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:

• 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. 
• 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 timezone that you are in when creating the rule is the timezone that the rule will act on. If you modify the rule in a different time zone, we will detect this and the change will automatically be made.

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 automatic replies count as replies for time-based conditions?

If you have a rule that sends out an automatic reply, this reply counts as a normal manual reply. Thus, a subsequent rule that says When inbound, if unreplied after... will not fire because the automatic reply has already replied to the inbound.

Do time-based conditions work on archived conversations?

Yes, depending on the When trigger:

• If your rule uses When inbound and you archive the conversation, then the Unreplied after condition, and only that time-based condition, will not run because you've manually marked this conversation as complete. The Unassigned after condition will still work on archived conversations.
• If your rule uses When outbound reply 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 When conversation moved trigger, then we default to following the When inbound 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.