Organizations handle a large volume of tickets daily. When multiple teams and departments are involved, having a structured process ensures efficiency and consistency.

Organizations rely on automation options such as assignment rules to route tickets to the appropriate teams automatically, blueprints to define the stages from ticket creation to closure, and workflows to trigger backend actions like alerts and notifications when certain criteria are met.

Understanding macros

Macros are a predefined set of actions that can be performed on a ticket in one click. Users can use macros as a shortcut to perform actions such as sending alerts and more at once, saving time and improving efficiency.

Macros combine automation with human judgment, allowing users to act based on real-time context instead of fixed conditions. This bridges the gap between full automation and manual actions.

Key capabilities of macros:

1. Perform multiple updates instantly - Execute actions such as emails, field updates, and tasks in one click.
2. Triggered manually based on real-time judgment - Users decide when to apply macros based on the ticket context.
3. Apply to multiple tickets at once - Save effort by running macros on several tickets simultaneously.
4. Reduce repetitive manual work during live support - Eliminate the need to repeat the same steps across tickets.
   

Benefits of using macros

1. Saving time - Multiple manual steps involved in a ticket get completed in a few seconds.
2. Improving user productivity - Users can focus on troubleshooting and fixing the issue instead of performing actions manually.
3. Reducing manual errors - For new users, too many steps can be overwhelming, and they may miss certain steps. Macros perform all actions without requiring verification.
4. Scaling operations - As ticket volume increases, macros help maintain efficiency without increasing the workforce.
   

Permission Required

• Users with Administrator profile and Helpdesk Automation permission can create macros.
• Agents with update a ticket permission can trigger a macro.
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Business scenarios

1. Change priority to Critical
   
2. Assign ticket to Security Team
   
3. Set ticket status to Open
   

1. Assign ticket to the fraud investigation team
   
2. Change priority to Critical
3. Notify risk system team
   
4. Send secure customer notification
   

1. Change ticket status to In Progress
   
2. Send cancellation acknowledgement email to customer
   
3. Create a task for the warehouse team to hold shipment
   
4. Update the order status in the custom field
   

Key elements of macros

1. Alerts - Notify users, teams, record owner, contact and more with a standard email template.
   
2. Tasks - Create follow-up activities as tasks and assign to users or teams with priority and due date.
   
3. Field Updates - Select fields such as status, priority, type, or custom fields and provide the values that must be updated.
   
4. Custom Functions - Execute advanced logic or integrations using scripts to perform complex actions beyond standard configurations.
   
5. Move Department - Move a ticket from the current department to a different department based on ticket requirements.
   

Note:

1. Macros are department specific.
   
2. A maximum of 10 emails, 10 tasks, and 10 field updates can be configured in each macro.
   
3. A macro rule can be applied to a maximum of 50 tickets.
   
4. Conditions cannot be defined in macro rules.
   
5. Each macro rule can have only one move department action and is applicable only for the Tickets module.
   

Creating a macro

1. Navigate to Setup > Automation > Macros.
   
2. Click Create Rule.
   
3. In the basic information section, enter the rule name and description.
   
4. Check or uncheck Active to make the macro rule active or inactive.
   
5. Click Next.
   
6. Select the availability as All agents or Specific agents.
   
7. On selecting specific agents, select agents, teams, roles, or roles and subordinates.
   
   
8. Click Next.
   
9. Select the actions to be performed in the macro:
   
1. Alerts - On creating a new alert, enter the name of the alert, select an email template, and select the users, teams, or record owners to be notified.
   
2. Field updates - On creating a new field update, enter the assignment value name, description, select the fields and the values that must be updated.
   
3. Move department - Select this option to move tickets to a different department. Select a department and its layout to move the ticket.
   
4. Tasks - On creating a new task, provide the subject, description, status, and priority of the task. Check or uncheck if you want the request owner to be the task owner. If not, select a user or team to assign the ticket to. Select a due date to trigger this rule.
   
5. Custom function - On creating a new custom function, enter the name, description, and the method name. Write a script to execute the rule.
   
10. Once all the actions are configured, click Save.
    

Managing Macros

The created rules can be edited, deleted, or deactivated at any point.

Points to Remember

1. Inactive department - If a department is marked as inactive, on adding the move department action, a prompt is displayed indicating that the selected department is inactive and to select another department.
   
2. Inactive or deleted layout - If a layout is deleted or marked inactive after the move department action is created, a prompt is displayed while editing the macro that the selected layout is inactive. Since the layout field is not mandatory, saving the action without the layout will move the ticket to the department's default layout.
   
3. The move department action is executed last after all the actions are triggered.