Create a customer ticket follow up process in JSM Cloud using Automation

Summary

Learn how to create a ticket follow-up process in JSM using the Automation rule feature.

Solution

To setup a follow-up/reminder process for customer tickets that have been in the "Waiting for Customer" status for x number of days, you will need to create multiple rules using automation. It is important to understand that using a single automation rule may not be sufficient to achieve the desired outcome.

When an automation rule adds a comment for no response, the "Updated" field date value is updated to the current value in the ticket. This means that your automation rule will not run separately as required to send the customer a second reminder; instead, it might send out the first reminder. To prevent this scenario from occurring, you can incorporate a new status, such as "1st Follow-up" or "2nd follow-up," in the workflow. This will allow you to send multiple reminders/follow-ups to the customer before closing the ticket. This approach aligns with our practices here at the Atlassian Support team.

Here is the configuration for the automation rule to send the 1st reminder/follow-up to the customer when the ticket is in the status 'Waiting for the customer' for 5 days:

Rule 1:

Kindly use the below JQL to update the customer if the status remains the same for 5 days:

• For the Scheduled trigger, select a suitable execution frequency such as 1 day or more frequent if necessary, to ensure all relevant tickets are captured and updated as per the rule conditions.

• Check the JQL option below and specify the below JQL:

  status = "Waiting for Customer" AND NOT status changed after startOfDay("-5")

Note: If you need to exclude weekends or only count business days, you may need to account for this in your setup using custom fields or additional automation rules.

• Followed by Add comment to issue action - Sending the 1st follow-up.

Note: You can add '{{issue.key}}' to reference the ticket number in your email comment, or '{{issue.SLAName.elapsedTime}}' to include the elapsed SLA time in milliseconds.

• Followed by Transition the issue to action to "1st follow up"/"Resolved" status.

And here is the configuration for the automation rule to send the 2nd follow-up to the customer and transition the ticket to the "Closed" status when the ticket is in the "1st follow-up"/"Resolved" status for another 7 days:

Rule 2:

Refer to the below JQL to transition the status to "Resolved" if the status remains as "Resolved" for 7 days:

• For the Scheduled trigger, Select frequency as 1 day.

• Check the JQL option below and specify the below JQL:

  status = "Resolved" AND NOT status changed after startOfDay("-7")

• Followed by Add comment to issue action - Sending the 2nd follow, followed by Closing the ticket.

• Followed by Transition the issue to action to "Closed" status. And, you may update the "Resolution" field as well.

You can refer to the following links for more information on adding a new status/transition in the workflow:

• Work with issue workflows

• Activate inactive workflow

To learn more about available smart values, refer to the document:

• Smart values in Jira automation

Additionally, after updating JQL queries, test them using sample tickets in a non-production environment to ensure they return the expected results. Check automation logs to verify that conditions match and actions are executed correctly.