What are Automations?

Automations are how Atender stops being a place where conversations happen and becomes a place where things actually get done. An automation watches your inbox for a specific event, checks whether the situation matches the criteria you set, and then runs a sequence of operations — assign, tag, change status, send a Slack ping, fire a webhook, send a templated email in the right language — without anyone stopping to do it by hand.

Internally these are called automation rules. In the product UI and most conversations, they’re called automations. Same thing.

The four parts of every automation

Every automation has the same shape. Only the contents change.

• Trigger — The when — the event that starts evaluation — Conversation created, SLA at risk, Tag added
• Conditions — The if — filters that narrow what the rule reacts to — Channel is email AND customer level is VIP
• Branches — The decision tree — different action sequences depending on which conditions matched — If VIP → escalate; else if billing → route; else → reply
• Actions — The what — the verbs that get run — Assign to team, Add tag, Send Email Studio template

A single automation has exactly one trigger but can have many branches, each with its own conditions and ordered list of actions.

What automations are good for

• Routing — send each conversation to the right team based on channel, language, customer tier, or content.
• Acknowledging — auto-reply with a confirmation when an inbound email arrives, in the right language, with the right template.
• Escalating — when an SLA is at risk, ping a Slack channel, reassign to a senior agent, and add a tag.
• Closing the loop — fire a CSAT survey three hours after a conversation is resolved.
• Tidying up — every night, archive Done conversations with no activity for two weeks.
• Bridging systems — POST to a webhook when a case closes, so your finance system or order pipeline knows.

How automations relate to other parts of Atender

• They drive Email Studio templates by ID and language.
• They use Tags as both conditions and actions.
• They react to SLA events and Conversation Statuses transitions.
• They’re how CSAT Surveys actually get sent.

Where to go next

• Build your first one: Create your first automation
• Browse triggers, conditions, actions: Triggers reference, Conditions reference, Actions reference
• See proven patterns: Confirmation emails, VIP routing, SLA escalation