Overview

Every time a customer responds to a conversation that has not been completed (e.g., pending, on-hold, etc.), Kayako automatically moves the conversation status to Open. This is the default behavior in Kayako. If you wish to control or change the status to a different one (e.g., automatically move a conversation to Pending Status), this article explains how this behavior is handled by Kayako and provides a workaround solution.

Prerequisite

• The solution in this article involves adding a monitor. To add monitors in Kayako, you will need an administrator account with the 'Manage automations' permission.

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Diagnosis

It is defined in the code of Kayako that every customer reply moves the status of the conversation to Open. At this time, this behavior can neither be changed in the UI nor can it be controlled by a trigger.
Even if you attempt to create a trigger to automatically change the conversation status to something else other than Open, it will still go back to the Open status.

Even if you allow customers to change conversation statuses, conversations will always default to the "open status" when a customer responds to it. This status cannot be manipulated or controlled by users.

The workaround is to create a Monitor. Monitors are time-based rules. They periodically check all the non-closed conversations to see if they meet the configured rules based on the conditions set within it. If the rule's conditions match, the rule fires and the configured actions are executed.

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Solution

Follow these steps to create a Monitor that will automatically move the Open conversations to Pending:

1. Log into your Kayako > go to Administration.
   
   

   
   
   

2. In the sidebar, go to AUTOMATION > Monitors.
   
   

   
   
   

3. Click the New monitor button.
   
   

   
   
   

4. In the Rule title field, add a descriptive title.

   NOTE: It is essential to use a good naming convention to keep track of the Monitors.
   
   
   
   

5. In the 'When these conditions are met' section, set the following:

   • From the Select a condition drop-down, choose Conversations: Status.

   • In the next drop-down field, select equal to.

   • In the next drop-down field, choose Open.
     
     
     
     

6. In the 'Perform the following actions' section, set the following:

   • select Conversation: Status.

   • In the next drop-down field, select change.

   • In the next drop-down field, choose Pending. 

7. Click the Save button to create the Monitor.
   
   

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Confirmation

The monitor will sweep your support queue in hourly intervals. Then Kayako performs whatever actions you define on any conversations that match it. In this case, Kayako will look for all conversations with an "open status" in your queue, and then automatically move them to "pending."

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