Different transitions from "Waiting for customer", based on previous status

Question

Hi community!

Here's my conundrum that I'm trying to solve.

Normal behaviour: A ticket with status "Waiting for customer" will transition to "Waiting for support" when the customer leaves a comment (either via email or via the portal)

However, we have a workflow for tickets that require extra eyes, including a "Waiting for Second Approval" status. It happens regularly that the second approver has additional questions for the reporter, in order to reach a verdict on the approval.

Rather than having to unnecessarily complicate the workflow by having the ticket jump to "Waiting for support" and relying on the service agent to see that second approval has not been given yet (and putting the status on Waiting for Second Approval manually), I'm looking for a way to achieve the following:

WHEN status = "Waiting for Customer" AND Customer added comment AND previous status = "Waiting for Second Approval" THEN transition to status "Waiting for Second Approval"

WHEN status = "Waiting for Customer" AND Customer added comment AND previous status != "Waiting for Second Approval" THEN transition to status "Waiting for Support"

Is this possible?

Gualter Augusto · Answer

Sounds good. I have something similar when my tickets go back and forth between Customer and Agent:

- When the ticket is in Agent side, the Agent can simply post a "quick reply" (for example letting customer know we are on it) without transiting the ticket to "Waiting for Customer" because the issue might still be on the Agent side.

Regards

Rob Driessen · Answer

A good night's sleep made me come up with an easier alternative. I'm going to add a new status "Approval Question" that only transitions to and from "Waiting for Second Approval". This will replace the transition from "Waiting for Second Approval" to "Waiting for Customer".

This will give the Second Approver three options: Approve, Decline, Question, and this will make sure the status returns to Waiting for Second Approval when the reporter responds to the approver's question.

How's that sound?

Gualter Augusto · Answer

Understood!

Well, I would change the default rule that transits the issue to "Waiting for Support".

By default I believe JSD triggers this if "Customer Replies". In your case is a bit more complex. I would probably store the previous state into a custom field and use this to create the rule.

You will need to split this into 3 rules:

If customer replies and PREVIOUS_STATE is WHATEVER_STATE_BEFORE_PREVIOUS

this rule to match every case you want to filter.

This is just myself thinking, I have not yet tested this. However it is a good use case and I will test this later on.

Cheers