
How to create time-based rules
Overview
Time-based rules so you can stand behind your commitments to your customers. If you guarantee that you will always reply within a certain time frame, Front can give you a warning as that time approaches.
Front supports two time-based conditions:
- Message unreplied after will trigger if there is no reply to a message after a given delay. This condition will trigger for both inbound and outbound messages depending on the condition selected.
- Conversation unassigned after will trigger if you receive a message and the conversation is still unassigned after a given delay.
Time-based rules are Advanced rule conditions part of the Prime plan or above.
Creating a time-based rule
Step 1
Go into your Settings, select Rules, and Add a team rule.
Step 2
Add your conditions (more information about the fundamentals of rules can be found in the Understanding rules article).
Step 3
Click Save to save your rule.
Ways to leverage a time-based rule
SLA escalations with move / notify / tag
Time-based rules are notably used to manage company SLAs. With Front rules, there are many ways for you to keep on top of these SLAs. Here are our recommendations:
- Move conversations to an escalation inbox - By creating an additional inbox with no connected channels, you can create clear escalation paths and educate your team to prioritize conversations as they become more urgent.
- Notify the team and manager - With the notify rule action, you can select key members of a team who should always be kept in the loop as SLAs approach.
- Tag the conversation for long-term tracking - You should track conversations at your SLA markers to better identify trends and team performance.
Note: Actions from a time-based rule will not trigger other rules.
FAQ
Does time zone matter?
The time zone that you are in when creating the rule is the timezone that the rule will act on. If any teammate modifies the rule in a different time zone, we will detect this and the time zone will update to the latest one.
How does the Time is between condition work?
When using a Time is between condition, if you set your time to be between 9 pm - 9 am for Monday - Friday. Front will take into account Friday 9 pm to Saturday 9 am.
Do time-based conditions work on archived conversations?
Yes, depending on the When trigger:
- If your rule uses When inbound message is received and you archive the conversation, then the Last message unreplied after condition, and only that time-based condition, will not run because you've manually marked this conversation as complete. The Conversation is unassigned after condition will still work on archived conversations.
- If your rule uses When outbound reply is sent and you archive the conversation or the conversation was already archived before the outbound, the time-based conditions will work on the archived conversation because the goal is to ensure you follow up properly if your customer does not respond to you.
- If your rule uses any other Conversation is moved trigger, then we default to following the Inbound message is received logic.
- The condition Time is between also works on archived conversations.
Does snoozing pause a time-based condition?
No, the timer continues to run and is not impacted by snoozing.
Example:
WHEN: inbound
IF: unreplied after 1 hour
THEN: notify [manager] and assign round-robin
If an email arrives at 9 am and is snoozed for 30 minutes (reopens at 9:30 am), the time-based rule will be applied at 10 am if no one has replied.
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I'm trying to create a kind of specific rule. Our automated texts and emails are sent out to customers a few times a week. Generally the customer don't reply to them but the outbound tickets are left open in our box. Is there a way to set a rule for the ticket to be resolved if there is no customer response?
I originally thought it was to set it to outbound message, body contains "XYZ", unreplied after "x". This page seems to indicate that the rule would close out the ticket if we don't respond and would do it again if the customer responds and we don't respond in time. Or does the body portion of the rule only apply to the newest message in the thread? -
Hi,
I'm trying to create a rule where as long as it is in an inbox there is a re-occuring message to the customers every 6 hours. Basically we are using an inbox as our level 2 support and want to let the customer know we are still working on their issue.
The problem is all the time based rules are based on the customer replying. Is there away to do this with Inbox and Rules so that a message goes out every 6 hours regardless if it is replied to or not?