Close idle tickets with bots
- Introduction
- Creating the bot
- Importing the behaviors
- Understanding how the auto-close behavior works
- Testing the auto-close behavior
- Retroactively applying the behavior to existing tickets
- Next steps
Introduction
When workers reply to tickets, they can use the “waiting” status to indicate that a response from the client is needed before continuing. When a client replies, the ticket status is automatically changed back to “open”, and notifications are sent to the owner and watchers.
However, sometimes a client never responds. Unless the ticket was given a specific “reopen” date, it will remain in the waiting status indefinitely.
In this guide we’ll create a bot that automatically closes tickets that have been waiting for a client reply for more than 30 days. Our bot will also send a notification to the customer to let them know their ticket has been closed.
Creating the bot
You can use an existing bot for these behaviors, but in this guide we’ll be creating a new one for this purpose.
Navigate to Search » Bots.
Click on the (+) icon above the behaviors worklist to add a new behavior.
Enter the following details:
- Name: Auto-Close Bot
- Owner: Cerb
- Status: Enabled
Click on the Save Changes button.
Importing the behaviors
We’re going to import two behaviors for the auto-close functionality.
Click on Auto-Close Bot in the yellow notification above the worklist to open its card.
Click Behaviors on the bot’s card.
Importing the first behavior
Click on the (+) icon above the behaviors worklist to add a new behavior.
Switch to Import mode and paste the following behavior:
{
"behavior": {
"title": "Auto-close an idle waiting ticket",
"is_disabled": false,
"is_private": true,
"priority": 50,
"event": {
"key": "event.macro.ticket",
"label": "Custom ticket behavior"
},
"nodes": [
{
"type": "switch",
"title": "Is the ticket waiting with no reopen and idle for >30 days?",
"status": "live",
"nodes": [
{
"type": "outcome",
"title": "Yes",
"status": "live",
"params": {
"groups": [
{
"any": 0,
"conditions": [
{
"condition": "ticket_status",
"oper": "in",
"values": [
"waiting"
]
},
{
"condition": "ticket_reopen_date",
"oper": "is",
"from": "0",
"to": "0"
},
{
"condition": "ticket_updated",
"oper": "is",
"from": "big bang",
"to": "-30 days"
}
]
}
]
},
"nodes": [
{
"type": "action",
"title": "Notify the requesters",
"status": "live",
"params": {
"actions": [
{
"action": "send_email_recipients",
"html_template_id": "",
"format": "",
"content": "***** THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE *****\r\n\r\nWe haven't heard back from you for 30 days. Your ticket has been automatically closed.\r\n\r\nReference: #{{ticket_mask}}\r\nSubject: {{ticket_subject}}\r\n\r\nYou can reply to this message to re-open the ticket.",
"headers": "Auto-Submitted: auto-replied",
"is_autoreply": "1"
}
]
}
},
{
"type": "action",
"title": "Close the ticket",
"status": "live",
"params": {
"actions": [
{
"action": "set_status",
"status": "closed"
},
{
"action": "set_reopen_date",
"mode": "",
"value": "big bang",
"calendar_reldate": "",
"calendar_id": ""
}
]
}
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
}
Click the Save Changes button.
Importing the second behavior
Click on the (+) icon above the behaviors worklist again to add the second new behavior.
Switch to Import mode and paste the following behavior:
{
"behavior": {
"title": "Schedule auto-close check after a worker replies",
"is_disabled": false,
"is_private": false,
"priority": 1,
"event": {
"key": "event.mail.after.sent",
"label": "After sending worker message"
},
"configure": [
{
"label": "Auto-close Behavior:",
"path": "behavior.nodes[0].nodes[0].nodes[0].params.actions[0].behavior_id",
"type": "chooser",
"params": {
"context": "cerberusweb.contexts.behavior",
"query": "event:event.macro.ticket auto-closed",
"single": true
}
}
],
"nodes": [
{
"type": "switch",
"title": "Did the worker set the ticket waiting with no reopen?",
"status": "live",
"nodes": [
{
"type": "outcome",
"title": "Yes",
"status": "live",
"params": {
"groups": [
{
"any": 0,
"conditions": [
{
"condition": "ticket_status",
"oper": "in",
"values": [
"waiting"
]
},
{
"condition": "ticket_reopen_date",
"oper": "is",
"from": "0",
"to": "0"
}
]
}
]
},
"nodes": [
{
"type": "action",
"title": "Schedule auto-close check after 30 days",
"status": "live",
"params": {
"actions": [
{
"action": "_schedule_behavior",
"on": "ticket_id",
"behavior_id": "0",
"run_date": "31 days",
"on_dupe": "last"
}
]
}
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
}
Click the Save Changes button.
Cerb will prompt you to link the two new behaviors together.
Click on the chooser button:
Click anywhere in the row for the Auto-close an idle waiting ticket behavior that you imported earlier.
Click the Save Changes button again.
Understanding how the auto-close behavior works
We just imported two behaviors. They work together to implement the auto-close functionality.
Auto-close an idle waiting ticket checks if a ticket has been waiting for more than 30 days without a client response. If so, it closes it and sends the client a notification by email. It’s a custom ticket behavior, so it only runs when a worker or bot schedules it on a specific ticket record.
Schedule auto-close check after a worker replies triggers every time a worker replies to a ticket. If the worker left the ticket in the waiting status without a specific reopen date, the above custom ticket behavior is scheduled on that ticket for 31 days in the future.
If a worker sends multiple messages before the client responds, we only keep the latest scheduled auto-close check. In other words, each worker reply resets the 30 day timer.
Testing the auto-close behavior
Let’s test the behavior.
Reply to a ticket and leave it in the waiting status without a date in When would you like to resume this conversation?:
At the top of the ticket profile, you’ll see a new scheduled behavior:
Click on the behavior’s link (Auto-close an idle waiting ticket).
Click on the Simulator button at the bottom of the popup.
Set Ticket updated to -40 days.
Click the Simulate button. You should see something like the following:
This shows that if the current ticket had been in the waiting status for 40 days, the scheduled behavior would automatically close it.
Retroactively applying the behavior to existing tickets
The new bot will automatically close any idle waiting tickets from this point forward. If you also want to apply the auto-close behavior to existing waiting tickets that are idle, follow these steps.
Navigate to Search » Tickets.
In the quick search field, type:
status:w updated:"big bang to -30 days"
Then press <ENTER>. This will find any tickets with a status of waiting that haven’t been updated in more than 30 days.
Click the bulk update button below the worklist.
From this point you have two options:
-
Check Status: and choose Closed. This won’t run your new behavior or send email notifications. It will just close the tickets.
-
In the Schedule Behavior section, on the Behavior: field, select your new Auto-close an idle waiting ticket behavior. In the When: field, use
now. This will schedule the new behavior on every ticket in the worklist. The recipients will receive the email notification.
After you’ve selected one of the two above options, click the Save Changes button.
If you scheduled the behavior, you won't see the ticket status change right away. Cerb queues scheduled behaviors and runs them in the background.
Next steps
- You could send a warning notification to the client a few days before the ticket is closed.