Automatic Follow-Ups

What They Do

When your team replies with Waiting on Customer and the client does not answer, Helpdesk reminds them for you, then closes the request:

1. Two business days after the reply, a first follow-up.
2. Two business days later, a second.
3. Two business days later, a third, saying the request will close if there is no answer.
4. Two business days later, a closing notice, and the ticket closes with a note saying so.

Business days are Monday to Friday, not US federal holidays or the day after Thanksgiving. Follow-ups go out only between 11 AM and 4 PM in your time zone; one due outside those hours waits for the next.

Each follow-up starts with "Hi" and the client's first name, is signed by the person who sent the reply, ends with the ticket's Reference line and why the client is getting it, and quotes that reply. It lands in the client's existing conversation, and appears in the ticket's conversation too. The ticket screen shows when the next one goes out.

When They Stop

A sequence stops for good when the client writes back (by email or an upload link), someone replies with Not Waiting, the ticket is no longer Waiting on Customer, it is marked as spam, follow-ups are turned off, or the requester's address does not take replies (such as noreply addresses). A new Waiting on Customer reply starts a fresh sequence.

With the close rule on, the closing notice waits until the ticket has a project or a Not Applicable reason, and the team hears that it needs one.

On admin-only tickets, only a reply from an owner or admin starts follow-ups.

Setting Them Up

Owners and admins open Follow-Ups in Helpdesk Settings (action helpdesk.settings.save):

• Send automatic follow-ups: off at first.
• Business days between follow-ups: from 1 to 10 (2 at first).
• The wording of the three follow-ups and the closing notice. Each needs some text.