Using the hours since condition

Hours since is how an automation measures waiting. Which clock you pick decides whether the rule does what you meant.

Hours since is how an automation measures waiting. Which clock you pick decides whether the rule does what you meant.

The clocks you can measure from

• Since created. Age of the ticket, regardless of activity.
• Since the status was set. How long it has been pending, on-hold or solved.
• Since the last update. Any update, by anyone.
• Since the requester last updated. How long since the customer said anything.
• Since the assignee last updated. How long since you did.

Picking the right one

The difference matters more than it looks.

• Chasing a customer: since the status was set to pending. Not since created, which would chase people about a ticket you only replied to this morning.
• Closing solved tickets: since solved.
• Escalating something stuck: since the assignee last updated, so a ticket the agent is actively working does not escalate.

Calendar hours or business hours

Both are available where you have a schedule, and for anything customer-facing business hours is nearly always right.

Twenty-four calendar hours from Friday at four is Saturday at four. Twenty-four business hours is the middle of the following week. One of those matches what your customer expects.

Greater than, not equal to

Use "greater than" rather than "is". Automations run hourly, so an exact match can be missed if the pass happens to fall either side of the moment. Greater than plus a nullifying tag is reliable.

See also

• Making sure an automation runs only once
• When automations run
• Setting your business hours