Business Scenario

Customers overseeing important emails

Delay in receiving customer's response

Delayed response due to agents' unavailability

Confusion caused due to multiple reminders

Permission Required
Users with administrative privilege can enable or disable Scheduled replies for the departments they have access. 
Check Availability and Limits

Enabling scheduled replies

Emails can be scheduled for a particular date or time according to your business needs. You can select a predefined time (10 min, 1 hour, 4 hours, 12 hours), set a custom duration (20 minutes, 6 hours, etc.) or choose a specific date and time.

1. Clear the schedule and save it as draft when the customer closes the request from the help center.
   When a customer closes the ticket from the help center, the ticket status is changed to "Closed" in the Desk account. If an email is scheduled for that ticket, it will not be sent and instead be saved as a draft.
2. Cancel the schedule and save it as a draft when a customer responds.
   Scheduled replies will be saved as draft if the customer responds to the email in the interim. 
   

Points to remember

1. Emails can be scheduled for a maximum of 60 days.
   
2. Scheduled replies can only be set for tickets that are received via email. A new reply can be scheduled after the first scheduled response is delivered to the recipient. Agents will be alerted with a notification. The new scheduled reply will be saved as a draft until then.
   

To enable schedule reply for tickets

1. Navigate to Setup > Customization > General Settings.
   
2. In General Settings for Tickets, go to Schedule Replies and click Configure.
   
3. Check the Department and check the desired option.
   

View scheduled replies 

Agents can schedule replies to be sent at specific times to ensure that they reach the customers at the right time.

A significant challenge arises when both agents and admins cannot view all scheduled replies in a single view. Agents have to navigate through individual tickets to locate their scheduled responses, which makes it difficult to make any changes to drafts or track them efficiently. Similarly, admins face the same issue when trying to review all the scheduled replies across multiple tickets. This lack of an overview makes it challenging for both agents and admins to track and review scheduled responses organized.

A centralized view for scheduled replies

The Scheduled Replies view provides a table view of all replies, from the moment they are drafted until they are sent. The replies are listed in order of their scheduled time, meaning the latest replies appear first. 

Each entry in this view includes key information, such as thread meta, scheduled time, status, and request ID, all of which are based on the ticket’s thread.

Having a consolidated view ensures that agents can track the time, monitor, and adjust their scheduled messages more efficiently. They can quickly confirm whether all responses are scheduled at the right time for the correct timezone, and make changes accordingly reducing the risk of errors. 

For admins, this centralized visibility allows them to monitor scheduled replies across their entire team. This ensures that the replies are consistent and scheduled timely. Under the Scheduled Replies section, there are two views:

1. All scheduled replies - Managers or senior support members can see all the messages that have been scheduled by the agents in a department. 
2. My scheduled replies - My scheduled replies is the default view for every agent. Agents can see the emails scheduled by them. 

Table view for schedule replies

In schedule replies, the thread content is displayed in table view. By default, the table has six fields, i.e, thread content, scheduled time, thread owner, ticket ID, subject, and status, but agents have the option to customize the table view with additional field options. All the field options are based on threads, such as thread content, schedule time, status, and timezone. 

From the table view, users can perform the following:

1. Jump to the scheduled reply thread from Ticket peek: This opens the thread in the ticket detail view and automatically scrolls to the specific thread for the scheduled reply. For example, if you have scheduled a reply, but several conversations occurred after that, you can use Ticket Peek to jump to the scheduled reply thread.
2. Ticket peek will apply only to the first 15 threads of the ticket.
3. Send immediately: The scheduled reply will be sent to the recipient(s) immediately, overriding the original scheduled time.
4. Reschedule: Agents can reschedule time for the reply.
5. Clear schedule: The scheduled date and time of the email will be removed and the content will be saved as a draft. 
6. Send immediately and close: The reply will be sent immediately, and the ticket status will be changed to closed.

To view schedule replies

1. Navigate to the Tickets module 
2. Click Scheduled Replies at the bottom of the left panel 

Note: When the ticket is in Blueprint Strict Mode:

1. Agents cannot create new drafts or schedule replies from the ticket detail view or the list view.
2. Agents are allowed to edit scheduled replies or drafts, including rescheduling, clearing a schedule, or discarding the draft. 
3. Any edits or discard actions will not impact the send flow of the scheduled reply.
   

Mass actions for scheduled replies

Agents can select up to 50 records, and perform actions such as clear schedule and send immediately. 

For example, for an upcoming product launch, a group of premium customers are given early access to try it out. However, the launch is rescheduled to a time ahead. To ensure the selected customers are notified on time, the agent can clear the scheduled replies on a scale using the mass action option, and ensure that all previously scheduled messages are sent ahead of the original launch date.

To send multiple scheduled replies immediately:

1. Navigate to the Tickets module.
2. Click Scheduled Replies at the bottom of the left panel  
3. Select the desired replies.
4. Click the Send Immediately option from the top panel.
5. Click Yes to confirm.

To clear the schedule for multiple replies:

1. Navigate to the Tickets module.
2. Click Scheduled Replies at the bottom of the left panel.  
3. Select the desired replies.
4. Click on Clear Schedule from the top panel.
   
5. Click Yes to confirm. 

Sending scheduled emails

1. Go to the Tickets module and open the desired ticket.
   
2. Click the dropdown next to Send & Close and select Schedule Reply.
   
3. Select the predefined time from the options or select Custom Duration or Specific Date and Time and choose an appropriate duration.
4. Click Schedule and Close Ticket.
   Once an email is scheduled, agents can view the date and time when the email will be sent by hovering on the scheduled label.
   

Editing a scheduled reply 

Emails that are scheduled can be edited to modify the content or the recipient list. While editing an already scheduled reply, the timer will be paused and a note will appear at the bottom stating the same.

1. Go to the Tickets module and open the desired ticket.
   
2. In the Ticket detail page, click the More icon and select Edit Schedule.
   
3. After the necessary changes click Continue Schedule & Close.
   
4. Alternatively, click Edit Schedule, to change the scheduled reply time.
   
5. Click on either Reschedule or Reschedule & Close Request. 

1. Go to the Tickets module and select a ticket for which the reply has been scheduled.
   
2. In the Tickets Detail page,  click the More options within the thread.
   Alternatively, you can edit reply > edit schedule and select reschedule.
3. Click  Reschedule.
4. Make the necessary changes and click Reschedule.
   
5. To confirm, select Reschedule & Close.
   

Note:

1. Clear Schedule: The scheduled time to send the response will be cancelled. The email will be saved in drafts.
   
2. Send Immediately: The scheduled time will be overridden and the email can be sent immediately.
   
3. Discard Draft: The scheduled reply will be cancelled, and the message will be deleted. It will not be saved in drafts. 

1. Go to the Tickets module and open the desired ticket.
   
2. Click the More icon and select Discard Schedule.
3. Click Continue Schedule & Close in the Discard Schedule dialog box.

Notifying agents about success and failure

1. Go to Setup > Customization > Notifications.
   
2. Click Notification Rules on the left panel.
   
3. Within Agent Notifications, toggle notifications on for
   
1. Schedule reply Successful
   
2. Scheduled reply Failed