Manage conversation status, priority, and SLA

Keep the controls distinct

Open

Active customer work that can move now

Pending

Waiting for a customer, teammate, dependency, or scheduled next step

Closed

Customer work is resolved with a recorded outcome

Low/Normal

Routine work within ordinary commitment

High/Urgent

Elevated impact or urgency according to team policy

SLA due time

Customer-response deadline used by SLA-risk and overdue views

Next action time

Owner's scheduled follow-up used by Follow-ups and due-work views

Priority does not create an SLA. Pending does not create a follow-up. Closing does not prove the last message was delivered. Configure each fact explicitly.

Set or change priority

1. Open the conversation and verify customer, channel, and latest message.
2. Select the priority control in the workflow bar.
3. Apply the team's decision rule:
   • customer harm, severe business impact, or a near-term commitment may justify Urgent;
   • material impact requiring early attention may justify High;
   • routine work remains Normal or Low.
4. Add an internal note only when the reason is not evident and another person must understand it.
5. Confirm the badge and relevant queue update.

Do not elevate priority to compensate for missing ownership or a misconfigured SLA.

Set an SLA due time

1. Confirm the response commitment and the timezone in which it is understood.
2. Select SLA.
3. Choose 1 hour, 4 hours, Tomorrow 9 AM, or enter the required timestamp.
4. Confirm the control changes from No deadline set to the expected status.
5. Use SLA Risk or overdue queues to monitor the commitment.

If the deadline passes, the conversation shows an overdue cue. Respond or explicitly manage the customer expectation; merely moving the SLA removes the signal without repairing the miss.

Set a Next action

1. Name the future action and owner.
2. Select Next.
3. Choose Later today, Tomorrow 9 AM, Next business day, or a precise time.
4. Use Pending when work is genuinely waiting.
5. Verify the item appears in Follow-ups at the expected time.

Open full size

Move between statuses

Keep Open when

The team can act now, a reply is required, or an unresolved action has no legitimate dependency.

Use Pending when

The next move depends on a customer, teammate, provider, scheduled time, or other explicit event. Pair it with ownership and a Next time when the team must revisit it.

Resolve/Close when

The customer outcome is complete or the team has a truthful terminal outcome. Select the appropriate resolution outcome and add a note where the reason needs explanation. Open accountable outcomes can prevent or complicate resolution; complete or deliberately manage them first.

Examples

• Urgent + Open + SLA 1 hour: a customer cannot access a paid service and needs a response now.
• High + Pending + Next tomorrow 09:00: a buyer is reviewing a time-sensitive quote; the owner will follow up tomorrow.
• Normal + Closed: a routine information request was answered, delivery was verified, and no further commitment remains.

Recover incorrect state

• If status was changed accidentally, reopen or restore the correct state immediately and record the real next action.
• If a concurrent update was skipped, refresh before retrying; another operator may have changed the record.
• If the customer replies to a Pending item, review the new message and move it back to active work as needed.
• If delivery failed after closure, reopen the customer work or create the correct recovery action; do not rely on the closed state.
• If the SLA is wrong across many records, ask an administrator to review the team-inbox policy before bulk-changing symptoms.

Measurable result

Healthy use reduces stale Pending work, priority inflation, overdue SLA, and closed conversations that reopen because the outcome was not complete. Audit a small weekly sample for truthful state, not just queue counts.