Automation #6 - Prevent Re-opening of Closed Tickets

Automation #6 - Prevent Re-opening of Closed Tickets



This is a monthly series where we pick some common use cases that have been either discussed or most asked about in our community and explain how they can be achieved using one of the automation capabilities in Zoho Desk.

Typically when a customer submits a support ticket, it is assigned with a status to map its journey. Zoho Desk provides you with four default statuses: Open, On hold, Escalated, Closed; along with the option to create your own statutes which can then be mapped to these default ones.  
 
Once the solution has been provided to the customer and the ticket is resolved the ticket is marked as "Closed". But the status changes from "Closed" to "Open" if the customer replies to the same ticket. While this behaviour might be useful for some businesses who prefer to continue the same thread instead of reopening a new one, some might not want to do so. To ensure the ticket stays in the closed status and start a new thread for a customer reply, you can create a Workflow Rule and map it to a custom function script to achieve the desired results.

Prerequisite:
To ensure the Closed status is maintained even if a customer replies to a ticket, perform the following steps: 
1. Go to Setup, and under Customization, click Ticket Status, uncheck the "Fall-Back To Default" checkbox against "Closed" status.
2. OrgID, to get the OrgID, navigate to "Setup >> Developer Space >> API". Note down the OrgID
To create the workflow rule, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Setup, and under Automation, click Workflows.
2. On the left panel, under Workflows, click Rules > Create Rule.
In the Basic Information section, perform the following steps:
3. In the Module drop-down menu, select Tickets.
4. Enter a name and description for the rule.
5. If you want to activate the rule right away, select the Active checkbox. Else, you can just create the rule now and activate it later on the Rules page.
6. Click Next.
In the Execute on section, perform the following steps:
7. Select the Customer Reply checkbox to execute this rule every time a customer responds to a ticket.  
8. Click Next.
9. In the Criteria section, set the criteria as "Status is Closed" and click "Next"
In the Actions section, perform the following steps:
10. Click the + icon under "Action" and select "New" next to Custom Functions
11. Enter a name and description for the custom function.
12. In the script window, input the Custom Function you find below:
  1. numberOfHours = 48;
  2. orgId = "Paste Org Id here";
  3. //Please paste your OrgID
  4. TicketInfo = zoho.desk.getRecordById(orgId,"tickets",TicketID);
  5. lastModified = TicketInfo.get("closedTime").toTime("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss");
  6. status = TicketInfo.get("status");
  7. hoursBetween = now.hoursBetween(lastModified).abs();
  8. if(hoursBetween >= numberOfHours)
  9. {
  10. threadResponse = zoho.desk.getRelatedRecords(orgId, "threads", "tickets", TicketID);
  11. if(threadResponse.get("data") != null)
  12. {
  13. latestThreadID = threadResponse.get("data").get(0).get("id");
  14. splitTicketResponse = zoho.desk.ticket.split(orgId, TicketID, latestThreadID);
  15. info "splitTicketResponse ::::" + splitTicketResponse;
  16. info "======================================================";
  17. NewTicketNumber = splitTicketResponse.get("ticketNumber");
  18. NewTicketID = splitTicketResponse.get("id");
  19. }
  20. }
  21. else
  22. {
  23. jsonString = {"status":"Open"};
  24. TicketResponse = zoho.desk.update(orgId, "tickets", TicketID, jsonString);
  25. info TicketResponse;
  26. }

NOTE:
Line 1 numberOfHours = 48, refers to the hours post which the new response received in a existing ticket should be split as new ticket. You can replace the number of hours based on your requirement.
Line 2 replace the orgId.

13. Click Edit Arguments
14. In the Name field type TicketID, and from the Value drop-down list select Ticket Id under Ticket Information. 
15. Click "Save" to save the custom function
16. Click "Save" again to save the workflow.

These steps would ensure that when a ticket is marked Closed, it stays in the Closed status, even if a customer replies after the mentioned hours. But also ensure that the new reply is added as a new ticket so you don't miss anything!

    • Sticky Posts

    • Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community

      With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our features

    • Share your Zoho Desk story with us!

      Tell us how you use Zoho Desk for your business and inspire others with your story. Be it a simple workflow rule that helps you navigate complex processes or a macro that saves your team a lot of time; share it here and help the community learn and grow with shared knowledge. 

    • Tip #1: Learn to pick the right channels

      Mail, live chat, telephony, social media, web forms—there are so many support channels out there. Trying to pick the right channels to offer your customers can get pretty confusing. Emails are most useful when the customer wants to put things on record. However, escalated or complicated issues should not be resolved over email because it's slow and impersonal.  When you need immediate responses, live chat is more suitable. It's also quick and convenient, so it's the go-to channel for small issues. 

    • Welcome to Zoho Desk Community - Say hello here!

      Hello everyone! Though we have been here for a while, it’s time to formally establish the Zoho Desk Community; we’re really happy to have you all here! This can be the place where you take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the community. We’d love to hear all about you, what you do, what company or industry you work for, how you use Zoho Desk and anything else that you will like to share! Here’s a little about me. I am Chinmayee. I have been associated with Zoho since 2014. I joined here

    • Webinar 1: Blueprint for Customer Service

      With the launch of a host of new features in Zoho Desk, we thought it’ll be great to have a few webinars to help our customers make the most of them. We’re starting off with our most talked about feature, Blueprint in Zoho Desk. You can register for the Blueprint webinar here: The webinar will be delivered by our in-house product experts. This is a good opportunity to ask questions to our experts and understand how Blueprint can help you automate your service processes. We look forward to seeing

    • Recent Topics

    • How to sync Zoho CRM Quotes with Zoho Books/Finance Estimates or Quotes

      Hi everyone, We’re building quotes in the Zoho CRM Quotes module because of its strong CPQ features and better communication options (multiple contacts, email customization, etc.). However, these don’t sync directly with Zoho Books/Finance for invoicing.

    • Canvas responsive preview in different browser window causes re-authentication/verification

      I'm trying to design a view in Canvas. I am testing in a tab with a desktop view, and another tab (on my same desktop/IP) with a responsive view of an iphone. Every time I refresh, it boots me out of the previously used tab. If I forget to refresh the

    • Import subform entries conveniently in CRM

      Dear All,   Subforms have always been crucial for associating additional data with CRM records. You can easily associate line items with parent records and keep track of various details related to your records. We're pleased to announce that we've introduced

    • Canvas: how can I edit theme?

      This says "Theme Colours", and I would like to edit theme colors (and styles ala CSS). How can I edit these "Theme Colours"? I'm a software developer, so just point me in a direction where I can alter code if needed.

    • Cómo convencer a tu manager para venir a Zoholics 2025

      ¿No estás seguro de si a tu manager le convence que asistas a Zoholics 2025? ¡No te preocupes! Aquí te damos algunos argumentos clave que te ayudarán a convencer a tu manager de que participar en este evento es una inversión tanto para ti como para la

    • HTML Email in Zoho Books

      Is it possible to create custom html email template in zoho books. 

    • Using IMAP configuration for shared email inboxes

      Our customer service team utilizes shared email boxes to allow multiple people to view and handle incoming customer requests. For example, the customer sends an email to info@xxxx.com and multiple people can view it and handle the request. How can I configure

    • Can you please let us know how we can use Zoho for multi store?

      Hello Team, Can you please let us know how we can use Zoho for multi store because when we connect our plugin to Zoho and we create a product and then on another store when we create product with same name then product already exist error occurs, so how

    • Contracts Management

      Hello, We are implementing Zoho FSM for our field service operations and, one of the features we are lacking is Service Contract Management. I was told that such feature might be in the pipeline but an estimated launch date for this is not available at

    • Exciting Updates to the Kiosk Studio Feature in Zoho CRM!

      Hello Everyone, We are here again with a series of new enhancements to Kiosk Studio, designed to elevate your experience and bring even greater efficiency to your business processes. These updates build upon our ongoing commitment to making Kiosk a powerful

    • Cancelled appointments still block out timeslot

      I haven't had to test this before, but I've just found a problem. I had an appointment in a certain timeslot, and that appointment was cancelled. However, Bookings won't let another appointment be booked in that slot - it makes that time unavailable until

    • Can you change the width of a template, and/or the size of images we upload to the template?

      my images look good in preview, but are then skewed when sending email. Also, are image sizes "fixed" by which template is being used? Thanks in advance. CV

    • Tip of the Week #53 – Use Zia writing assistant !

      Ever find yourself typing out a quick reply or discussing something with your teammates, and a tiny typo slips through? Or maybe you’re aiming to refine your writing for better clarity and context? That’s where Zia steps in , Zoho's AI powered writing

    • Sheet View for Reports

      Hi - is there any plan to make a "Sheet View" function for reports??? It would be a huge improvement. Moderation Update (30th April 2025): We have a separate post discussing the same requirement. Please follow the below post to stay updated on the progress.

    • When adding or editing a contact in contact tab, the contact or edits cannot be seen in mail tab for up to 24 hours

      When reporting this as a bug, I was informed that it can take up to 24 hours for a newly added or edited contact in the Contacts section to become usable in the Email tab—whether through autocomplete or when selecting recipients via the To button. Frankly,

    • Power of Automation :: SLA for Projects

      Hello Everyone, In this post, we would like to highlight the feature "Time-Based Workflow Rules for Projects" Workflow rules help project managers organize tasks in a project by setting criteria and actions that meet the project requirements. Zoho Projects

    • RouteIQ for Zoho FSM

      Beste, Zou wel top zijn dat we een RouteIQ hebben voor FSM aangezien we constant moeten zien wat de beste route is voor onze monteurs. Nu moeten we een speciale aparte programma hebben om de beste route te berrekenen voor onze monteurs aangezien de planning

    • Let's Talk Recruit: An approval process with zero follow-ups

      Welcome back to our Let's Talk Recruit series! Today, the topic of discussion is the Approval process. We’ll discuss how approval workflows function in recruitment, explore real-world use cases, and show how automation in Zoho Recruit can streamline approvals

    • Failed job notifications

      Is there are way to receive an alert when a job has failed? If not this would be a useful feature.

    • How Do I Refund a Customer Directly to Their Credit Card?

      Hi, I use books to auto-charge my customers credit card. But when I create a credit note there doesn't seem to be a way to directly refund the amount back to their credit card. Is the only way to refund a credit note by doing it "offline" - or manually-

    • Unified WhatsApp Number Management in Zoho Desk and SalesIQ

      Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, We are currently utilizing both Zoho Desk and Zoho SalesIQ for our customer support operations. While both platforms offer WhatsApp integration, we are facing challenges due to the requirement of separate WhatsApp numbers

    • Block certain emails from creating tickets

      Hi there! We get a lot of tickets into Zoho desk from people emailing our support email that feeds into Zoho. We have created some 3rd party accounts using our support email and we get notification emails from these accounts. These emails create tickets.

    • Customer Statement Templates

      Hi  In know that Credit Note Templates have already been proposed but I would also like to see Customer Statement templates as well please. Thanks Gene

    • Request to View List of File and Folder Links in Zoho WorkDrive

      Hello, I need to check a list of links for the files and folders stored in Zoho WorkDrive. Although it is possible to check them one by one, I would like to know if there is a way to view them all at once in a list format. Could you please advise on how

    • Where to find org ID and department ID?

      Hi there All the existing info on this seems to be incorrect or out of date. It's not in my URL, it's not in the developer space > APIs anymore like was suggested in some other forum posts. How do I find it?

    • reCAPTCHA

      Is the Bookings form protected by reCAPTCHA, or some mechanism to ensure submission of the appointment request form is made by a human vs. bot?

    • 5名限定 課題解決型ワークショップイベント Zoho ワークアウト開催のお知らせ(5/28)

      ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。Zoho ユーザーコミュニティチームの藤澤です。 5月開催のZoho ワークアウトについてお知らせします。 今回はZoomにてオンライン開催します。 ▷▷登録はこちら：https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/l6xddhOoR--8rroMIgKWyA ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Zoho ワークアウトとは？ Zoho ユーザー同士で交流しながら、サービスに関する疑問や不明点の解消を目的とした「Zoho

    • Outgoing blocked again.

      Hi Dear, My outgoing mails are blocked again. I am just using it as normal business emails going in and out. Could you please help fix the problem? I am happy to support where I can do to make it work properly. Thank you very much. Aurora

    • How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign

      How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign ? Sincererly, Mike

    • Best Way to Integrate a Shared Sales Inbox with Zoho CRM

      I’m setting up a shared email inbox (e.g., sales@mycompany.com) for our sales team and want to integrate it with Zoho CRM Leads and Deals so that multiple team members can collaborate efficiently. Since Zoho CRM doesn’t support IMAP for shared inboxes,

    • Adding Markdown text using Zoho Desk API into the Knowledge Base

      Hi Zoho Community members, We currently maintain the documentation of out company in its website. This documentation is written in markdown text format and we would like to add it in Zoho Knowledge Base. Do you know if there is REST API functionality

    • Turn off Knowlege Base Follow options and Follower lists

      Is there a way to hide or turn off the option in the Knowledge Base for users to follow specific departments/categories/sections/articles? If not, is there a way to turn off the public list of followers for each of those things? Otherwise, customer names

    • Zoho desk not sending call reference to user

      Hi, I am using zohone desk and have setup the call logging email address but sadly users are not getting a call reference notifying them that the call has been logged also can't see the updated call when it is going through faces. My question is, is there

    • ShipStation and Zoho Inventory

      Hello, I am looking to sync zoho inventory with shipstation ZOHO INVENTORY           SHIP STATION Sales Order  ==>  create ORDERS INVOICE  <==    Shipments What exactly does BETA mean on the Shipstation connector?  This is required for me to sign-on in the next month. Thanks in advance for your efforts

    • Highlight a candidate who is "off limits"

      Hello: Is there a way to highlight a candidate who is "off limits"?  I would like to have the ability to make certain candidate and / or Client records highlighted in RED or something like that.   This would be used for example when we may have placed a candidate somewhere and we want everyone in our company to quickly and easily see that they are off limits.  The same would apply when we want to put a client or former client off limits so no one recruits out of there. How can this be done? Cheers,

    • How to Add Custom Sections in the Product Page?

      Hi Zoho team, I’m currently using the Tranquil theme on Zoho Commerce and I have a question regarding the product page layout. Right now, under each product, I can see expandable sections like Product Details and Specifications. I’d like to add two additional

    • Apply Workspace First Day of Month Setting to User Filter Date Picker

      I've noticed that the user date picker filter always has the first day of the week as Sunday, even when Monday is selected as the Workspace default. I would like to raise a feature request to apply the Workspace default to user date pickers. Thanks

    • Display CRM account field on Zoho Desk Ticket

      I have linked a custom CRM Account field for "Customer Care Lead Advisor" with Zoho Desk Accounts. I know the data has synced correctly as I am using this field for some automations based on this lead advisor field. When viewing a ticket that is linked

    • Composite Services and Account Tracking

      I am looking to garner support/request the ability to make composite services. A quick search in the forums brings up multiple requests for this feature. I fail to see why an item is mandatory while services are optional. I also would like to see the

    • Error: Unsupported content type: text/html;charset=UTF-8 after tryeing to get the token for n8n automation

      I am working on ZOHO Desk automation and need to get the ZOHO auth token for n8n I have created the app in ZOHO Desk API, got client id and client secret. Added all data required to get a token in n8n. After I sign in with my ZOHO credentials in ZOHO

    • Next Page