Publish operational messages and notifications with the right audience and follow-up

Updated Wednesday, October 28, 2026 · Marc Staine

Operational messages help teams coordinate around a change that affects their work: planned maintenance, an incident response instruction, or a temporary support process. Write them around what readers must do and when. Supportbench offers persistent Messages and shorter-lived Notifications; choosing the type and feed audience is only part of publishing responsibly.

At a glance

For: administrators and operations leads with Administer messages and notifications permission. Applies to: Supportbench Core.

Start here: Settings → Messaging & notifications → New message

Understand the audience consequence before saving · Choose Message or Notification · Create a message step by step · Choose feed and portal visibility deliberately · Handle expiry and later corrections · Example: coordinate a temporary customer-impacting incident · Verify publication and reader action separately · Troubleshoot message behavior

Understand the audience consequence before saving

Creation alerts are broader than the feed audience

Creating a message sends an alert to active agents across the account. Selecting a Team or Community audience controls where the message can be shown; it does not limit the creation alert to only those people. Do not use the creation flow to quietly test a message against one team.

You need Administer messages and notifications permission. Prepare and review the text before saving. If the announcement belongs to a customer’s private case, record it through that case’s appropriate communication route instead of publishing an account message.

The feature supports operational communication; it is not a substitute for explicit incident ownership, case updates, broadcast campaigns or an emergency communication plan. Use the audience and retention appropriate to the job.

Choose Message or Notification

Type	Use it for	Behavior to plan around
Message	Information that should remain available to applicable readers, such as a temporary process or planned maintenance guidance.	Feed visibility follows audience, active state and applicable expiry. Readers can review the message until it no longer applies.
Notification	A short operational alert that does not need the same persistent authoring-list presence.	The notification leaves the authoring list after creation and is cleared from the recipient experience when viewed or dismissed as applicable.

Do not choose Notification simply because it sounds more urgent. A complex process change often needs a durable guide plus a concise Message linking to it. The notification text should identify the action and authoritative source rather than trying to replace a full procedure.

Create a message step by step

Open Settings → Messaging & notifications, then choose New message.
On Details, enter a meaningful Name of up to 50 characters and choose Type: Message or Notification.
Set Priority deliberately. A blank priority uses Medium. Agree what priority means operationally so readers can distinguish routine guidance from urgent action.
For a Message, set Expiry when the instruction has a known end. A new blank expiry means no expiry. Review the expiry caution below when editing an existing record.
On Audience, review Community message and Team as applicable. Team defaults to Global; verify whether that is intended. Notification hides the Expiry and Community fields, while Team remains available.
On Content, write the announcement with a clear first sentence, affected scope, required action, owner and next update time or end condition. Add a descriptive link to the relevant guide when needed.
Review all tabs and the account-wide creation-alert consequence. Choose Save Changes once the announcement is ready.
Confirm Message saved, then verify the intended feed/portal behavior with authorized representative readers. Do not save a duplicate merely because a notification no longer appears in the authoring list.

Choose feed and portal visibility deliberately

The Team audience participates in feed visibility, including the configured team hierarchy. Global is the default Team selection. Confirm the intended audience before saving, particularly when an announcement names a specific customer, internal escalation path or temporary workaround.

Community message relates to customer-portal presentation. Whether visitors see the message also depends on the portal’s configured template and access context. Verify the actual portal as an intended reader before relying on it for customer communication. A message created in an administration screen is not proof that every portal visitor sees it.

Keep a public customer notice and an internal operational instruction distinct when their content differs. Customers may need impact, workaround and the next update; agents may also need triage criteria, internal ownership and escalation instructions. Do not include private customer records, internal investigation details or credentials in a public announcement.

Handle expiry and later corrections

An expiry is useful for temporary instructions because an old workaround can become harmful when the underlying issue changes. Set a specific expiry where practical and assign someone to review the message before that time. A long-running incident may require an updated notice rather than leaving an obsolete time promise visible.

Clearing an existing expiry does not remove it

In the current save behavior, clearing the Expiry field on an existing message preserves its current expiry. To change the timing, enter an explicit appropriate date and verify the saved result. Do not assume a blank edit made an existing message permanent.

When revising an instruction, make the current action clear. Avoid stacking contradictory notices. Verify which message is visible and whether an old notice should be retired through the available administration workflow. Viewing or dismissing a notification does not mean a reader completed the requested operational task.

Example: coordinate a temporary customer-impacting incident

Suppose an integration is delaying order imports for several business customers. Agents need a consistent triage procedure and a clear route for account-specific evidence. The message should help them act without copying private diagnostic material into a broad announcement.

Part	Useful content
Name	Order-import delay: current triage procedure
Opening	Some order imports are delayed. Confirm the affected integration and time window before applying the temporary procedure.
Agent action	Use the linked reviewed guide, record the affected customer and last successful import on the case, and keep a named owner for the next customer update.
Escalation	Follow the designated escalation procedure when the verified conditions apply; do not promise recovery based only on an alert.
Timing	State the next operations update time and who maintains the notice.
Customer version	Use only approved customer-facing impact, workaround and update information in a separately verified portal message.

This is a recommended writing pattern, not a built-in incident template. Use verified facts and your actual operating procedure. If the impact is uncertain, say what is still being investigated instead of announcing an unverified cause.

Verify publication and reader action separately

Confirm the save succeeded and review the actual saved text.
Check the applicable agent feed using an authorized representative identity and verify the correct message opens.
If Community message was selected, check the intended portal and reader context.
Check the expiry and whether the announcement remains useful when read later.
For an action that requires acknowledgement, use your team’s explicit acknowledgement process; do not infer completion from an alert being shown or cleared.
Record follow-up ownership and remove or revise obsolete instructions through the normal workflow.

Troubleshoot message behavior

Problem	Checks and corrective step
Agents outside the selected team received an alert	Creation alerts reach active agents across the account. Team selection controls feed audience, not that creation alert.
The new notification is absent from the administration list	Notification records leave that list after creation. Verify the recipient experience before creating another one.
A message expired despite clearing the field	Clearing an existing Expiry preserves it. Set an explicit revised date and verify the saved result.
Customers cannot see a Community message	Check the portal template, actual audience/access context and saved message settings.
A message has Medium priority unexpectedly	Blank Priority uses Medium. Choose the intended priority explicitly.
The action is unavailable	Check Administer messages and notifications permission.
An agent read the alert but did not act	Viewing is not task completion. Follow the explicit ownership/acknowledgement process.

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