Workflows and Automation (Dispatch'r, Observer, Supervisor)
What this domain covers
Workflows and Automation tests three related engines: Dispatch’r for event-based ticket rules, Observer for notifications, and Supervisor for time-based rules. You need to know what each engine can change and when it runs.
Core rules and concepts
- Dispatch’r runs when a ticket is created or updated. Conditions can use requester, company, subject, source, priority, group, tags, and custom fields; actions can assign an agent or group, set priority or status, add tags, send email, and call a webhook.
- Observer sends notifications to agents, requesters, or other addresses on ticket events. It uses email templates and does not normally change ticket fields, so do not use it for routing.
- Supervisor runs on a schedule and evaluates time conditions such as hours since creation, hours pending, or SLA threshold. Actions include email, reassignment, priority change, webhook, and closing resolved tickets.
- Rules evaluate in listed order. Overlapping rules can produce duplicate emails or conflicting assignments, so use narrow conditions and test in a sandbox when available.
- Time conditions may use business hours or calendar hours. A rule that says 24 hours is not the same as 24 business hours.
Worked example
A VIP customer emails support. A Dispatch’r rule checks the requester’s company tag, assigns the ticket to the Enterprise group, sets priority to Urgent, and adds the tag vip. An Observer rule then emails the account manager with a VIP template. A Supervisor rule checks every 30 minutes and escalates to the group lead if no public reply exists after one business hour. The reasoning: Dispatch’r handles immediate routing, Observer handles communication, and Supervisor handles elapsed time. Mixing these roles causes duplicate or missing actions.
Traps that cost marks
- Using Observer to assign tickets or change priority.
- Expecting a Supervisor rule to fire instantly; it runs on its schedule.
- Overlapping Dispatch’r rules that assign different groups on the same event.
- Forgetting that time conditions may count business hours, not wall-clock hours.
- Leaving test rules active in production and generating customer-visible email.