Automate What Happens When a Reply Runs Late

Response time targets on conversations can now start workflows. Instead of someone watching a timer and noticing a customer has been waiting too long, you can have the system notify a team member, reassign the contact, or escalate automatically. You also control who is allowed to dismiss a target, and every dismissal is logged.

How do I build a workflow that runs when a reply is late?

Create a workflow and use Conversation SLA as the trigger, then pick which event starts it. You can act before the deadline rather than only after it has been missed.

1. Go to Automation, then Workflows, and create a new workflow.
2. Select Conversation SLA as the trigger.
3. Choose the event: Due Soon, Overdue, or SLA dismissed.
4. Add optional filters such as message channel, tags, owner or custom fields.
5. Define the actions the workflow should take, then publish it.

How do I stop it firing repeatedly?

Turn on Avoid Repeated Triggers. With it enabled, the workflow runs only once per conversation in a 24 hour period, even if the same contact sends several messages that each create a new timing event. Without it, a chatty customer can generate a run of notifications for one conversation.

What about messages that do not need a reply?

Some messages are just a customer saying thank you, got it, or not interested. Those do not need a response, and your team can dismiss the target on that conversation without sending a reply, so your response time figures are not dragged down by messages that were never questions.

Who is allowed to dismiss a response target?

You choose. Admins can open it up to everyone or restrict it to admins only, which stops a target being cleared simply because someone did not want to deal with the conversation.

1. Go to Conversations Settings.
2. Under the setting for who can manually dismiss SLA from conversations, select All users or Admins only.
3. Save your changes.

Anyone with permission dismisses a target by clicking the SLA timer in the centre panel.

Can I see who dismissed one?

Yes. Every dismissal writes a log entry onto the conversation showing which user dismissed it and what the status was at that moment, so the action is always traceable back to a person.

You will find the trigger in Automation under Workflows, and the permission setting in Conversations Settings.