What is Conversation Resolution?
Conversation Resolution is the model Atender uses to close out a conversation — the agent marks it Done when the work is finished, and Atender later moves it to Archived to lock it. Understanding the difference between these two states matters: Done can be reopened by a customer reply, Archived cannot.
The four conversation statuses
Every conversation in Atender carries one of four statuses. Resolution is the journey from the first two to the last.
- Active — The conversation is in play — somebody needs to do something. — n/a (it’s already active)
- Snoozed — An agent set the conversation aside until a scheduled time. It returns to Active automatically. — Yes — a customer reply pulls it back to Active immediately.
- Done — An agent has marked the conversation finished. The work is over, but the conversation isn’t locked yet. — Yes. A customer reply moves it back to Active.
- Archived — The conversation is locked and considered terminal. The agent UI shows an “Archived” banner; replies aren’t accepted on this conversation. — No. A customer message creates a new conversation instead.
The most important distinction here is Done is not terminal. Marking something Done is a strong signal that the work is finished, but the customer still has a window to reply and reopen it. Archived is the line you cross when the conversation is really, truly finished.
How a conversation gets resolved
The typical journey looks like this:
- Conversation arrives as Active. Whether it’s an email, chat, or call, new conversations start in Active.
- Agent (or automation) marks it Done. Once everything is handled, the agent presses the Mark as done button (the
Dshortcut also works) — or an automation rule does it on their behalf. See Mark a conversation as Done. - The conversation sits in Done for a while. During this window, the customer can reply and reopen the conversation, your team can follow up, and Atender can deliver a CSAT survey if you have one configured.
- Atender auto-archives it. When your Auto-Archiving timer expires, Atender flips the conversation to Archived and locks it. See Set up auto-archiving.
The window between Done and Archived is configurable in Settings → Conversation resolution. Default behavior depends on your tenant — check what’s set before assuming.
Status is one axis. Engagement is another.
Conversation Resolution focuses on the status axis — Active, Snoozed, Done, Archived. There’s also a second axis called engagement that runs independently:
- Pending — the ball is in your court. A customer just sent something and your team hasn’t responded yet (or an event reset ownership).
- Engaged — the ball is in the customer’s court. Your team has replied; you’re waiting for them.
These two axes don’t override each other. A Done conversation can be Pending (a customer just replied, but the status hasn’t auto-flipped back to Active yet in the same tick), or it can be Engaged (sitting quietly until auto-archive). Most of the time when an agent talks about “is this resolved,” they mean the status — and the answer is “yes once it’s Archived, mostly-yes when it’s Done.”
Why the two steps?
Atender deliberately separates the agent-facing “I’m done with this” action from the system-facing “lock this forever” action so that:
- Customers get a real window to follow up. If the customer realizes ten minutes later they have one more question, replying just reopens the existing thread. They don’t lose the context of the conversation.
- CSAT surveys have time to arrive. If you have a satisfaction survey configured, it usually goes out after Done and before Archive — leaving enough runway for the customer to respond.
- Reporting stays clean. “Was this conversation actually resolved?” maps cleanly to
status = 'archived'. “Are we done with active work?” maps tostatus in (Done, Archived). Both questions are easy to answer.
Permissions and where to configure it
Anyone who can work in conversations can mark a conversation Done — that’s a standard part of agent work. The auto-archive timer is a tenant-wide setting under Settings → Conversation resolution, and it requires the Conversation resolution permission to edit. Owners have this permission by default; other roles need it granted.