Creating ticket triggers for automatic ticket updates and notifications

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Ticket triggersare business rules that run immediately after a ticket is created or updated and automatically perform actions if specified conditions are met. For example, a ticket trigger can be used to notify the customer when a ticket has been opened.</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>
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<p class="p"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408822236058" target="_blank">Ticket triggers</a> are business rules that run immediately after a ticket is created or updated
and automatically perform actions if specified conditions are met. For example, a ticket
trigger can be used to notify the customer when a ticket has been opened. </p>
<p class="p">Triggers are composed of <em class="ph i">conditions</em>, which are the qualifications
needed for the trigger to fire, and <em class="ph i">actions</em>, which are performed when those
qualifications are met. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408822236058-About-triggers-and-how-they-work#topic_n45_331_34" target="_blank">Anatomy of a trigger</a>). In
other words, if the conditions are true, then the trigger will perform the actions.</p>
<p class="p">There is a set of <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828984346" target="_blank">standard ticket triggers</a> that you can use in addition
to creating your own triggers. Admins and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882153882" target="_blank">agents in custom roles with permission</a> to manage business rules can
create ticket triggers.</p>
<div class="p">This article contains the following topics:<ul class="ul" id="topic_4408886797466__ul_wcq_bt1_z2c">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_a32_dp2_pbc">Essential facts about ticket
triggers</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_qfk_s23_vsb">Creating ticket triggers</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_a32_dp2_pbc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Essential facts about ticket triggers</h2>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">In addition to the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408822236058#topic_xzp_zsq_4bc" target="_blank">essential facts that are true of all Zendesk
triggers</a>, consider the following information specific to ticket triggers: <ul class="ul" id="topic_a32_dp2_pbc__ul_ev1_3p2_pbc">
<li class="li">The order of your ticket triggers and categories designates the order in which they're
fired. It's important that triggers and categories are <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882237722#topic_vnl_zpy_tb" target="_blank">arranged in the appropriate order</a> to match the
intended workflow.</li>
<li class="li">The ticket event log only records the actions applied to tickets by triggers if they
result in a net change in ticket field values. If a trigger runs and fires, but results
in no change to the ticket, it isn't logged in the event log.
</li>
<li class="li">You can have a maximum of 7000 active ticket triggers. This includes all standard and
custom ticket triggers that are active.</li>
<li class="li">To help you manage large numbers of ticket triggers, they can be organized into <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408834781594" target="_blank">categories</a>. </li>
<li class="li">Ticket triggers run in the order they are listed on the Triggers page in Admin Center.
This is important because actions applied by one trigger can affect how other triggers
run and fire for a ticket.</li>
<li class="li">On non-Enterprise plans, ticket triggers are visible to agents, including light agents
and contributors, but can only be edited by admins. On Enterprise plans, triggers are
visible only to <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882153882" target="_blank">agents in custom roles with permission</a> to manage
triggers.</li>
<li class="li">Ticket triggers do not work on <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9204149016346" target="_blank">AI agent tickets</a>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested2" id="topic_chq_xct_pbc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title3">Understanding when ticket triggers run and fire</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Every time a ticket is created or updated, all of your ticket triggers <em class="ph i">run</em> in a
cycle against that ticket in the order the triggers are listed. A ticket trigger
<em class="ph i">fires</em> and updates the ticket if its conditions are met during the cycle. A cycle
is the entire process of a ticket being checked against all your ticket triggers.</p>
<p class="p">If a ticket trigger updates a ticket during the cycle, the cycle starts over. All the
ticket triggers run again, except any ticket triggers that have already fired and updated
the ticket. This means a ticket could loop through the ticket trigger list several times
before all of the triggers have either updated the ticket or been skipped because
conditions were not met. (See the image below.)</p>
<p class="p">A ticket trigger might <em class="ph i">run</em> (that is, be checked) several times during a cycle,
but it never <em class="ph i">fires</em> (that is, take action) more than once in the same cycle because
the trigger isn't checked again after it fires. And a trigger doesn't fire at all during
the cycle if the conditions are not met.</p>
<p class="p">Because the ticket trigger cycle starts over every time a trigger fires, actions in
ticket triggers can affect one another. A ticket update by one trigger might cause another
trigger, where conditions were not previously met, to be true and fire. So the order of
your triggers is very important.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_chq_xct_pbc__image_lll_wgh_2cb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/triggers_cycle2.png"></p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_myk_qk1_qbc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">The importance of specific conditions</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">When building a ticket trigger, it's important to make your conditions as specific as
possible. The <em class="ph i">Ticket | Is</em> condition is a good way to narrow ticket trigger's scope
so that it only runs when a ticket is created or when it is updated, but not both. Without
this condition, ticket triggers run everytime any ticket is created or updated. This can
lead to unnecessarily long processing times for the trigger cycle and unintentional
automated actions occurring.</p>
<p class="p">Commonly, the <strong class="ph b">Ticket | Is | Created</strong> condition is used to route newly created
tickets based on initial criteria, while <strong class="ph b">Ticket | Is | Updated</strong> is used to send
notifications. When used in combination with other nullifying conditions, such as <strong class="ph b">Tags
| Contains</strong> conditions or <strong class="ph b">Priority | Is not</strong>, the <strong class="ph b">Ticket | Is</strong> condition
can help ensure your ticket triggers are only running and firing when you want them
to.</p>
<p class="p">It's also important to watch out for ticket triggers that undo or modify an action
contained in another ticket trigger. This can cause conflicts and lead to unpredictable
behavior. For example, if one trigger assigns tickets based on the channel from which it
was received, and another assigns tickets based on the presense of tags. If a ticket meets
the criteria for both triggers, the last one that fires in the cycle is the assignment the
ticket will ultimately have. However, because the actions in one ticket trigger can affect
whether a ticket meets the conditions for another trigger, it's not always easy to predict
the order in which your triggers will fire for a given ticket. Therefore, it's important
to avoid defining conflicting triggers and to use nullifying actions and conditions, such
as adding a tag and then creating a condition around the precense of that tag, to minimize
conflicts.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_qfk_s23_vsb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Creating ticket triggers</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Ticket triggers are business rules that run immediately after a ticket is created or
updated and automatically perform actions if specified conditions are met. There are <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828984346" target="_blank">standard ticket triggers</a>, which you can modify, and you can create
additional triggers.</p>
<p class="p">You must be an admin or an <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882153882" target="_blank">agent in a custom role with permission</a> to create triggers.</p>
<p class="p">The following video gives you an overview of how to add triggers:</p>
<p class="p"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" controls="controls" height="225" src="https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/iw9cspbjg5" width="400"></iframe></p>
<p class="p">Automating notifications with ticket triggers [2:02]</p>
<div class="p">
<strong class="ph b">To create a ticket trigger</strong><ol class="ol" id="topic_qfk_s23_vsb__ol_i45_cf5_cqb">
<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_qfk_s23_vsb__d8e1766" 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">On the triggers page, click the <strong class="ph b">Ticket</strong> tab.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Create trigger</strong>.<p class="p">Alternatively, you can use the options menu icon
(<img alt="Trigger options menu" class="image" id="topic_qfk_s23_vsb__image_pg4_2h4_kkb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/support_trigger_options.png" width="16">) to <strong class="ph b">Create trigger below</strong> the selected trigger or <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882237722#topic_dwq_zoy_tb" target="_blank">Clone</a> and modify a copy of the existing
trigger.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Enter a <strong class="ph b">Name</strong> for your trigger. <p class="p">Use a consistent naming convention to help
you recognize similar types of triggers.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">(Optional) Enter a <strong class="ph b">Description</strong> for your trigger.<p class="p">You can provide details
about what the trigger does. You'll be able to search for triggers based on
description.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Select an existing <strong class="ph b">Trigger category</strong> for your trigger or <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408834781594" target="_blank">create</a> a new one.</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.<p class="p">Conditions are the qualifications needed for the trigger to
fire.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Select a <strong class="ph b">Category</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Field operator</strong>, and <strong class="ph b">Value</strong> for each condition
you add.<p class="p">The field operator determines the relationship between
the condition and the value. For example, if you select the field operator "Is", your
condition will need to be equal to the value. Different conditions will contain
different field operators.</p>
<p class="p">See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408893545882#topic_i3y_fkz_1cb" target="_blank">Building trigger condition statements</a>.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> It is recommended to keep your trigger statements simple. The more complicated a
trigger is, the harder it will be to troubleshoot and maintain.</div>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">Click the <strong class="ph b">Add action</strong> to set the actions that occur when trigger conditions are
met. </li>
<li class="li">Select <strong class="ph b">Category</strong> and a <strong class="ph b">Value</strong> for each action you add. <p class="p">See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408893545882#topic_ncz_4kz_1cb" target="_blank">Building trigger action statements</a>. </p>
</li>
<li class="li">Enter the action information.<p class="p">Depending on the action you
select, you will enter different information. For example, if you select the "Type"
action, you'll need to select a ticket type.</p>
<p class="p">If you're
configuring an email notification action, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8407456809754" target="_blank">Understanding how to format email notifications</a>.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Create trigger</strong>.<p class="p">New triggers are automatically set to active. If you
want to create an inactive trigger, click the arrow next to <strong class="ph b">Create trigger</strong> and
select <strong class="ph b">Inactive</strong>.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_qfk_s23_vsb__image_nsj_2nb_v1c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/trigger_create_inactive.png"></p>
<p class="p">Your new trigger is added to the
end of the list of triggers.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Each business rule must be less than 65kb.</div>
</div>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p class="p">You can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10356973691546#topic_vnl_zpy_tb" target="_blank">reorder</a> the list of ticket triggers or <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882237722#topic_dwq_zoy_tb" target="_blank">edit</a> any ticket trigger.</p>
</div>
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