Rules for incoming tickets

For: Account owners, administrators and team leads who set up how incoming tickets are sorted·Requires: The Automation permission, with edit rights to change rules; Replyco AI for the tone condition·Screenshots show sample data

Overnight, Northwind Electronics receives a cancellation, three Amazon notifications, a furious “third time asking” and a wholesale enquiry, all in one list. Before anyone can answer, someone has to sort them. Rules do that sorting as each message arrives: when a new customer message matches a rule’s conditions, Replyco labels, prioritises, assigns, resolves or archives its ticket, and writes down which rule did it.

What it does

A support inbox mixes messages that need a person today with messages that need nobody: order notifications, marketplace reports, “thank you” replies. Without rules, every one of them waits in the same queue, gets the same deadline and is opened by whoever is free, so the urgent ones are found late and the routine ones cost time.

A rule is a set of conditions and a set of actions. Every switched-on rule is checked on every incoming customer message, from the top of the list down, and every rule that matches acts, not only the first. From there:

• Tickets are sorted by what the message says, who sent it, where it came from and what was ordered: text, subject, language, account, marketplace, customer, order and product. Every setting, explained
• The ticket is changed straight away: status, priority with its deadlines, labels, assignee, archive and read state, and Linnworks orders. Every setting, explained
• Rules can react to the customer’s mood through the AI tone score. Tone score as a rule condition
• Tickets that arrived before a rule existed can be sorted by hand from any ticket list. Running rules from the ticket lists
• Rules take their place among tone analysis, auto-responses and SLA, in a fixed order. Rules and your other automation

Every rule that matches a message leaves the row Rule Escalations applied in the ticket’s history, and every rule keeps its own history of who created, switched, changed and moved it, so a surprising label or priority can always be traced to its rule.

Before you start

Requirement	Details
Plan	Every plan includes rules; there is no add-on.
Permission	The Automation permission shows Tools›Automation; changing rules needs its edit level. The Admin and Moderator roles include it. See User permissions and roles.
Labels	A rule can only add labels that exist. Create them under Tools›Labels; see Labels.
Priorities	For Update Ticket Priority, the priorities under Admin›Company Settings › Priorities & SLA, which every plan includes; companies on an older plan may not have the tab. A new company already has 24 standard hours. See Priorities & SLA.
Tone analysis, only for the tone condition	Tone score (0 = furious, 1 = delighted) is offered with Replyco AI, part of every plan, and matches only messages scored while tone analysis was on. See Message tone analysis.
Linnworks, only for the Linnworks actions	A connected Linnworks account; see Linnworks.
Cost	None. Rules use no AI actions; the tone condition reads a score that tone analysis already stored.

Good to know

Rules act on messages as they arrive, not on the tickets you already have. Creating or switching on a rule changes nothing until the next customer message; to apply it to existing tickets, tick them in a ticket list and select Run Rules.

Understanding how rules run

Each new customer message goes through the same steps, always in this order. Rules are step 6, so they see what the steps before them produced:

Step	What happens to the message	Example
1	Replyco saves it and reopens its ticket: not resolved, out of the archive, no longer snoozed	A resolved ticket gets “Actually, it still does not work”; it is open again before any rule runs
2	Translation, AI categories and an AI draft, if you use them	Categories are set, but no rule can look at them
3	Tone analysis scores the message	The chase “Any update on this, please?” scores 0.28
4	The AI summary is renewed, if automatic renewal is on	The ticket’s summary covers the new message
5	Auto-responses are sent or queued	The customer gets your holiday reply
6	Your rules run, top to bottom	Escalations matches 0.28 and assigns the ticket to Theo Rowe
7	Tone rules may set a priority	Tone sets Urgent, because no rule set a priority on this message

Messages from customers you have blocked get no AI in steps 2 to 4 (no AI categories, draft, tone score or summary), and steps 5 to 7 are skipped for them: no auto-response, no rules, no tone priority. For customers on the AI Customers Blacklist, steps 2, 3 and 5 leave out AI categories, the AI draft, the tone score and the auto-response; translation, the summary and your rules still run.

How Replyco decides

• Every switched-on rule runs. There is no “first match wins” and no “stop processing”: a message that matches five rules gets all five rules’ actions.
• In a rule, all conditions of one group must match, and one matching group is enough. Groups are joined by OR, conditions inside a group by AND.
• Later rules have the last word. Status, priority and assignee hold one value, so a later matching rule replaces what an earlier one set. Labels add up. Archive and read only ever switch on.
• Later rules see what earlier rules did. Conditions are checked against the ticket as it is at that moment, so a rule near the bottom with Assigned To Not Set (N/A) catches only tickets no earlier rule assigned.
• Rules act on every matching message, not once per ticket. A rule sets its priority again on the customer’s next message, and assigns its colleague again, even if someone changed it by hand in between.
• Text is matched as typed, anywhere in the field. Contains cancel also matches cancelled and cancellation; a value with several words is looked for as one piece.
• An empty field matches nothing but Not Set (N/A). A customer without an email address does not match Customer Email Not Contains marketplace.amazon.
• “Or more” and “or less” include the value. Equals or More Than 250 matches 250.

What does not get processed

• Replies from your team, and messages that arrive as sent by your company.
• Messages from customers you have blocked; see Blocked tickets.
• Conversations under Chats: rules are for tickets.
• Tickets you create yourself with Create Ticket, because they start with your message.
• Messages that arrived before a rule existed or while it was switched off, until you use Run Rules.

Setting it up in five steps

1. Prepare labels and priorities. Create the labels your rule should add under Tools›Labels, and check your priorities under Admin›Company Settings › Priorities & SLA if the rule should set one.

2. Create the rule. Open Tools›Automation, tab Rules, and select Create New. Enter a name, pick the conditions under Conditions and at least one action under Actions, leave Active at OFF and select Save. The rule appears at the bottom of the list, switched off.

   

   A new rule starts switched off; turn Active on before you save if it should run straight away.

   What this screenshot shows

   Screen

   Create Rule (/tickets-automation?tab=rules)

   Highlighted

   switch “Active”, general-info, OFF. switches the rule on when saved

   Also visible

   Name empty; Conditions: one group with Select Source; Add New Condition, Add New Group; Save button

   Purpose

   the default state of a new rule

3. Read it back. Select the rule’s name. The details panel writes out every condition with AND and OR and every action, so you can check it says what you meant.

4. Put it in its place. Drag the card by its handle. A rule that should have the last word on a priority or an assignee goes below the rules it should override.

5. Switch it on, then catch up (optional). Switch it on with the switch on its card; it acts on the next customer message. To sort tickets from before, tick them in a ticket list and select Run Rules.

Suggested rollout

Start with rules that only add labels: labels never overwrite anything, so a rule that matches too much only puts tickets in one more list. Watch that label’s list for a day, then add actions that assign or set a priority, one rule at a time, and check the ticket history of a few matched tickets after each change.

Every setting, explained

The rule form has a name and a switch, the conditions, and the actions, in that order; the rule’s place in the list is set on the list itself.

Name

Where

Tools›Automation › Rules, first field of the form Create Rule or Edit Rule. Saved with Save.

What

Required; saving without it gives You cannot save a Rule without name. Names do not have to be unique and have no length limit in the form. The name is written into every ticket history row the rule leaves, as it is at that moment.

Why

The history row shows only the name, so Escalations explains a new assignee at a glance where Rule 7 explains nothing.

Active, the on switch

Where

Under the name in the form, saved with Save; and the switch on the rule’s card in the list, which saves at once.

What

ON: the rule runs on new customer messages and with Run Rules. OFF: the rule is kept with its conditions, actions and place, and does not run. A new rule starts at OFF; a copy starts as its original was.

Why

Build a rule switched off, read it back in the details panel, then switch it on. Switching off is the safe way to pause a rule without losing it.

Conditions, groups joined by AND and OR

Where

The Conditions section of the form: dashed boxes with one condition per row, Add New Condition under each box and Add New Group below the last one.

What

All conditions in a box must match; one matching box is enough. Every box needs at least one condition and every condition a value, otherwise saving is refused with Every group must contain at least one condition. or You must set a value for each condition. A rule always has at least one condition. To make a rule match every message, use Number Of Messages Equals or More Than 1.

Why

“From the support mailbox and about wholesale” is one box with two conditions; “about wholesale or about a bulk order” is two boxes.

The panel spells the rule out; everything in one box must match, and any one box is enough.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

Rules (/tickets-automation?tab=rules)

Highlighted

text “OR”, details-panel, shown. separates alternative condition groups

Also visible

group 1: Account Is support@northwind-electronics.example.com AND Subject Contains wholesale; group 2: Subject Contains bulk order; Actions: Allocate into Label B2B

Purpose

how AND and OR read in a rule

Message conditions

Where

Select Source › Message.

What

These look at the incoming message itself:

Source	What it compares	Comparisons
Text	The message body as plain text	Contains, Not Contains, Starts With, Ends With
Subject	The subject of this message, which for replies often starts with Re:	The same four
Language	The language Replyco detected, one of 20, listed alphabetically by its name in your interface language; see Translations	Pick one from the list
Sent To	The address the message was sent to	The four above and Equals
Tone score (0 = furious, 1 = delighted)	The AI tone score of the message, 0 to 1	Equals, Equals or More Than, Equals or Less Than

Why

Most sorting starts with what the customer wrote: a word such as cancel, a notification subject, the language your German-speaking colleague answers, or the address of a dedicated mailbox.

Ticket conditions

Where

Select Source › Ticket.

What

These look at the ticket the message belongs to, as it is when the rule runs:

Source	What it compares	Values
Assigned To	The colleague the ticket is assigned to, including by an earlier rule	A user, or Not Set (N/A) for unassigned
Marketplace	The channel of the ticket	Pick one; channels are listed alphabetically
Account	The account the message arrived in	Pick one of your accounts that create tickets
Day of week	The weekday of the message being processed, in UTC	One or more days
Created On	When the ticket was created	More Than or Less Than a number of days ago
Number Of Messages	Every message in the ticket, yours included	Equals, Equals or More Than, Equals or Less Than
Ticket Status	Whether the ticket is resolved	Not Set or Resolved

Three of them need a closer look. Day of week is the day of the message being processed, not the day the ticket began, so a customer’s Monday reply in a ticket that started on Saturday counts as Monday; with Run Rules it is the day of the ticket’s latest message. Number Of Messages also counts an auto-response that Replyco has just queued for this message, because auto-responses come first. Ticket Status is always Not Set for a new message, because the message has already reopened the ticket; Resolved only matters with Run Rules.

Why

Route by channel and account, spot tickets that come back after a long time, and write a catch-all rule that matches every message.

Customer conditions

Where

Select Source › Customer.

What

Customer Name and Customer Email compare the ticket’s customer with Contains, Not Contains, Starts With, Ends With and Equals. Customer Name also offers Not Set (N/A) for customers without a name. Marketplaces often send from their own address or name, which is how notifications are told apart from buyers.

Why

Amazon buyer messages come from an address containing marketplace.amazon; eBay’s own notices come from the customer eBay. A condition on the sender separates the two.

Order and product conditions

Where

Select Source › Order and › Product.

What

These look at the order linked to the ticket and its products:

Source	What it compares	Comparisons
Order Status	The order status as the channel reports it	Text comparisons and Not Set (N/A)
Payment Status	The payment status as the channel reports it	Text comparisons and Not Set (N/A)
Created Date	The order’s purchase date	More Than or Less Than days ago
Shipped Date	The order’s latest ship date from the channel	Days ago, and Not Set (N/A)
Total Price	The order total, as a plain number in the order’s currency	Number comparisons
Marketplace ID, Subject, SKU	The channel’s item ID, the product title and the SKU of any product of the ticket or its order	Text comparisons

A ticket without an order matches Order Status Not Set (N/A) and nothing else in these groups. Total Price does not convert currencies: 250 is 250 pounds on one order and 250 euros on another.

Why

Questions before a purchase, high-value orders and problem products each deserve their own queue, and the order says which is which.

Comparisons and Not Set (N/A)

Where

The second field of a condition row, Select Condition until you choose; the value box or list follows it.

What

Text sources offer Contains, Not Contains, Starts With, Ends With and, except for the message’s text and subject, Equals. Numbers offer Equals, Equals or More Than and Equals or Less Than, both “or” comparisons including the value. Dates offer More Than and Less Than a number of days before the moment the rule runs; the details panel adds day(s) ago. Use whole numbers for days and message counts. Not Set (N/A) hides the value box and matches exactly the tickets where the field is empty. Changing the source clears the comparison and the value.

Boundaries, with the Northwind rules High value order (Total Price Equals or More Than 250) and Escalations (Tone score (0 = furious, 1 = delighted) Equals or Less Than 0.3), and a rule with Created On More Than 30:

Value	Condition	Matches?
Order total 249.99	Equals or more than 250	No
Order total 250.00	Equals or more than 250	Yes, the value itself is included
Tone score 0.300	Equals or less than 0.3	Yes
Tone score 0.301	Equals or less than 0.3	No; scores are stored with three decimals
Ticket created 29 days and 23 hours ago	More than 30 days ago	No
Ticket created 30 days and 1 hour ago	More than 30 days ago	Yes
Ticket without an order	Order Status Not Set (N/A)	Yes
Customer without an email address	Customer Email Not Contains amazon	No; an empty field matches only Not Set (N/A)

What to type into a text condition:

Do	Don’t
Type the shortest word that identifies the case: cancel catches cancel, cancelled and cancellation	Type a sentence such as Please cancel my order; the whole text must appear exactly like that
Add a group per synonym or language, for example cancel and storn	Type refund, return expecting either word; the comma and both words are looked for as one piece
Use Starts With on the subject of notifications with a fixed wording	Use Not Contains to catch customers without that field; use Not Set (N/A) where it is offered

Why

The comparison decides how much a rule catches; a boundary set one step too wide sends every ticket to the wrong queue.

Sources that can be empty offer Not Set (N/A), which matches exactly the tickets where the field is empty.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

Edit Rule (/tickets-automation?tab=rules)

Highlighted

option “Not Set (N/A)”, conditions, selected. matches tickets whose order status is empty

Also visible

condition source Order Status; comparisons: Not Set (N/A), Contains, Not Contains, Starts With, Ends With, Equals; Allocate into Label: Pre-sale

Purpose

comparisons of a text source and the empty case

Update Ticket Status

Where

First action under Actions, the select Select New Status; the cross in the select clears it.

What

Resolved resolves the ticket; Not Set makes it unresolved again. The ticket’s next customer message reopens a resolved ticket, and the rule resolves it again if it matches. With Linnworks, Billbee or Brightpearl connected, Replyco also updates the order in that system, as it does when you resolve or reopen a ticket by hand. In Linnworks, for example, the order’s identifier switches between “Resolved Ticket” and “Unresolved Ticket”; see Linnworks.

Why

Notifications that need no answer, such as Your order has shipped, can be resolved the moment they arrive and stay out of your open queue.

Update Ticket Priority

Where

Second action, the select Select New Priority, listing your priorities in urgency order.

What

Gives the ticket that priority and starts both its deadlines afresh, in calendar or working hours as the priority is set up, on every matching message. Tone analysis runs after rules and replaces a priority a rule set on this message only when Override an SLA set by message rules is ticked. If the priority is deleted, the rule sets nothing and its summary shows [priority deleted]. See Ticket priorities and SLA.

Why

Facts a rule can see, such as the order value or the channel, decide the promise you make; the rule applies it before anyone reads the message.

One rule can take several actions; this one sets a priority and adds a label to every order worth 250 or more.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

Edit Rule (/tickets-automation?tab=rules)

Highlighted

combobox “Update Ticket Priority”, actions, VIP customers selected. sets the priority and its deadlines on every matching ticket

Also visible

Update Ticket Status empty; Allocate into Label: High value order; Allocate User empty; Archive Ticket OFF; Mark as Read OFF

Purpose

a rule with a priority action

Allocate into Label

Where

Third action, the multi-select Select Label to assign.

What

Adds each chosen label to the ticket; labels the ticket already has stay, and a label it already has is not added twice. Rules never remove labels. A label that a rule adds cannot be deleted until you remove it from the rule; Replyco names up to three rules that use it.

Why

A label gives each kind of ticket its own list under Labels, and adding is harmless, which makes labels the safest first action.

Allocate User

Where

Fourth action, the select Select User.

What

Assigns the ticket to that colleague and replaces any other assignee, on every matching message, so it also undoes a reassignment made by hand when the customer writes again. The colleague is notified according to their notification settings. See Assign, label and merge tickets.

Why

Specialists get their tickets without a dispatcher: returns to the returns person, German messages to the German speaker.

Archive Ticket

Where

Fifth action, a switch.

What

ON archives the matching ticket: it leaves your working lists and appears under Tickets›Archive. The customer’s next message brings it back, and the rule archives it again if it matches. See Archived tickets.

Why

Automatic notices you want to keep but never work on stay out of sight.

Mark as Read

Where

Sixth action, a switch.

What

ON marks the new message, and so the ticket, as read, so it does not count as unread in your lists.

Why

Notifications should not make your queue look busier than it is.

Linnworks order actions

Where

Below the other actions, only while a Linnworks account is connected: Change Order Tag, Change Order Lock State and Change Order Park State.

What

Set tag 1 to 6 on the ticket’s Linnworks order, lock or unlock it, or park or unpark it. They act only on tickets whose order comes from Linnworks. See Linnworks.

Why

Hold an order in Linnworks the moment a customer asks to cancel it, before it is picked.

Rule order, the drag handle

Where

The handle on the left of each card on the Rules tab; the order is saved when you drop the card.

What

Rules run from the top of the list down on every message. A new rule and a copy are added at the bottom; editing a rule keeps its place.

How the order decides, for an order of 300 from a customer who writes my charger arrived damaged, with Northwind’s rules:

Order of the rules	Priority at the end	Labels at the end	Assignee at the end
SLA Allocation, High value order, Damaged items	VIP customers: set by SLA Allocation, replaced by High value order	High value order, Damaged items	Laura Graf, from Damaged items
High value order, Damaged items, SLA Allocation	Standard (24 hours): SLA Allocation runs last and replaces VIP customers	High value order, Damaged items	Laura Graf
SLA Allocation switched off	VIP customers	High value order, Damaged items	Laura Graf

Why

A broad rule belongs at the top, where more specific rules below can override it.

Every switched-on rule runs on each incoming message, from the top of the list down.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

Rules (/tickets-automation?tab=rules)

Highlighted

switch “”, last-card-right, off. switches the rule on; saves at once

Also visible

rule cards 3 to 12 in run order; drag handle, history, edit, copy, delete icons per card; all switches on except the last

Purpose

rules run in list order; switched-off rules do not run

How the settings combine

When several rules match one message, their actions combine like this:

Two matching rules both…	Result on the ticket
set a priority	The lower rule’s priority, with deadlines started afresh
assign a colleague	The lower rule’s colleague, alone
set a status	The lower rule’s status
add labels	Every label of both rules
archive, or mark as read	Archived, or read
one resolves, the other archives	Resolved and archived
the upper assigns, the lower has Assigned To Not Set (N/A)	The lower rule does not match, because the ticket is assigned by then

Which should I choose?

Put catch-all rules such as SLA Allocation at the top and specific ones below them, so the specific rule wins. Put fallbacks, such as “unassigned tickets go to Chloe Osborne”, at the very bottom, so they only catch what nothing else took.

Rules in your tickets

A rule shows itself in three places: on the ticket it changed, in the ticket’s history, and in the rule’s own history.

Where	What you see	Which record
The ticket list and the ticket	The status, priority with Respond Till, labels and assignee the rules set	The current state, after the last matching rule
The ticket’s history	Rule Escalations applied once per matching rule and message; after Run Rules the row names who ran it: Henry Clarke ran rule Escalations	Every rule that matched, in order
The rule’s history	Who created, switched, changed and moved the rule	Every change to the rule

Ticket history row

The grey rows between the messages include one row per rule that matched the message, with the rule’s name and the time. The row says that the rule ran, not what it changed; the ticket itself shows the result. Several rows at the same moment are grouped, with a chip such as 1 more that opens them. A rule that did not match leaves nothing. History rows appear for users who have Load user logs in the ticket switched on in Account Settings.

Why: when a ticket suddenly has a new owner or priority, the history names the rule, and the rule’s details panel says why it matched.

Each rule that matched leaves one history row with its name, written before tone analysis sets a priority.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

Respond (/ticket/:threadId)

Highlighted

paragraph “Rule {{ruleName}} applied”, conversation, visible. records that the rule Escalations matched this message

Also visible

two customer messages with yellow and red faces; history row Rule Escalations applied; history row Tone score 0.28 assigned priority Urgent; minimize chip

Purpose

the ticket history row a rule writes

The rule’s own history

The clock icon on a rule’s card opens its history: created this message rule, turned on this message rule or turned off this message rule, updated this message rule. Click on this row to see changes (select it to see what changed) and changed the priority of this message rule, each with a name and a date. Dragging one card writes the last line to every rule, because the whole order is saved again.

Why: when tickets start to behave differently, the history shows who changed which rule and when.

A rule's own history shows who created, switched, edited and moved it.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

Rules (/tickets-automation?tab=rules)

Highlighted

row “ changed the priority of this message rule ”, details-panel, shown. records that the rule was moved in the list

Also visible

created this message rule; turned on this message rule; updated this message rule; changed the priority of this message rule; Close button

Purpose

audit changes to a rule

Tone score as a rule condition

Where

Tools›Automation › Rules, then Create New or the pencil icon. In Conditions, Select Source › Message › Tone score (0 = furious, 1 = delighted). It is offered to every company with Replyco AI.

What

Compares the incoming message’s tone score, from 0 (furious) to 1 (delighted), with Equals, Equals or More Than or Equals or Less Than. Type a decimal such as 0.3. Equals compares with the stored three-decimal score and rarely matches. Tone analysis scores the message before rules run, so the condition always sees the score; a message without a score never matches: a reply from your team, a customer on the AI Customers Blacklist, a message without text, a failed AI call, or a message from while tone analysis was off. For the score itself, see Message tone analysis.

Why

Tone rules on the Tone tab can only set a priority. A message rule with a tone condition can do everything else: assign, label, archive.

Three rules you could write:

• Escalations: Tone score (0 = furious, 1 = delighted) Equals or Less Than 0.3 → Allocate User Theo Rowe and Allocate into Label Escalations.
• Tone score (0 = furious, 1 = delighted) Equals or Less Than 0.2 and Total Price Equals or More Than 250 → Update Ticket Priority Urgent: an angry customer with a big order.
• Tone score (0 = furious, 1 = delighted) Equals or More Than 0.8 → Allocate into Label VIP, to find happy customers worth asking for a review.

The tone score is a condition like any other; Equals or Less Than 0.3 catches upset and furious messages.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

Edit Rule (/tickets-automation?tab=rules)

Highlighted

combobox “Equals or Less Than”, conditions, selected. compares the tone score with 0.3, inclusive

Also visible

source Tone score (0 = furious, 1 = delighted); value 0.3; Name Escalations, Active ON; Add New Condition, OR, Add New Group

Purpose

a rule that reacts to the customer's mood

If a message rule also sets a priority

Tone analysis applies its tone rules after your message rules. With the default switches on the Tone tab, a priority your message rule set on this message stays, whatever the score; tick Override an SLA set by message rules only if tone should outrank your rules. A rule that sets the priority the ticket already had counts as the priority it already had.

Running rules from the ticket lists

Where

Every ticket list under Tickets: tick tickets, then Run Rules, the first icon of the bar that appears at the top.

What

Runs every switched-on rule, in the order of the Rules tab, on the latest message of each ticked ticket, as if it had just arrived, then shows Success and reloads the list. Unlike on arrival, no auto-response is sent, tone analysis does not set a priority, and tickets of blocked customers are included. Run Rules appears in the bar of every ticket list. See Ticket lists.

Why

Rules only see new messages. After you create or correct a rule, this brings the tickets that are already there up to date.

Three ways to use it:

• After creating Damaged items, open Not Resolved, tick last week’s tickets and run the rules, so they get the label too.
• After unblocking a customer, tick their tickets in Blocked or in the list they moved to, and run the rules they missed; see Blocked tickets.
• After changing a rule’s priority, run the rules on its label’s list, so older tickets get the new deadline.

Rules act on messages as they arrive; Run Rules applies them to tickets you already have.

What this screenshot shows

Screen

Not Resolved (/tickets/notresolved)

Highlighted

button “Run Rules”, top-center, hovered. runs every active rule on the latest message of each selected ticket

Also visible

two rows ticked; counter 2/14; tooltip Run Rules

Purpose

run rules by hand on existing tickets

The latest message may be your own

Run Rules uses each ticket’s latest message, which is often your reply. Conditions on the text, subject, language, recipient or tone of the message then look at your reply, not the customer’s, and usually do not match. Conditions on the ticket, customer, order and product work as usual.

Rules and your other automation

Several features act on the same incoming message. They always run in the same order, so the result is predictable:

Feature	Runs	Who wins
Auto-responses	Before rules	They are sent or queued before any rule runs; a rule that resolves or archives the ticket does not stop them. See Auto-responses for tickets.
Tone analysis, the score	Before rules	Rules can use the score as a condition.
Tone analysis, tone rules	After rules	A priority a rule set on this message stays unless Override an SLA set by message rules is ticked. See Message tone analysis.
Priorities and deadlines	With the rule	A rule sets the priority and starts both deadlines on every matching message. See Ticket priorities and SLA.
Auto-assign on Reply	When you reply	It assigns only unassigned tickets, so a rule’s assignee stays. See Company Settings.
AI categories and drafts	Before rules	No rule can look at categories. See AI categories.
AI summaries	Before rules	The summary is renewed before rules run. See AI summaries.
AI Customers Blacklist	Before rules	Those customers’ messages get no tone score and no auto-response, so tone conditions never match them; your rules still run, and other conditions work. See AI Customers Blacklist.
Blocked customers	Instead of rules	Rules, auto-responses and tone priorities are skipped; Run Rules still works. See Blocked tickets.

A broad rule overrides your agents

A rule that matches every message, such as SLA Allocation, sets its priority again on each new customer message, and a rule with Allocate User assigns its colleague again. An agent who changed the priority or took over the ticket sees it changed back after the customer’s next message. Narrow such rules, or switch them off if your team sets priorities and owners by hand.

Examples from Northwind

Rules Northwind Electronics uses, written as condition → action:

Rule	Condition → action	Why
SLA Allocation	Number Of Messages Equals or More Than 1 → Update Ticket Priority Standard (24 hours)	Every ticket gets a deadline; kept at the top so specific rules override it
Cancellations	Subject contains cancel, or Text contains cancel → Allocate into Label Cancellations	Cancellation requests are answered before the order ships
Escalations	Tone score (0 = furious, 1 = delighted) Equals or Less Than 0.3 → Allocate User Theo Rowe, Allocate into Label Escalations	Angry customers reach a senior agent
High value order	Total Price Equals or More Than 250 → Update Ticket Priority VIP customers, Allocate into Label High value order	Big orders get the 4-hour promise
Damaged items	Text contains damaged, or Subject contains broken → Allocate into Label Damaged items, Allocate User Laura Graf	Returns go to the returns specialist
B2B	(Account is the support mailbox and Subject contains wholesale) or Subject contains bulk order → Allocate into Label B2B, Allocate User Chloe Osborne	Trade enquiries reach the account manager
eBay Notifications	Marketplace is eBay and Customer Name equals eBay → Allocate into Label eBay Notifications, Mark as Read	eBay’s own notices do not count as unread
Amazon Notifications	Marketplace is Amazon and Customer Email does not contain marketplace.amazon → Allocate into Label Amazon Notifications, Mark as Read, Update Ticket Status Resolved	Amazon reports are filed and resolved on arrival
Pre-sale	Order Status Not Set (N/A) → Allocate into Label Pre-sale	Questions without an order are potential sales
German speakers	Language is German → Allocate User Simon Wagner	German messages reach a German speaker
Back after a month	Created On More Than 30 days ago → Allocate into Label After-sales	Old tickets that come back are usually warranty questions
Unassigned fallback, at the bottom	Assigned To Not Set (N/A) → Allocate User Chloe Osborne	Nothing stays without an owner

What you need to know

Topic	Fact
What triggers a rule	A new incoming customer message, or Run Rules in a ticket list. Nothing else.
How many rules act	Every switched-on rule that matches, top to bottom. There is no stop.
Order	The list order. Later rules replace status, priority and assignee; labels add up.
Per message	Rules act on every matching message, not once per ticket, and write one history row each time.
New rules	Start switched off, are added at the bottom and change no existing ticket until you use Run Rules.
Values	Use whole numbers for days and message counts; text is matched as typed.
Limits	No limit on the number of rules, groups or conditions.
Failures	If a rule fails while running, Replyco records it for support and runs the next rule; the ticket gets no row for it.
Deleted things	A deleted priority, user or account makes that part of the rule do nothing; labels in use cannot be deleted.
Switching off	Keeps the rule, its conditions, actions and place.
Deleting	Permanent; what the rule already did and its history rows in tickets stay.
Cost	Rules use no AI actions.
Language	Labels follow your interface language; text conditions match exactly the words you type, in any language.
Customers	Nothing a rule does is sent to the customer. Only an auto-response writes to them, and that is a separate feature.

Frequently asked questions

General

What do rules do in Replyco?

Rules sort incoming tickets for you. Each rule under Tools›Automation › Rules has conditions and actions; when a new customer message matches the conditions, Replyco changes its ticket: status, priority, labels, assignee, archive or read state. Every switched-on rule is checked on every new customer message.

Do I need a special plan for rules?

No. Every plan includes rules, the priorities of Priorities & SLA that rules can set, and Replyco AI for the tone condition; companies on an older plan may not have all of them, see What each plan includes. You need the Automation permission to see Tools›Automation and its edit level to change rules.

Does a message stop at the first rule that matches?

No. Every switched-on rule runs on every new customer message, from the top of the Rules list down, and every rule that matches carries out its actions. There is no “stop processing” option. When two rules set the same priority, status or assignee, the lower one wins; labels from all matching rules add up.

Do rules change tickets I already have?

Not by themselves. Rules act on customer messages as they arrive. To apply a new or changed rule to existing tickets, open a ticket list under Tickets, tick the tickets and select Run Rules; Replyco then runs every switched-on rule on each ticket’s latest message.

Setup

Why does my new rule do nothing?

A new rule is saved with Active at OFF unless you switched it on in the form. Switch it on with the switch on its card on the Rules tab. It then acts on the next customer message that matches; tickets from before need Run Rules in a ticket list.

How do I make a rule match every message?

A rule needs at least one condition. For a rule that should catch every ticket, use Number Of Messages Equals or More Than 1, which every ticket meets. Put such a catch-all rule at the top of the Rules list, so more specific rules below it can override what it sets.

Can I write “if this or that”?

Yes. Put each alternative in its own group with Add New Group on the rule form under Tools›Automation › Rules. Groups are joined by OR, so one matching group is enough; conditions inside a group are joined by AND and must all match.

Is there a limit on the number of rules?

Replyco sets no limit on the number of rules, groups or conditions. Every switched-on rule runs on every new customer message, so a long list of narrow rules works, but keep it readable: give rules names that say what they do, because the ticket history shows only the name.

Conditions

Which conditions can a rule use?

Under Select Source: the message’s Text, Subject, Language, Sent To and tone score; the ticket’s assignee, marketplace, account, creation date, message count and status, and the weekday of the message; the customer’s name and email; the order’s status, payment status, dates and total; and the product’s ID, title and SKU.

Can a rule check the AI category of a ticket?

No. Rules have no condition on AI categories; the only AI value they can use is the tone score. To work by category, filter any ticket list by AI category or use the category cards under Smart Filters. See AI categories.

Is there a condition for messages that arrive outside our working hours?

No. Rules have no working-hours condition. Day of week checks the weekday of the message being processed, in UTC, but not its time of day. For replies outside your hours, use auto-response rules, which have their own schedules; see Auto-response Rules.

Why doesn’t my ticket status condition match new messages?

A new customer message reopens its ticket before any rule runs, so Ticket Status is always Not Set for a new message and Resolved never matches on arrival. It only matters when you run rules by hand with Run Rules on resolved tickets.

Why does the message count show one more message than I expect?

Number Of Messages counts every message in the ticket, your replies included. Auto-responses are created before rules run, so a new ticket that just got an auto-response already has two messages when your rules check it. Use Equals or Less Than 2 rather than Equals 1 for first messages if you use auto-responses.

Why did my “does not contain” condition miss some tickets?

A text comparison never matches a field that is empty, including Not Contains. A customer without an email address, or a ticket without an order, therefore does not match. Where the source offers Not Set (N/A), add a second group with it to catch the empty case as well.

Does Contains find parts of words?

Yes. Contains looks for the characters you typed anywhere in the field, so cancel also matches cancelled and cancellation. Several words are looked for as one piece, exactly in that order; for alternatives, add one group per word under Tools›Automation › Rules.

Actions and order

Two rules set different priorities. Which one wins?

The lower one in the Rules list, because rules run from the top down and each matching rule replaces the priority an earlier one set. The same applies to status and assignee. Drag the rule that should win below the other; labels from both rules are added in any order.

Why was a ticket reassigned after I changed its owner?

A rule with Allocate User matched the customer’s next message and assigned the ticket again. Rules act on every matching message, not once per ticket. Narrow the rule’s conditions, for example with Assigned To Not Set (N/A), so it only assigns tickets nobody owns yet.

Can a rule remove a label or unassign someone?

No. Allocate into Label only adds labels, and Allocate User always assigns one colleague. Remove labels or assignees in the ticket or with the bulk actions of a ticket list; see Assign, label and merge tickets.

Can a rule send a reply to the customer?

No. Rules change the ticket, never write to the customer. Automatic replies are auto-responses, set up under Tools›Automation › Auto-response Rules. They run before rules on each new message; see Auto-responses for tickets.

Is the colleague notified when a rule assigns a ticket?

Yes, according to their own notification settings, like any assignment. The ticket also appears in the colleague’s My Tickets list, so they find it there even with notifications switched off.

Tone and other automation

Do rules run before or after tone analysis?

Tone analysis scores the message before your rules run, so a rule can use the score; tone rules on the Tone tab set their priority after your rules. A priority a message rule set on this message stays unless Override an SLA set by message rules is ticked. See Message tone analysis.

Why didn’t my tone condition match?

Either the rules did not run, because the customer is blocked, or the message had no tone score: it was a reply from your team, came from a customer on the AI Customers Blacklist, had no text, the AI call failed, or tone analysis was off when it arrived. Also check the comparison: Equals 0.3 matches only exactly 0.300; use Equals or Less Than.

Do rules run for blocked customers?

No. Messages from customers you have blocked are imported, but rules, auto-responses and tone priorities are skipped for them. After unblocking, tick their tickets in a ticket list and select Run Rules to apply your rules to each ticket’s latest message. See Blocked tickets.

Does a rule stop an auto-response?

No. Auto-responses are decided and queued before rules run on the same message, so a rule that resolves or archives the ticket does not cancel them. To keep a kind of message from getting an automatic reply, narrow the auto-response rule’s own conditions under Auto-response Rules; see Auto-response Rules.

Running rules by hand and history

Which message do rules check when I run them by hand?

Run Rules uses the latest message of each ticked ticket, which can be your own reply. Conditions on the message’s text, subject, language, recipient or tone then look at your reply and usually do not match; conditions on the ticket, customer, order and product work as usual. No auto-response is sent.

How can I see which rule changed a ticket?

Open the ticket: each rule that matched leaves Rule Escalations applied between the messages, or Henry Clarke ran rule Escalations when a colleague applied it with Run Rules. The row names the rule, not the change; select the rule on the Rules tab to read its actions. Rows appear for users who have Load user logs in the ticket switched on in Account Settings.

I don’t see any rule rows in the ticket history. Why?

History rows load only for users who have Load user logs in the ticket switched on in Account Settings. If it is on, no rule matched that message: rules only write a row when their conditions match, and rules are skipped for your replies and for blocked customers.

Data and privacy

Does the customer see anything of my rules?

No. Rules change the ticket inside Replyco: status, priority, labels, assignee, archive and read state. Nothing is sent to the customer or changed on the marketplace, except the Linnworks actions, which change the order in your Linnworks account. Customers only receive what your team or your auto-responses send.

What happens to tickets when I delete a rule?

Nothing. Deleting a rule under Tools›Automation › Rules is permanent, but the labels, priorities, assignees and statuses it set stay on the tickets, and so do the history rows with its name. The rule simply stops acting on new messages.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to check
A new rule does nothing	Its switch on the Rules tab (new rules start at OFF); whether a message arrived since; for older tickets, Run Rules.
A rule matches in the details panel but not on new messages	In order: is the sender blocked? Is the message your own reply? Is the condition Ticket Status Resolved, which never matches on arrival?
A ticket got the wrong priority	Rules further down the list that set another priority; then whether tone analysis replaced it (the history shows a tone row); then the priority’s own targets under Priorities & SLA.
An agent’s priority or assignee keeps changing back	A broad rule with Update Ticket Priority or Allocate User acts on every customer message. Narrow it or switch it off.
A tone condition never matches	The comparison (Equals rarely matches), then whether messages have a score: tone analysis on, customer not on the AI Customers Blacklist, message with text.
A text condition misses messages	Whether the word appears as typed; a sentence must appear exactly. Add a group per synonym or language. For empty fields, use Not Set (N/A).
A “first message only” rule never matches	Number Of Messages counts your replies and a just-queued auto-response. Use Equals or Less Than 2 with auto-responses.
A weekday rule matches on the wrong days	Open the rule and check which days the condition ticks. Day of week uses the date of the message being processed, in UTC, not the day the ticket began.
You must set a value for each condition.	A condition has no value, or a row has no source. Fill in the value or delete empty rows.
The colleague was assigned but not notified	Their settings under Notifications.
Linnworks actions did not change the order	The ticket’s order must come from Linnworks.
Run Rules changed nothing	The ticket’s latest message is your reply, so message conditions look at it; or no switched-on rule matches.
A rule’s summary shows [priority deleted] or [user deleted]	The priority or user was deleted; that action does nothing now. Edit the rule and choose a current one.

Still stuck?

Contact Replyco support with the rule’s name, the ticket number and roughly when the message arrived. Support can see which rules ran on that message, whether one of them failed and why, which answers most “the rule did not fire” questions.

Related

• Rules: the Rules tab, every control on it
• Message tone analysis · Ticket priorities and SLA · Priorities & SLA
• Auto-responses for tickets · Auto-response Rules
• Ticket lists · Blocked tickets · Assign, label and merge tickets
• AI categories · AI summaries · Labels · Linnworks