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  Article updated: May 20, 2025

Create and manage automatic actions

Have Inbox 2.0 check for a set of criteria in a message and then take an automatic action. You can automatically add a tag to a message, apply a topic to a conversation, or resolve a conversation, so an agent doesn’t have to.

Audience:  Advanced, Business, and Enterprise Inbox 2.0 admins. Want more Hootsuite features? Upgrade your plan.

You can use automations to do all the following:

  • Add a tag - Add tags to messages to add metadata, such as message sentiment, or message type.
  • Apply a topic - (Advanced and Enterprise plan members) Apply topics to conversations based on the conversation type, such as sales questions, technical issues, or product questions.
  • Resolve conversation - (Advanced and Enterprise plan members) Say a conversation has ended and, just after the agent resolves the conversation, the contact responds with “Goodbye.” For cases like this, you could add an automation rule to detect the word “goodbye” and automatically resolve the conversation.
    Note: The auto-resolve action only applies when the keyword or phrase you specify appears in the first message of a conversation. When adding tags or applying topics, the keyword or phrase can appear anywhere in the conversation.
  • Forward the message to a CRM - (Enterprise plan members with Advanced Inbox) Create cases in Salesforce from conversations in Inbox 2.0. This connects the conversation in Inbox with a case in Salesforce and allows your agents to continue messaging or managing the conversation from either Inbox 2.0 or Salesforce. Learn more about creating Salesforce cases from conversations.

You must be an organization Super Admin, Admin, or a member with custom organization permission to Manage automation to add, edit, and delete automated assignments and tag rules.

Create an automation

Create an automation from scratch or use a template to create an automation to tag a message, send a conversation to a CRM, apply a topic, or resolve a conversation. You can set the criteria you want the automation to use.

  1. In Inbox 2.0, select Admin settings.
  2. Expand Routing and automation, and then select Automations.
  3. Select Add automation.
  4. Select Start from scratch or select a template option, and then select Continue.
  5. Enter a name for your new automation, select Add condition, and then a select the condition a message must meet to trigger the automation. You can add as many conditions (AND) and alternative conditions (OR) as you need. For example, you can add multiple tags or topics to messages sent to a specific channel, or add a topic and resolve the conversation. Depending on the condition you choose, you may be able to select whether you want to apply the rule to all of or any of the keywords or phrases. Separate keywords and phrases with commas.
  6. Select Add action to choose the actions you want the automation to take when a message meets the conditions you set. You can choose from the following actions:
    • Tag with - Label incoming conversations with a preexisting tag.
    • Apply topic - Apply a topic to categorize, route, and prioritize conversations in the queue.
    • Resolve conversation - Move the conversation to the resolved queue.
    • Forward message - Connect the conversation in Inbox with your CRM. For example, selecting to forward a message to Salesforce will create a Salesforce case from your conversation and allow your agents to continue messaging or managing the conversation from either Inbox 2.0 or Salesforce.
  7. If your organization has turned on resolve reasons, you can choose to apply a reason to all automatically resolved conversations. Learn how to add resolve reasons.
  8. Select whether you want to save your new automation as a draft or save and activate it right away.

Manage automations

In Inbox 2.0 admin settings, expand Routing and automation, and then select Automations. From here, you can switch your automations on or off, edit your automations, or delete your automation. To edit or delete an automation, point to the automation in the list and then select Editor Delete from the Actions area.

 

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