Automation rules that run on ticket updates let you automate actions when specified events occur in a ticket in real-time. You can use it to modify statuses, change priorities, and even send out notification alerts as soon as certain conditions are met. For example, you can get these rules to reopen resolved tickets automatically as soon as a customer replies, or to send an email to the Head of Support the minute a customer gives a bad rating. This workflow enables your agents to stay on top of things as and when they happen, instead of having to manually check for updates.


Unlike the rules that run on ticket creation (which runs only on newly-created tickets) and the rules that run on time triggers (which runs once every hour and checks all tickets in your Freshdesk against its rules), this automation rule is an event or trigger-based automation that constantly watches all activities in your Freshdesk and matches them against the conditions you've specified. Also, the rules that run on ticket creation come into play at the time of creating a new ticket whereas these rules come into play when you need any actions to be taken on existing tickets based on a trigger.


You can specify the properties that a ticket has to possess for the rule to be applied to it. The actions can be executed on a ticket based on the following parameters: 

  • Ticket fields/Ticket properties

  • Contact/Requester of the ticket

  • Company properties of the ticket requester 

You can switch to the necessary property from the dropdown.


Icon Name Where to find it
Ticket fields are the properties of a ticket such as ticket status, priority, subject, description,  etc. Admin > Workflows > Ticket Fields
Contact fields are the properties of the requester of the ticket, such as requester email, timezone etc. Admin > Support Operations > Customer Fields > Contacts
Company fields are the properties of the company of the ticket requester, such as company name, domain etc. Admin > Support Operations > Customer Fields > Companies


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


Please note that the ‘actions’ performed by one rule might trigger the execution of other subsequent rules as they are processed sequentially.


A quick guide to creating an automation rule to run on ticket updates:

  • Login to the Freshdesk as an Administrator.

  • Go to Admin > Workflows > Automations > Ticket updates tab.

  • Click on New Rule.

  • Give your rule a name.

  • Specify if the rule should be executed if an agent causes the event/trigger, if a requester does, or either.



Note: ‘Requester’ can include any contact in the CC and BCC field in the ticket.


  • Specify the event from the dropdown list and choose its filters. For example, if the trigger is a change in Priority, choose ‘Priority is changed’ from the dropdown list and then specify the change, say, from Low to High.

    • You can add additional triggers by clicking ‘Add new event’.

    • You can delete a trigger by clicking the Trash icon.

  • Choose which conditions should be met for the rule to be triggered.

    • Specify whether ALL of the conditions have to be present for the action to be performed, or if just ANY one is sufficient.

    • You can delete a condition by clicking the Trash icon.

  • Select an action from the dropdown, and choose its filters.
    For example, if you want to set the status to Closed, select Set Status As from the first dropdown and then select Closed.
  • You can use the Add new filter option to create two condition filters and use the AND and OR operators to determine whether the rule should be triggered by satisfying both or only one of the conditions. This enables you to utilize both operators to match your conditions.
  • Once you've finished setting up all the conditions and actions, click Preview and Save.


Here's a sample Ticket update automation rule that assigns tickets to agents if the requester’s timezone is Arizona OR Berlin AND if the tickets are unassigned. When conditions match, this rule assigns the tickets to the agent who responded to the ticket or made any update on the ticket and adds an agent (maybe, a supervisor) as a watcher:



  • For every rule you create, a summary will be auto-generated while the rule is being setup. 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 Freshdesk.



You can even use these rules to trigger a webhooks call as soon as a specified event occurs.


Refer to this article to understand how to set up ticket updates automation rule on Custom Objects.


Automation emails as notes

All emails sent via automations to the requester/customer are visible on the core ticket timeline. To maintain focus on communications with the customer, emails sent by automations to either agents or agent groups are not visible on the core ticket page.


 


Watch this video for an overview of this automation rule: