Jira automation Waiting for customer

Question

Hello everyone,

I am currently trying to build an automation that will send an email to customers when their ticket status has been on "Waiting for customer" for 2 weeks. It MUST send an email ONLY if the status remains "Waiting for customer" uninterruptedly for the full period of 14 days.

Here is the current code:

project = IDISED AND status = "Waiting for Customer" AND statusCategoryChangedDate <= -14d AND statusCategoryChangedDate > -28d AND (labels IS EMPTY OR labels NOT IN ("WFC_2W_SENT"))

The issue we are facing right now is that the email triggers after 14 days even if the status changed in the meantime. It seems to only check if the status was 'Waiting for customer' 2 weeks ago, rather than verifying if it stayed that way uninterrupted.

We tried everything, but with no succes so far. Any tips or solutions are greatly appreciated.

Birkan Yildiz _OBSS_ · Answer

Hey Lucas,

If you want a simple, reliable way to handle this without creating custom timestamp fields or managing complex multi-rule automations, you can use Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira.

Here is how easily Timepiece solves this:
True Uninterrupted Tracking: Timepiece reads Jira's issue history log directly, calculating the exact, continuous duration an issue has spent in "Waiting for Customer". If the ticket leaves the status for even a minute, the timer resets automatically.

Automated Alarms: You can use Timepiece’s Scheduled Reports & Alarms feature to set up an automated rule that pings you or emails the team as soon as an issue hits that 14-day uninterrupted threshold.

Custom Working Calendars: You can also choose whether those 14 days should count continuous 24/7 calendar days or exclude non-working hours, weekends, and public holidays.

You can find Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira on the Atlassian Marketplace.

Full disclosure: I am on the team that develops Timepiece. Hope this helps!

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

Hello @lucas.van.der.leest

Actually Atlassian have even official KB Article about Follow up automations

Automate follow-ups in Jira Service Management Cloud | Jira and Jira Service Management | Atlassian Support

Best,

Arek🤠

Gabriela - LeanZero · Answer

Hi Lucas, I think I can explain why your original query kept firing, because I ran into the same thing when I tried it. statusCategoryChangedDate only moves when the status category changes, and in the default JSM workflow Waiting for customer, Waiting for support and Pending usually all sit in the same In Progress category. On a test site I moved a ticket from In Progress to Pending and that date didn't budge, so the query still counted the old time. Marc's NOT status CHANGED AFTER -14d looks at the status itself, so it catches the move your version misses.

There's one gap I'd close alongside it. As far as I can see the WFC_2W_SENT label stays on the ticket, so a ticket that goes back to support and later waits another two weeks wouldn't get the second email. I'd add a small rule on status changed from Waiting for customer that removes the label, and then each new waiting period gets its own reminder.