Automation: user is not a customer doesn't work

[Peng Zhou]

Hi,

I set up automation to perform an action if the "initiator is not a customer". However it doesn't seem to work. I'm referring to customers who creates a ticket by mail.

I don't know what the issue is. It seems that the action is able to perform if the "initiator is a customer". But they shouldn't be as I cleared the list in admin and the portal is open to anyone. Does anyone know what is the problem?

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

Hi Peng, is it possible that this user has multiple roles and is also a customer? Check project settings > people. Have you tested with multiple customers?

[Peng Zhou]

Hi Jack, thank you for your response.

The main portal for issuing tickets is by mail. Could this be the issue? 

Customer sends a ticket by mail and it should trigger this automation if they are not a customer.

[Jack Brickey]

The channel should not effect that condition. Can you share what the automation log shows for the failed case? Project settings > automation > view logs.

[Peng Zhou]

Initiator is not a customer - does not work (customer is new)

Initiator is a customer - does work (customer is new)

It looks like the initiator has been made a customer before the IF trigger is performed.

[Jack Brickey]

Can you share the role of the initiator in the case of this log. Project settings > people?

[Peng Zhou]

The initiator should be the customer. I also used reporter instead of initiator, but that didn't work as well.

[Jack Brickey]

Thanks...

first you may wish to obfuscate any personal info. I assume the user/Reporter sending the email is one of the three shown above? I don't understand your last comment "the initiator should be the customer". My previous understanding was that a non-customer is sending an email to create an issue and that your automation rule was to create another issue if the initiator was not a customer. Just to be certain, is the Reporter field displaying the non-customer user? Finally what exactly happened when you used Reporter?

[Peng Zhou]

This is what should happen:

1. Customer sends a mail which creates a ticket.

2. Automation: if it's a new customer (hence the automation: initiator/reporter is not a customer) an action should be performed.

So what you assumed was correct. However, it seems that the IF rule "initiator is not a customer" won't get triggered. It only gets triggered if I change the IF rule to "initiator is a customer".

I just want to be able to differ existing customers and new customers. If my rule is invalid, do you have an idea to how implement this?

[Jack Brickey]

Ok so hang on a second. This info "I just want to be able to differ existing customers and new customers." is new and important. Your earlier info was saying that the user was not a customer but in fact they are customers and this is why the automation is not working for you. 

The user here is a customer, whether they are new and have never opened an issue until now or they were existing, they are still a customer as far as the automation condition is concerned.

So now let's look at your true requirement. You are trying to identify new customers. And by new I assume you mean this is the first issue that they have created. Assuming this is your goal you may find this article useful - Using-Automation-to-Screen-New-Customer . In this article I talk about how do use automation to identify and flag new customers. Once you have them identified/flagged then you can use that condition in an automation role to take an action.

In conclusion I think you were originally thinking of the automation condition  "initiator is not a customer" incorrectly because in your use case the user is a customer. I hope this makes sense.

[Peng Zhou]

Thanks a lot man! Really appreciate this