Help Desk MX
v1.2.45

Workflow Rules

The Workflow Rules allow you to automate your task routines.

Each rule is bound to a certain event, contains a set of conditions - which an average ticket needs to meet - and an action that should be executed if the conditions are met. Here is a list of the most frequently used examples:

  • Automatically assigns any ticket to your expert staff members depending on the subject;
  • Automatically assigns any ticket to a certain department;
  • Auto-sets up a ticket's status to 'In Progress' after the first reply of a support team member;
  • Creates a custom notification for both staff and customers;
  • Creates a special reminder, which requires more complex conditions than follow-up reminders.

The possibilities are nearly endless. Please, check this blog post for detailed information on https://mirasvit.com/blog/how-to-streamline-workflow-with-a-unique-help-desk-mx-rules-feature.html.

Also, a set of useful examples can be found in Workflow Rule Examples section.

Creating Workflow Rule

Rule creation is quite complex; therefore, we will divide this section into five respective subsections:

General Settings

Here are the basic properties that manage rules execution:

  • Rule Name - a logical name for a rule.
  • Active - verifies whether the rule is active or not.
  • Stop Further Rules Processing - If multiple rules are defined for the same event, this option can help control their execution (see below).

Events

Each Workflow rule shall be bound to an event. These are the following possible events:

  • New ticket is created - this is triggered upon ticket creation, but before any reply (including initial) is added.
  • New Reply from Customer - this is triggered when a new reply from a customer appears.
  • New Reply from Staff - this is triggered when a new reply from a staff appears.
  • New Reply from Third Party - this is triggered when a new reply from a third-party appears.
  • Ticket Assigned to Staff - this is triggered when a ticket owner changes his or her ticket.
  • Ticket Was Changed - this is triggered whenever any change is done to a ticket (added message, changed status or priority, or even changed custom field).
  • Ticket Was Converted to RMA - this is triggered when a ticket is converted to RMA. This event can be used only when Mirasvit RMA extension is installed.
  • Check Every Hour - this is triggered by our cron task. Make sure that the cron is enabled when using this event.

Conditions

Each rule can contain conditions that allow you to determine whether the rule can be applied to the tickets or not, as is listed below:

  • Subject - the title on a ticket
  • Last message body - the contents of the last public message left on a particular ticket
  • Created at - the date a ticket was created
  • Updated at - the date of a ticket's latest update (e. g. new message appeared, or properties changed)
  • Store - this is the place the ticket was submitted into (note: this condition does not properly detect backend-created tickets, as they can be bound to any store. If you wish to detect backend creation, you need to use the Ticket Source condition in addition).
  • Priority (before change) - a priority which a particular ticket has before the ending of the event (used only for Ticket was changed event)
  • Priority - current ticket priority
  • Status (before change) - the status of a particular ticket before the end of an event (used only for Ticket was changed eve
  • Status - current ticket status
  • Department (before change) - the department to which a particular ticket was assigned before the end of an event (used only for a Ticket was changed event)
  • Department - current ticket department
  • Owner (before change) - the person who held a particular ticket before an event ended (used only for a Ticket was changed event)
  • Owner - current ticket owner
  • Last Reply By - who gave the last reply on this ticket: Customer or Staff agent
  • Last Reply Type - the type of message last left on the ticket. Can be of the following types (refer to How to Reply to a Ticket for more information):
    • Public Reply
    • Internal Note
    • Message from Third Party
    • Internal Message from Third Party
  • Hours since Created - a period from the creation of a particular ticket (note: this condition is not precise, use equal or greater or equal or lesser comparators here)
  • Hours since Updated - the period from the latest update of a particular ticket (note: this condition is not precise, use equal or greater or equal or lesser comparators here)
  • Hours since the Last Reply - the period from when the last message appeared on a particular ticket (note: this condition is not precise, use equal or greater or equal or lesser comparators here)
  • Tags - the tags associated with a particular ticket in the Additional tab of the Tags field.
  • Ticket Source -the creation source of a ticket, which has four options: Email, Backend, Contact Tab , Contact Form and Customer Account.

If there is a custom field, it can also be used as a condition. Each field will be listed in two forms: a standard field value and "before changed," especially for Tickets, which has changed event-- e.g., if the field is Telephone, then conditions will be Telephone and Telephone (before change), respectively.

Conditions can be organized into groups using a mode selector, which appears as a separate condition Conditions Combination. It allows for the creation of very complex rule sets.

Actions

Each rule also contains actions that should be executed if a ticket has met its conditions. For now, supported are the following:

  • Set Status - changes the status of the ticket applied.
  • Set Priority - changes the priority of the ticket applied.
  • Set Department - changes the department of the ticket applied.
  • Set Owner - changes the owner of the ticket applied.
  • Archive - moves the ticket to the archive.
  • Add Tags - automatically allows for adding of tags upon the triggering of a rule.
  • Remove Tags - automatically allows the removal of tags upon the triggering of a rule.

Notifications

This rule definition section allows for the creation of custom email notifications, which are sent upon the triggering of a rule.

To establish a custom notification, you can use the following options:

  • Send email to ticket owner - notification should be sent to the current ticket assignees.
  • Send email to all department users - notification should be sent to all users registered in the ticket's department.
  • Send email to customer - notification is sent to the customer
  • Send email to other email addresses - notifications are sent to a specified email address.
  • Email Subject - the subject of the email notification.
  • Email Body - the body of the email notification.

    Note

    Email Body shall contain only the message that should be sent as notification. A full template of such an email can be set at Help Desk MX -> Email Notification Settings -> Template of Rule Notification. Refer to the How to create a custom Notification Email section for more info.
  • Attach files previously attached to the last message - indicates whether the notification will include an attachment from the last reply to the ticket.