automatting approvals from non-agent users

Hi Rachel, 

Approval processes can be done in a lot of ways.  There are several apps that can help you do this that may introduce workflows that work really well for you. Approvals and Myndbend Process Manager come to mind. 

I really like the Side Conversations flow as you can implement a side conversation from a macro and those can integrate into an email or a slack channel.  It does require the Collaboration Add On which comes with Light Agents and Side Conversations - but it would give you the option to explore using light agents or side conversations if you went that path.  Side Conversations also allows for you to keep that record within the ticket.  However, this doesn't block a ticket from progressing if you need approval before moving forward - a side conversations only workflow would be just a back and forth conversation.

You can also do things with custom fields to indicate if a process has been approved.  Maybe an Approved checkbox ticket field can exist and watches for a reply from an end user that has a user tag of approver. A trigger might watch for responses from users with that tag to check the box if they use the word "Approved" in their response.  Another trigger might reopen a ticket if the Approved field is unchecked to ensure that this box was checked.

There are tons of options, it really just depends on the one that is best for your team and that causes the least friction to workflow, cost, and your team. 

"Maybe an Approved checkbox ticket field can exist and watches for a reply from an end user that has a user tag of approver. A trigger might watch for responses from users with that tag to check the box if they use the word "Approved" in their response."

This looks interesting. Do triggers and macros react to side convos, or would they have to be via normal ticket update channels?

It doesn't look like there is an option to read into the side conversation itself.  So you might be a bit limited combining those workflows if you are watching for specific keywords. 

I think that workflow would work best without side conversations, but if you need the approval to be in a back channel from a customer - that is where side conversations helps out.  It allows you to have that back channel conversation without the customer involved.  There is a Side Conversations API that is in Early Access that might open up some other functionality, but I'm not familiar with where that's at. 

ah, ok. yes, I agree – depends on what functionality we need. Curious what the API will look like!

thanks for your help!!

You can start checking into some of the upcoming features related to Side Conversations here. It's still a really new feature, but it's been growing really quickly. API details are part of the Early Access so you can check it out now! 

If you want to put something in quick and easy, I'd actually recommend you add triggers that look for a specific string of words.  I have tried this several times for different scenarios and found that looking for one word or a (possibly) common word can get really messy. I'm referring, of course, to looking for the word "Approved" -- it's just too simple and easy to trip over and trigger your Trigger unintentionally in an undesired scenario.

I'd recommend, since macros are only available to Agents, that you train your Approvers, who can stay as End Agents, to say something specific in their reply to the ticket email.  Keep in mind that your tickets must have public comments for the email to go to these approvers if they are going to stay as End Users.

I recommend putting in a custom field, something like CR Approval and putting in a Trigger like this:

At the bottom, I always make sure my Trigger sends me an email so every time it fires off for xxx days, I can monitor it ticket by ticket and see if it misfired for any reason. Then I can tweak it close to real time.

I also recommend adding a tag to visually see that it was the trigger that updated the field. Something like approver_emailed_approval

Hopefully between Dan's recommendations and mine, you can be on your way to automating your manual process sooner rather than later!

Thanks for your question.
Sincerely,

Heather

awesome guys, thank you!