How to use Ticket Rules

 

This is what the rule will be called and has no bearing on how the rule functions. It just helps you identify and organize your rules.

 

 

Conditions are what have to be met in order for the action to be applied. With all conditions, you have the option of a positive or negative. A condition could be the Assignee IS Jane Doe or the assignee is NOT Jane Doe.

Conditions Include:

• Assignee: You have several options with this condition. First, the action can be applied based on who the ticket is assigned to (or not assigned to).

Alternately, if the Assignee is set or not set, you can apply the action. For example, if the assignee is not set, you might want an auto reply sent. But if the assignee is set, you might want to automatically CC someone else on the ticket.

• Channel: Action is taken based on how people submit a ticket. This includes email, the Widget or a specific email address.

• Contact Email: The rule will be applied based on the sender's email address. You could be general—if it includes xyz.com → delete. Or very specific—if it's from "ted@example.com" →assign to Joann.  You could even do—if it doesn't include "test.com" → send auto-reply.

• Status: Depending on whether the ticket is opened or closed, the action would be taken. For example, if a ticket is closed, you could have it sent to a supervisor for review.

• Message Subject: If the subject line includes certain keywords or phrases (or doesn’t), then the action would be taken. 

• Message Text: If the text contains a keyword or phrase (or doesn’t), the action would be applied. You can also take action based on the language of the message, or use Regex.

• Ticket Fields: You’re also able to choose from any ticket fields you’ve created.

Match ALL of the Following Conditions: With this option, a ticket must meet all the conditions you’ve listed in order for the action to be applied.
Example: Ticket has to be from the Widget, assigned to John Doe AND contain the word “Bug Report” in the subject line.

Match ANY of the Following Conditions: If you have a list of conditions, but only want one of them met for the rule to be applied, you would use this option.
Example: Ticket has to be from the Widget OR be assigned to John Doe OR contain the word “Bug Report” in the subject line.

If you don’t set any conditions, the action will automatically be applied to all incoming tickets.

Actions

Actions are what will happen if the ticket meets the conditions you’ve created.

Actions Include:

• Assign Ticket To: If the ticket meets the conditions, you can assign it to a specific person.

• Add CC Recipient: This would add a CC recipient to the ticket. The  user will not be Cc'd on the original message, but will be copied on admin and end user replies. 

• Add Agent Subscriber: This lets you subscribes admins on your UserVoice account to tickets. This is helpful if agents want to be notified of messages/replies on tickets that aren't assigned to them.

• Redirect Message to (email address): Forward the ticket (such that the original sender's name is preserved) to your email inbox or to someone else in your company. They don’t have to be an Admin.

• Send Auto Reply: You can send an automatic reply to all incoming tickets, or ones containing certain phrases or assigned to a specific Admin. The choice is yours.

• Send Email Responses From: You can choose for email notifications to be sent from a specific address. You can use any of the addresses listed in Settings → General → Email addresses.

• Close Ticket: Automatically closes the ticket.

• Delete Ticket: Automatically deletes the ticket.

• Mark as Spam: Automatically marks the ticket as spam.

• Ticket Fields: Any ticket fields you’ve created can also be used as actions.

Just like you can have multiple Conditions, you can also have multiple Actions. You could create a rule that says if a ticket is open, then assign it to John Doe, CC Jane Doe as a recipient, and send an auto reply.

Ordering Rules

If you’ve created more than one rule, the system will automatically apply the rules in the listed order to each ticket. You can, however, reorder your rules.

In Settings → Tickets → Rules, you’ll see the ones you’ve created. You’ll also see a small reorder icon on each one. Click on it, and drag the rule around to get it in the desired sequence

When creating (or editing) a rule, you also have the option to “Stop evaluating any subsequent rules.” If you select this, it means the program won’t apply the remaining rules to the ticket.

My ticket rules aren't working

If you're running into issues with ticket rules, there are a couple of things to check.

One thing to keep in mind: rules are only applied to new, incoming tickets, and cannot be run on existing tickets in your queue.

1. Verify other rules aren't contradicting your rule

When a ticket comes in, it starts with the top rule and goes through each one. If a ticket matches multiple rules, and the rules contradict each other, it will apply the last rule.

I.e. if you have two rules that send auto-replies, and the ticket matches the conditions for both rules, the last rule will be applied.

Solution: If a ticket matches a rule, and you do not want any other rules applied, check the option to "Stop evaluating subsequent rules" at the bottom of the rule's settings.

2. Check your conditions

Check the conditions you have set for your rule, and make sure the ticket matches them. Common condition issues are...

• Condition is "Require All": This means the ticket must meet each of the conditions, and sometimes this is not what you need. If the ticket  only needs to match one, then make the conditions "Require Any."

3. If you're using the API to create tickets, make sure it's not setting the state or support queue

Check your API code and make sure it does set the state or support queue of the ticket. If it does, rules will not be applied since they could overwrite the parameters you set in the API code.

Solution: Do not set the state or support queue when creating a ticket via the API

Common Questions:

Q: Can I run rules based on User and Account fields?
A: Not at this time. You can support the idea for this feature here.

Q: Can I run rules on existing tickets?
A: Not at this time. You can support the idea for this feature here.

Q: Can I run rules on ideas?
A: Not at this time. You can create an idea for this feature request here.