Texts and calls when a ticket is urgent
When a ticket becomes urgent, Help texts whoever is on call, then calls them if nobody has opened it yet. It goes through your own Twilio or Vonage account, which bills you for each text and call; we never do. It's on the Business plan.
How it works
- A ticket becomes urgent when your customer picks the urgent level in your form's "How urgent" field, or when a teammate makes it urgent, from its page, with many at once, through the API or by your AI assistant.
- Everyone on call gets a text at once:
Urgent ticket #1234 on Acme shop. Open it:and a link. It names the ticket and never says what your customer wrote. - If nobody in your workspace has opened, taken or answered the ticket within the minutes you choose (10 to begin with), each of them gets a call that says the ticket's number and site out loud, twice.
- The teammate who made it urgent isn't texted, and neither is anyone marked away or whose role doesn't let them see the ticket.
- Choose Any time, or Only outside working hours, which follows the hours you set under Settings → Reply times. With no hours set, your workspace is always open, so nobody is texted.
- One ticket texts once an hour at most, however often it becomes urgent again. A workspace sends up to 60 texts and 20 calls an hour; past that, nothing more is sent that hour, and nothing is billed by us.
Set up your provider
The workspace's owner does this, under Settings → On call → Your provider.
Twilio
| In Help | In Twilio |
|---|---|
| Account SID | Your Twilio console, under Account info. It starts with AC. |
| Auth token | The same place. |
| From number | A phone number you have in Twilio, with its country code, like +15005550006. |
A trial account can only text and call numbers you've verified in Twilio.
Vonage
| In Help | In Vonage |
|---|---|
| API key and API secret | Your Vonage dashboard, under API settings. |
| Application ID | An application with Voice switched on. |
| Private key | The private.key file Vonage gave you when you made that application. |
| From number | A Vonage number linked to that application, with its country code. |
Once your own number is proved, Send a test text texts you and Call me rings you.
Who is on call
Each person adds their own mobile number under Settings → On call → Your phone, and types the code we text to it. Then they switch I'm on call on, or someone who can set up tickets switches them. Nobody can add a number for someone else.
What we keep
Your provider's details are encrypted, and never shown again. Each person's number is encrypted too: the page shows only its last three digits, and only to them. When someone leaves your workspace, their number goes with them. We keep no text and no call, only whether each one went. If your provider refuses our sign-in, texts and calls are switched off and the owner gets one email; giving Help the details again switches them back on. On a plan below Business nothing is sent, and your settings are kept for when you're back.