Hello Zoho Desk Community,

I am trying to set up an automated reminder and closure process in Zoho Desk for tickets where our team is waiting on the customer to respond.

We have a ticket status called:

Open -- Awaiting Reply

The intended workflow is:

1. An agent replies to the customer's ticket and then changes the ticket status to Open -- Awaiting Reply.

2. If the customer does not reply within 48 hours, Zoho Desk should send the first reminder email to the customer.

3. If the customer still does not reply within another 48 hours, Zoho Desk should send a second reminder email.

4. If the customer still does not reply within another 48 hours, Zoho Desk should send a third reminder email. This email should state that the ticket will be closed if there is no response within the next 48 hours.

5. If the customer still does not reply within another 48 hours after the third reminder, Zoho Desk should automatically close the ticket.

The desired timeline would be:

Status changed to Open -- Awaiting Reply

+48 hours: First reminder

+96 hours: Second reminder

+144 hours: Third reminder / closure warning

+192 hours: Close ticket automatically

Important requirements:

- The reminders should only apply when the ticket status is set to Open -- Awaiting Reply.

- The reminders should only continue if the customer has not replied.

- If the customer replies at any point, the reminder sequence should stop.

- Ideally, the customer reply should change the ticket status back to Open.

- We want to avoid duplicate reminders being sent if the ticket is edited while it is already in Open -- Awaiting Reply.

- The final action should close the ticket only if it is still in Open -- Awaiting Reply and there has been no customer response.

I tried creating a Workflow Rule using:

Execute On: Field Update

Field: Status

Criteria: Status is Open -- Awaiting Reply

However, I am having trouble finding the correct way to add delayed/scheduled actions for 48 hours, 96 hours, 144 hours, and 192 hours. It looks like the workflow action area may only allow immediate actions, or I may be missing the correct option.

What is the best Zoho Desk feature to use for this?

Should this be built using:

- Workflow Rules with scheduled actions?

- Supervisor Rules?

- SLAs?

- Blueprint?

- Custom Functions?

- A combination of these?

Also, can Zoho Desk automatically stop/cancel the scheduled reminders if the customer replies and the status changes from Open -- Awaiting Reply back to Open?

Any guidance or example setup would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Dhruv