see About messaging triggers in Admin Center. For more information on the move, see the announcement: Announcing improved messaging backend for messaging customers (updated).

Step 2: Test the trigger

Test the trigger to ensure that it functions correctly to inform visitors that the department is offline.

To test the trigger

  1. Set all agents in your intended messaging department to Offline. You need to have at least one agent in a separate messaging or chat department set to Online in order for the chat function to appear and the trigger to fire.
  2. Open a new private browser window and open the messaging widget on your help center or website
  3. Open a new messaging conversation to confirm that the trigger fires.
Powered by Zendesk