Turn unanswered chats into follow-up cases and notify customers

Updated Wednesday, October 28, 2026 · Marc Staine

When a customer waits for a human reply, the next step should be clear and owned. Supportbench can turn an eligible unanswered chat into a follow-up case, then run a Case workflow to set a useful subject or notify the case’s primary contact. This procedure connects the widget timer with that workflow and explains what to verify before relying on it during a busy shift.

At a glance

For: support operations leads and administrators responsible for live-chat coverage. Applies to: Supportbench Core.

Start here: Settings → Self-Service → Chat widgets; Settings → Configuration → Workflows

Before you begin · Configure the timer and customer follow-up · Understand which chats qualify · What happens when settings or assignments change · Example: cover a busy equipment-support queue · Troubleshoot a missing follow-up or email

Before you begin

You need permission to edit the intended chat widget and Case workflows, a controlled test contact with a usable email address, and a receiving queue/process for follow-up work. Agree what the acknowledgement should promise. Use a new test chat for each timer scenario; changing a duration does not reset an existing wait.

Configure the timer and customer follow-up

Open the intended chat widget configuration. Under Unanswered-chat follow-up, set Create a follow-up ticket after waiting (minutes) to the operational wait your team can explain. Review Timeout message and Follow-up ticket queue (optional).
Choose the queue deliberately. A configured follow-up queue moves the case and clears agent ownership; leaving it blank preserves an existing linked case’s routing. Subsequent authorized ownership changes can supersede the retained handoff.
Open Settings → Configuration → Workflows, choose New workflow or open the intended existing workflow, and choose Case scope with the Chat timed out event. Add conditions that match the intended cases, rather than applying a customer-specific rule indiscriminately.
Add the supported actions needed by the process, such as Change case subject and a customer notification. In the recipient selector, Case contact means the follow-up case’s primary contact, who needs a usable email.
Write an acknowledgement that states the actual next step and agreed service process. Do not promise immediate human review or a resolution deadline the team has not committed to.
Save and test with a fresh, controlled unanswered customer chat and a usable test contact. Verify the case, queue, owner state, timeout message, transcript and workflow outcome. Check the resulting message/delivery evidence separately.

Example acknowledgement content

“Your conversation has been saved as a support request. Our team will continue the investigation there. Please reply to the case with any additional details.” Adapt this to your actual channel, case reference and service commitment; configure the message through the supported workflow action. Conversion alone does not prove that an acknowledgement was sent.

Understand which chats qualify

Use the Case → Chat timed out event to take the next operational action after an eligible unanswered customer chat has been converted into follow-up case work. For example, give the case a useful subject and send the primary contact an acknowledgement explaining how support will continue. This is a distinct event after timeout routing and transcript work, not a general inactivity schedule and not a promise of email delivery at an exact second.

Requirement or event	What it means for operations
Widget follow-up enabled	In Unanswered-chat follow-up, Create a follow-up ticket after waiting (minutes) must be enabled for a newly admitted waiting episode. Off disables it.
Usable customer identity	A valid contact with a usable email is required for this timeout path. A visitor label alone is not sufficient.
No qualifying human public reply	The first committed public human-agent text reply or qualifying attachment stops the wait timer. Private notes, typing and assignment do not count as that reply.
Chat remains in the waiting episode	Closing the chat or returning it to bot mode cancels that episode.
Deadline expires	The system reuses a linked case or creates a follow-up case, even when Auto-create case is off, and closes the chat with the configured timeout message.
Routing and transcript completion	The Chat timed out event is processed after these stages. Failures can leave completion pending; inspect the result rather than repeatedly forcing a second conversion.
Workflow prerequisites available	The account needs the supported timeout-workflow capability and evaluator. A missing prerequisite can reject the event at save time; have the responsible administrator resolve availability.

What happens when settings or assignments change

The deadline is stored when the waiting episode is admitted. Changing the enabled duration later does not recompute existing deadlines, and automatic reassignment does not restart the timer. Turning the setting Off clears current deadlines. Re-enabling it does not retrospectively arm those old episodes; use a new chat to test the new setting.

The event is not retroactive for historical timeouts, and normal chat closure is not the same trigger. If you need a different operational action for normal closure, use the supported configuration for that separate event rather than expecting Chat timed out to cover it.

Example: cover a busy equipment-support queue

Your team receives a burst of equipment alarms while every live agent is occupied. Choose a wait threshold that matches the actual service process, route eligible unanswered chats to the agreed follow-up queue, and use the timeout workflow to acknowledge the saved case. The queue should have a clear intake owner or assignment process; conversion is not the same as a named specialist accepting responsibility.

Verify the customer identity and usable email before treating the path as available.
Let a controlled chat reach the threshold without a public human reply. Check the resulting case and customer message.
Repeat with a public human reply before the deadline; it should stop the timer. A private note is a different test and does not count as the customer reply.
Review the follow-up queue during the shift and use normal case ownership, tasks and customer-update commitments to continue the investigation.

Measure whether the resulting cases have a clear next action and whether customers receive the intended acknowledgement. Do not infer a resolved issue or delivered email solely from a closed chat.

Troubleshoot a missing follow-up or email

Symptom	Checks and next action
A waiting chat never converts	Check contact/email, widget setting at admission, current chat/bot/closed state and whether a public agent reply already cleared the deadline.
A private note did not stop the timer	Expected. A private note is not a committed customer-visible human reply.
Changing the duration did not move an existing deadline	Expected. Test the changed setting with a new waiting episode.
The case exists but the workflow is not complete	Inspect routing/transcript completion and the workflow’s pending/failure state. Do not assume clock expiry means all stages already succeeded.
The case moved but has no owner	The optional follow-up queue clears ownership. Check the intended queue intake/assignment process and any later ownership changes.
The customer received no email	Verify a notification action and Case contact recipient, usable email, workflow execution and delivery state. Case conversion alone is not delivery evidence.
The event cannot be saved	Read the explicit availability/validation error and have the responsible administrator resolve the capability prerequisite. Do not choose an unrelated trigger merely to bypass the error.

Continue with chat widget configuration, workflow setup and the B2B chat operations guide.

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