FAQs: Configuring Automation Rules for Happiness Ratings | Zoho Desk

FAQs: Configuring Automation Rules for Happiness Ratings

1. Why to use happiness ratings in Workflow Rule?
The most common scenario is recovery from negative feedback. When a customer leaves a bad rating on a closed ticket, a Workflow Rule can automatically trigger a follow-up email to the customer, acknowledging their dissatisfaction and offering further assistance. This reduces the manual effort of monitoring ratings and ensures that no negative feedback slips through the cracks — especially during high ticket volumes where agents may not have the bandwidth to check every rating individually.

2. How to create a Workflow Rule that responds to bad ratings?
Navigate to Setup > Automation > Workflows, click Create Rule, and follow these steps:
  1. Part 1 — Module & Name: Select the Tickets module and enter a descriptive Rule Name (e.g., "Negative Rating Follow-up").
  2. Part 2 — Trigger: Choose to execute the rule based on Happiness Rating for Bad ratings.
  3. Part 3 — Criteria: Specify the condition <Status> is <Closed>. This ensures the rule only fires when a ticket is already closed and the customer has submitted a poor rating.
  4. Part 4 — Action: Create a New Alert, provide an Alert Name (e.g., "Follow-up on Negative Ratings"), select an email template personalized for the situation, check the Notify Contact box, and save the rule.
Once active, any time a customer submits a bad rating on a closed ticket, the system will automatically send the configured follow-up email.
3. Does the Workflow Rule trigger immediately when a bad rating is submitted?
Yes. Workflow Rules are event-driven. When the trigger condition (Happiness Rating = Bad) and the criteria (Status = Closed) are both met, the rule executes immediately and dispatches the alert email. There is no built-in delay mechanism within Workflow Rules. If you need a delay — for example, to give the customer time to cool off before receiving a follow-up — you should use a Time-based (Supervise) Rule instead.


4. Can multiple actions be added to a single Workflow Rule for bad ratings?
Yes. In addition to sending an email alert (New Alert), you can configure other action types such as assigning the ticket to a specific agent or team, updating ticket fields, or triggering webhooks. For instance, you could simultaneously send a follow-up email to the customer and reassign the ticket to a senior agent for review, ensuring both the customer and your internal team are notified.
5. What happens if a customer updates their rating from bad to good after the follow-up email is sent?
The Workflow Rule fires at the moment the bad rating is submitted. If the customer later changes their rating to good, the rule does not retroactively undo the email that was already sent. There is no "undo" or "recall" mechanism for dispatched alerts. However, you could create a separate Workflow Rule triggered on good ratings to send a thank-you email, creating a complementary positive feedback loop.
6. Why use a Time-based Rule instead of a Workflow Rule for collecting ratings?
Customers often need time to process their support experience before providing meaningful feedback. Sending a rating request immediately after a ticket is closed can feel rushed and may result in lower response rates or less thoughtful ratings. A Time-based (Supervise) Rule allows you to wait a specified period — typically 24 hours — after a ticket is closed before sending the rating email. This gives the customer a natural window to reflect, increasing the likelihood of receiving genuine and actionable feedback.
7. How can a Supervisor Rule be configured to send a rating request 24 hours after ticket closure?
Navigate to Setup > Automation > Supervise, click Create Rule, and follow these steps:

  1. Part 1 — Name & Hours: Enter a Rule Name (e.g., "Send Rating After 24 Hours") and set Business Hours to Calendar Hours.
  2. Part 2 — Criteria: Specify three conditions joined with AND:
    1. <Hours since closed> is <24>
    2. <Happiness Rating> <Link not provided> (meaning the customer hasn't been sent a rating link yet)
    3. <Status> is <Closed>
  3. Part 3 — Action: Create a New Alert, provide an Alert Name (e.g., "Send Rating Link"), select an email template that contains the ${Cases.Customer Happiness Rating} placeholder, check Notify Contact, and save the rule.
After saving, the system will automatically send the rating request email 24 hours after each qualifying ticket is closed.
8. What do "Calendar Hours" mean, and can business hours be used instead?
Calendar Hours means the 24-hour countdown runs continuously, including weekends and holidays, from the moment the ticket is closed. If your support operates only on business days and you want the 24-hour delay to respect your defined business hours (e.g., skipping weekends), you would need to configure the Business Hours setting accordingly. However, the document specifies Calendar Hours for this rule, so be aware that the timer does not pause outside of working hours.
9. What does the condition <Happiness Rating> <Link not provided> actually check?
This condition ensures that the rule only fires for tickets where a rating link has not yet been sent to the customer. This prevents duplicate rating emails — for example, if a ticket was reopened and closed again, or if another rule already sent a rating request. Without this condition, the same customer could receive multiple rating emails for the same ticket, which would appear unprofessional and skew your rating data.
10. What happens if a ticket is reopened after closure but before the 24-hour timer expires?
If a ticket's status changes from Closed back to Open (or any non-closed status) before the 24-hour Supervise Rule fires, the rule's criteria (<Status> is <Closed>) will no longer be satisfied at the time of evaluation. The rule will not execute for that ticket during that cycle. When the ticket is eventually closed again, a new 24-hour countdown begins, and the rule will re-evaluate at that point — provided the other conditions (such as "Link not provided") are still met.
11. What is the ${Cases.Customer Happiness Rating} placeholder and how does it work?
This placeholder is a dynamic merge field that, when inserted into an email template, renders the rating question along with clickable answer links (e.g., Good / Okay / Bad) directly in the customer's email. The customer clicks a link to submit their rating, and the response is captured against the corresponding ticket in Zoho Desk. Without this placeholder in the email template, the customer receives a message with no way to actually submit a rating.
12. Can the text surrounding the rating placeholder be customized in the email template?
Yes. The email template is fully editable. You can add personalized greetings, context about the resolved ticket, branding elements, and any messaging you want around the placeholder. For example:

Hi {{Contact.First Name}},
We recently closed your ticket regarding {{Cases.Subject}}. We'd love to hear how we did!
${Cases.Customer Happiness Rating}
Thanks for choosing us, The Support Team

The placeholder itself renders the rating question and links; everything else is yours to customize.

13. Can the same email template be used for both the Workflow Rule (negative follow-up) and the Supervisor Rule (rating request)?
Technically yes, but it is not recommended. The two rules serve different purposes:
  1. The Workflow Rule follows up on a bad rating already submitted — the email should acknowledge dissatisfaction and offer further help.
  2. The Supervise Rule requests a rating from a customer who hasn't provided one yet — the email should invite feedback.
Using the same template for both would send conflicting messages. Best practice is to create separate, purpose-specific email templates for each rule.
14. What happens if a customer submits a rating before the 24-hour Supervise Rule fires?
If the customer proactively submits a happiness rating before the 24-hour timer expires, the Supervise Rule's condition <Happiness Rating> <Link not provided> may still evaluate as true (since the rule checks whether a link was sent, not whether a rating was received). However, depending on how Zoho Desk interprets this field after a rating is submitted, the behavior may vary. To avoid sending a redundant rating request to a customer who has already rated, consider testing this scenario in a sandbox environment or adding supplementary criteria if available.
15. Can both a Workflow Rule (for bad ratings) and a Supervisor Rule (for rating requests) be configured for the same ticket?
Yes, and they are designed to complement each other. The Supervise Rule sends a rating request 24 hours after closure. If the customer then submits a bad rating, the Workflow Rule triggers immediately to send a follow-up email. The two rules operate at different stages of the customer journey and do not conflict, provided the email templates and criteria are configured correctly.
16. Do these automation rules work for tickets created across all channels (email, chat, social, phone)?
Yes. Happiness ratings and automation rules operate at the ticket level, regardless of the channel through which the ticket was created. As long as the ticket is in the Tickets module and meets the specified criteria (Status = Closed, Happiness Rating conditions), the rules will execute. However, ensure that the email template used in the alert action is appropriate for the channel context — for example, a phone-support customer may need a slightly different tone than an email-support customer.
17. Can an automation rule be temporarily disabled or paused without deleting it?
Yes. Within the Workflows or Supervise Rules listing page, each rule has a toggle or status indicator that allows you to deactivate the rule without deleting its configuration. This is useful during maintenance windows, template updates, or when investigating unexpected behavior. When you're ready to resume, simply reactivate the rule.
18. Do happiness ratings integrate with reports or dashboards?
While the document focuses on configuring automation rules around happiness ratings, the ratings themselves are stored as data against each ticket. This data can typically be surfaced in Zoho Desk's reporting and dashboard modules to track trends such as average rating by agent, rating distribution over time, or correlation between resolution time and customer satisfaction. Check your reporting module for available happiness-rating metrics.
19. Can external notifications, such as Slack messages or webhooks, be triggered when a bad rating is received?
Workflow Rules in Zoho Desk support multiple action types beyond email alerts. Depending on your plan and configuration, you may be able to use webhooks or custom functions as additional actions within the same rule. For example, when a bad rating is received, you could simultaneously send a follow-up email to the customer and trigger a webhook that posts an alert to a Slack channel for the support management team. Verify webhook and custom function availability under your current plan.
20. Should every bad rating be followed up on, or only specific ones?
Following up on every bad rating is the recommended default, as it demonstrates accountability and gives you an opportunity to recover the relationship. However, if your ticket volume is very high, you may want to prioritize follow-ups based on additional criteria — for example, only for tickets from high-value accounts, or tickets that were resolved in an unusually long time. You can add supplementary conditions in the Rule Criteria section to narrow the scope.
21. How long should a rating request be delayed after ticket closure?
The document recommends 24 hours as a reasonable default. This balances giving the customer enough time to form an opinion without waiting so long that they forget the interaction. Depending on your industry and ticket complexity, you may adjust this window:
  1. Fast-moving industries (e.g., e-commerce): 12–24 hours may be sufficient.
  2. Complex B2B support: 48–72 hours may yield more considered feedback.
Adjust the <Hours since closed> value in the Supervise Rule criteria to match your context.