Resolving cases
Every conversation moves through a small set of statuses as it gets handled. You don't have to manage this by hand (it mostly updates itself as you (and your customers) act) but it's worth knowing what each stage means.
The lifecycle
- New: a message came in and hasn't been answered yet.
- Drafted: the assistant has a reply ready in the box, waiting for you to review and send (see Reviewing drafts).
- Replied: you (or auto-send) have sent a reply and the ball is in the customer's court.
- Resolved: the conversation is finished; nothing further is expected.
Resolving and reopening
Mark a conversation Resolved once it's settled. This clears it from your active queue. If you resolve something too early, you can reopen it again; it picks up wherever it naturally left off (back to drafted if a reply is already waiting, replied if you'd already answered, or new otherwise).
You rarely need to reopen anything yourself. If a customer writes back on a resolved conversation, it reopens automatically. A reply is never buried under "resolved" waiting for someone to notice it.
Auto-resolve for idle chats
Live chat conversations you've already replied to, and that then go quiet for 24 hours, are automatically marked resolved. Chat is back-and-forth by nature, so a thread that's gone silent after your reply is treated as done rather than left open indefinitely. Email conversations and anything you haven't answered yet are never auto-resolved this way. If it needs a reply, it stays visible until you either send one or resolve it yourself.
If the customer does write back later, the same automatic reopening applies: the conversation returns to your active queue on its own.