Nothing should sit in the queue unnoticed. The desk watches for that in three ways: it tells you about upset customers straight away, it checks every hour for tickets past your response targets, and it tidies up tickets where the customer has gone quiet.
Where to find it:
The settings are on Settings, Automation. The Slack address is on Settings, Integrations, Slack alerts, and which alerts reach you by email is on Settings, Email, Who gets told, and when.
Slack alerts:
- In Slack, create an incoming webhook for the channel you want and copy its address.
- Open Settings, Integrations, press Set Up on Slack alerts, paste it into Incoming webhook address and press Save Integrations.
- Open Settings, Automation and choose Ping Slack at this mood or worse: Neutral (every ticket), Confused, Frustrated, or Angry (recommended).
- Press Save Settings.
As soon as triage gives a ticket that mood or worse, a message goes to your channel with the mood, the subject and a link to the ticket. Moods rank happy, neutral, confused, frustrated, angry, so a lower setting widens the net. With no Slack address saved, nothing is posted.
An upset ticket also emails you, whether or not Slack is set up, as A ticket comes in angry on Settings, Email. You can switch it off there or add other people.
How long is too long:
An hourly job checks two targets, both on Settings, Automation.
- First reply within (hours), 24 by default: open tickets with no reply from you yet after that many hours.
- Resolved within (hours), 72 by default: tickets still not solved after that many hours.
Only your time counts. A ticket waiting on the customer is never late, and every stretch it spent waiting on them comes off its clock. Set either to 0 to switch that check off.
Newly late tickets are emailed to you as one digest, with each ticket's number, subject and a link. It is the A ticket passes your response target alert on Settings, Email.
Why your inbox will not fill up:
Each late ticket is reported once per target. The note is saved without touching the ticket's updated time, so late tickets are not shuffled to the top of your inbox.
When a customer goes quiet:
You replied and they never came back. After Solve after (days without a reply), 7 by default, the ticket is marked Solved by itself, with a private note saying why. Nothing is sent to the customer. If they write back, by email or from their page, the ticket reopens by itself and comes back to you. Set it to 0 to switch it off. Tickets brought in from another helpdesk are never touched.
Before a ticket is sent:
Also on this screen: Suggest help articles as the customer types, on your contact form before they press Send. Many questions are answered right there.
Good values:
- First reply within: what you can keep on your busiest day. 12 or 24 hours suits most small teams.
- Resolved within: 72 hours for most desks; longer if many tickets wait on outside help.
- Solve after: 7 days is long enough for a customer to try your fix and write back.
A real example:
Yoursite Studio pings Slack at Frustrated, with a first reply target of 12 hours and resolved within 72. Grace's ticket about a blank bookings page comes in urgent and frustrated, so it shows in Needs you with an Urgent tag and a hot badge. Once Slack is connected, a ticket like this pings the team channel within seconds.
Tips:
- Start on Angry (recommended) and widen it only if you want more pings.
- Pick targets you can keep. A target you always miss is just noise.