Automatically adding comments and notes to tickets using triggers

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">You can create triggers that automatically add public comments and internal notes to tickets. Public comments can deflect tickets without requiring agent intervention. Internal notes can provide agents with helpful process reminders or other information. Either way, your support team saves time and effort.</p>
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<div class="note fastpath">
<span class="fastpathtitle">Location: </span> <span class="ph">Admin Center &gt; Objects and rules &gt; Business rules &gt;
Triggers</span>
</div>
<p class="p">You can create triggers that automatically add public comments and internal notes to
tickets. Public comments can deflect tickets without requiring agent intervention.
Internal notes can provide agents with helpful process reminders or other information.
Either way, your support team saves time and effort.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">This article contains the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="zug_ai_autoreply_internal_note_triggers__ul_et2_pwg_xyb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_a55_j3w_2fc">Considerations when automatically adding comments and notes to tickets</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_rgh_fd2_d2c">Automatically adding comments and notes to tickets</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ky5_qwg_xyb">Example: Automatically adding a public comment to tickets received outside of business hours</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_kvx_rwg_xyb">Example: Automatically adding an internal note to tickets about data loss</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_a55_j3w_2fc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Considerations when automatically adding comments and notes to tickets</h2>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">Consider the following limitations and behaviors when using triggers to automatically
add comments and internal notes to tickets:<ul class="ul" id="topic_a55_j3w_2fc__ul_pql_m3w_2fc">
<li class="li">Internal notes added by triggers are attributed to the system user. </li>
<li class="li">Comments added by triggers are attributed to the ticket's current assignee.
If the ticket is unassigned, comments added by triggers are attributed to
the system user.</li>
<li class="li">If the current user is a light agent, a trigger's autoreply actions are
suppressed because light agents don't have permission to add public comments
to tickets.</li>
<li class="li">All ticket triggers run when a ticket is created or updated. However, a
maximum of one comment and one internal note can be automatically added by a
trigger per ticket event. This means, if you have multiple triggers with
autoreply and internal note actions, even if the ticket meets the conditions
for all of them, only one comment and one internal note will be added to the
ticket. </li>
<li class="li">To prevent unintentional interactions between trigger actions that have a
<em class="ph i">Ticket &gt; Ticket | Is | Created</em> condition, it's a best practice
to create a separate trigger for the autoreply action, apart from the other
actions. Remember that ticket triggers <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886797466#topic_a32_dp2_pbc" target="_blank">run and fire</a> in order, so
unexpected interactions might still occur if the autoreply trigger is in the
middle of the list. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10356973691546" target="_blank">Reordering ticket triggers</a>.</li>
<li class="li">In the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829602970" target="_blank">ticket event history</a>, internal
notes and comments added by triggers are labeled with the trigger that added
them.</li>
<li class="li">In the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829602970" target="_blank">ticket event history</a>, internal
notes and comments added by triggers can appear out of order because the
events are processed asynchronously.</li>
<li class="li">Internal notes and comments added by triggers aren't supported when an agent
forwards a ticket with a comment. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10228491265434" target="_blank">Why don't my autoreply trigger actions
run on forwarded tickets?</a> </li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_rgh_fd2_d2c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Automatically adding comments and notes to tickets</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Using ticket triggers to add comments to tickets, whether they're visible to end
users or only to agents, is done the same way any other actions are defined for
ticket triggers.</p>
<div class="p">
<strong class="ph b">To create a trigger to add comments or internal notes to tickets</strong><ol class="ol" id="topic_rgh_fd2_d2c__ol_htl_pd2_d2c">
<li class="li"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_rgh_fd2_d2c__d9e1812" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Business rules &gt;
Triggers</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886797466" target="_blank">Create</a> or <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882237722" target="_blank">edit</a> a ticket trigger.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Add condition</strong> to set up the trigger to meet <strong class="ph b">All</strong> or
<strong class="ph b">Any</strong> conditions.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Add action</strong> and set the actions that occur when the trigger's
conditions are met. <p class="p">In this case, include either or both of the following
options:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_rgh_fd2_d2c__ul_f54_b22_d2c">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket &gt; Autoreply</strong> to add a public comment, visible to
agents and end users</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket &gt; Internal note</strong> to add an internal note, visible
only to agents<div class="note" id="topic_rgh_fd2_d2c__note_xgh_3qt_dfc">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> A single trigger can apply
one of each of the options above.</div>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Reply body</strong>, enter the text of the comments or note the trigger
will add to tickets.<div class="note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> To create line breaks in your reply body, press
<strong class="ph b">Shift + Enter</strong>. If you only press <strong class="ph b">Enter</strong>, it will look
like a new line in the text editor, but won't be reflected as a line
break in the ticket comment.</div>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Create trigger</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ky5_qwg_xyb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Example: Automatically adding a public comment to tickets received outside of business hours</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">You can create a ticket trigger that automatically adds public comments to tickets.
If the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828984346#topic_5yf_43s_5t" target="_blank">Notify requester and CCs of comment update</a>
standard ticket trigger is activated, the requester and any CCs are notified of the
comment via email.</p>
<p class="p">In the example below, the ticket trigger is configured to check whether the ticket
was received during your configured <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842938522" target="_blank">business hours</a>. For tickets that are created outside of
business hours, you can create an automatic reply that informs them when they can
expect a response and directs the requester to any self-service resources that might
help them resolve the issue themselves.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note tip" id="topic_ky5_qwg_xyb__note_mwx_bxg_xyb">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> Autoreplies can fulfill SLAs. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829459866" target="_blank">Defining SLA
policies</a>.</div>
</div>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To add a public comment using a ticket trigger</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_ky5_qwg_xyb__ol_vjn_13s_25b">
<li class="li">
<span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_ky5_qwg_xyb__d9e1812" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Business rules &gt;
Triggers</strong>.</span>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Add trigger</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">In <strong class="ph b">Trigger name</strong>, enter a name for the trigger, such as <strong class="ph b">Automatic reply
for requests outside of business hours</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">(Optional) Enter a <strong class="ph b">Description</strong> and <strong class="ph b">Category</strong> for your trigger. </li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Conditions</strong> pane, under <strong class="ph b">Meet ALL of the following
conditions</strong>, add the following conditions: <ul class="ul" id="topic_ky5_qwg_xyb__ol_lgw_pps_25b">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket &gt; Status</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Is</strong> | <strong class="ph b">New</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket &gt; Agent replies</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Less than</strong> | <strong class="ph b">1</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket &gt; Within business hours?</strong> | <strong class="ph b">No</strong>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Meet ANY of the following conditions</strong>, add the following
conditions:<ul class="ul" id="topic_ky5_qwg_xyb__ol_qgz_qkr_bzb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Channel</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Is</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Email</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">Repeat the condition above for additional channels<div class="p">
<div class="note tip" id="topic_ky5_qwg_xyb__note_rsl_xkr_bzb">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> These conditions ensure that
autoreplies apply only to tickets created through certain
channels. For example, you might not want autoreplies to apply
to messaging tickets, which are created when a user requests to
speak with an agent.</div>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Actions</strong> pane, add <strong class="ph b">Autoreply</strong> and enter the following
<strong class="ph b">Reply body</strong>: <p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Thanks for reaching out. We've received your
request and appreciate your patience. Our customer support team will get
back to you during our business hours: Monday - Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00
pm ET. In the meantime, you can check out our help center.</strong></p>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Create</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_kvx_rwg_xyb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Example: Automatically adding an internal note to tickets about data loss</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">You can create a ticket trigger that automatically adds an internal note to tickets. </p>
<p class="p">In the example below, the ticket trigger is configured to look for keywords in the
ticket's subject and comment text that indicate the customer is experiencing a loss
of data. Time is often a big factor in successful data recovery, so the trigger sets
the ticket's priority to Urgent and adds an internal note reminding agents to use
the expedited ticket escalation process.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To add an internal note using a ticket trigger</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_kvx_rwg_xyb__ol_uvj_kxg_xyb">
<li class="li">
<span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_kvx_rwg_xyb__d9e1812" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Business rules &gt;
Triggers</strong>.</span>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Add trigger</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">In <strong class="ph b">Trigger name</strong>, enter a name for the trigger, such as <strong class="ph b">Automatic reply
for data loss fast-track</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">(Optional) Enter a <strong class="ph b">Description</strong> and a <strong class="ph b">Category</strong> for your trigger. </li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Conditions</strong> pane, under <strong class="ph b">Meet ANY of the following
conditions</strong>, add the following conditions: <ul class="ul" id="topic_kvx_rwg_xyb__ul_vvj_kxg_xyb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket &gt; Status</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Is</strong> | <strong class="ph b">New</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket &gt; Agent replies</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Less than</strong> | <strong class="ph b">1</strong>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Conditions</strong> pane, under <strong class="ph b">Meet ANY of the following
conditions</strong>, add the following conditions:<ul class="ul" id="topic_kvx_rwg_xyb__ul_jrp_myz_c2c">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket &gt; Comment text</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Contains the following string</strong> |
<strong class="ph b">data loss</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket &gt; Subject text</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Contains the following string</strong> |
<strong class="ph b">data loss</strong>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Actions</strong> pane, add the following actions:<ul class="ul" id="topic_kvx_rwg_xyb__ul_hvv_wyz_c2c">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket &gt; Priority</strong> | <strong class="ph b">Urgent</strong>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Internal note</strong><p class="p">For the <strong class="ph b">Reply body</strong>, enter <strong class="ph b">Data loss can
be a critical and time-sensitive problem for our customers. Make
sure to follow the fast-track escalation process.</strong></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Create</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
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