Automation rules that run on ticket creation let you automate actions on newly created tickets. For example, you can send an email notification to the billing team, if you receive a ticket with the word ‘Billing’ mentioned in the subject or body of the ticket. In this article, you’ll learn an overview of how these rules work and how to set them up. Click here to learn more examples and use cases for creating automation rules on ticket creation.


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Understanding how automation rules on ticket creation work

Automation rules run on every incoming ticket; you can perform actions based on predefined conditions. These rules let you automate actions such as:

  • Assigning tickets to the right groups and/or agents

  • Setting ticket properties like status, priority, and type

  • Triggering email notifications to agents and requesters

  • Deleting tickets or marking them as spam

These actions can be performed on a ticket based on the following parameters: 

How are rules executed?

Rules that run on ticket creation can either run on every rule or just the first matching rule. The rules are set to work by default based on the first matching rule. 



Here's how the triggers work when you execute based on the first matching rule.  The order of the rules is very important because only the first matching rule will be executed. If you have straightforward workflows, we recommend choosing this option. 


Note: You can also view the list of impacted tickets against each rule name in the past 7 days. However, it is not possible to view the corresponding ticket IDs. Alternatively, you can add actions to each automation rule to get the list of impacted tickets by filtering based on tags.

Here's how the rules work when they run on every matching rule. If you'd like all matching rules to be executed on your tickets, click on the gear button above the rules list and then choose 'Execute all matching rules'. Click Save.


A quick guide for creating an automation rule to run on ticket creation

  1. Login as an admin
  2. Navigation:
  • Go to Admin > Workflows > Automations

  • Click on New Rule from the Ticket Creation tab.

  • Give your rule a name.

  • Set up Conditions that act as a trigger for this particular rule.

    1. Choose the type of field using the dropdown (ticket, contacts, or company).

    2. Select the field you want from the dropdown list.

    3. Specify whether ALL conditions need to be matched to trigger the rule, or just one (ANY).

    4. Add multiple conditions by clicking the Add new condition button and use the Trash icon to remove the condition.

  • Based on your use case, make use of the AND/OR operators on ticket matching:

  • Any of the conditions

  • All of the conditions

  • All of condition block 1 AND any from condition block 2

  • All of condition block 1 OR any from condition block 2

  • Any of condition block 1 OR all from condition block 2

  • Any of condition block 1 AND all from condition block 2

  1. Configure the actions to be executed on the ticket once the conditions you set are met.

    1. If you'd like to send a notification email, you can use placeholders to help frame the content.

    2. Add multiple actions by clicking on the Add new action button. You can use the Trash icon to remove the action.

  2. Once you've finished setting up all the conditions and actions, click Preview and Save.

  3. 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.

  4. Click on 'Save and Enable' to save and enable this rule on your Freshdesk.

Pre-configured Rule

You can also use the sample automation rule that helps you route refund and return tickets automatically to the billing team. You can edit this rule to create an automation rule that aligns with your business.


Say you want all tickets of type 'return', 'refund', or 'replacement' to be assigned to the Returns & Refunds group, you can edit the rule as shown below:


To assign tickets to a group, select Assign to group from the first dropdown, and the name of the group in the next one. Add the tasks you'd like to perform by selecting an action from the dropdown list (click Add a new action to add more if required).


You can also use the options in the dropdown list to set up a combination of AND and OR conditions as rules. This can be very useful while checking for multiple values within a single condition - for example, here's a rule that sends a notification to an assigned agent when the ticket priority is Urgent OR High, the ticket type is a Query OR Problem, AND the source is Email.


Click here to read about other examples of automation rules for ticket creation.


Skip new ticket email notification:

The Skip new ticket email notification option under Actions will come in handy when the 'New ticket created' email notification is not required to be sent for certain situations when specific conditions match.

For example, in case you receive multiple tickets that are ads or brochures from no-reply email addresses, you'll want to close them and mark as spam automatically, while also making sure that your agents aren't spammed with the notification email indicating that a new ticket has been created. In this case, you can use the configuration shown below:


Refer to this article to understand how to set up Ticket creation automation rules on Custom Objects.

Note:

The email responses sent out by an automation rule will not be exported when a ticket export is triggered. However, you can use the Show Activities option on the Tickets page to view all the email conversations sent triggered through automation for each ticket.


Cloning rules

If you want to reuse an existing rule but just modify a few conditions or actions, you can avoid creating a rule from scratch and instead clone an existing rule.

To clone a rule:

  1. Hover over an existing rule, click on the three dots next to the rule name, and select Clone.

  2. Make the required changes and save the rule.

FAQs:

  1. Why is my automation rule not working even though the conditions are satisfied?
    When it comes to automation rules that run on ticket creation, the order in which the rules are listed under Admin > Workflows > Automations > Ticket Creation tab is crucial. A new incoming ticket will trigger the first rule in the list whose conditions are met. Once a ticket satisfies the conditions of one rule, the conditions of the subsequent rules will not be checked. Ensure that the rule that isn't working for you is positioned on top in the list.     Additionally, click on 'Show Activities' on the ticket details page to see which rule was executed. Based on this information, you can reorder the rules under the Ticket Creation tab. Ideally, you should place rules with specific conditions at the top and more generic rules lower down in the list.