Auto-Delay Settings in Smart Support

Smart Support lets you auto-delay support tickets in WordPress when they remain inactive for a configurable period.

Instead of immediately closing an inactive customer request, the Auto-Delay feature changes eligible open tickets to a Delayed state. This gives support agents a clear way to identify inactive requests that may require follow-up while keeping them separate from actively progressing tickets.

Access the Auto-Delay Settings

From your WordPress dashboard, go to: Smart Support → Settings → General → Auto-Delay Settings

From this screen, you can enable automatic ticket delays, configure the inactivity period, and manually run the auto-delay process.

Automatically Delay Inactive Tickets

Enable Automatically set tickets to “Delayed” after period of inactivity to let Smart Support monitor open tickets and change eligible inactive requests to the Delayed state.

When enabled:

• Inactive open tickets are evaluated against your configured delay period.
• Eligible tickets are moved from Open to Delayed.
• Delayed requests remain available for further customer or agent activity.

When disabled, tickets remain open until their state is changed manually or another applicable ticket workflow takes action.

Which Tickets Can Be Auto-Delayed?

The built-in Auto-Delay feature applies to tickets in the Open state.

This means Smart Support can distinguish between actively open requests and tickets that have remained idle long enough to require attention.

Using a separate Delayed state can make a busy WordPress support ticket system easier to manage because agents can identify inactive requests without treating them as resolved.

Set the Auto-Delay Period

Enter the number of inactive days that should pass before an eligible support ticket moves to Delayed.

For example: Auto-Delay Days: 7

With this setting, an eligible open ticket that remains inactive for seven days can automatically move to the Delayed state.

Choose a delay period based on your normal support response cycle and how quickly you want inactive customer requests highlighted.

What Happens to a Delayed Ticket?

A delayed ticket is not the same as a closed ticket.

The Delayed state indicates that the request has been inactive, but the support conversation can still continue.

Customers can continue interacting with eligible delayed tickets, and current Smart Support behavior can return a delayed ticket to an active workflow when new public agent activity occurs.

This allows your team to auto-delay support tickets in WordPress without prematurely treating unresolved requests as completed.

Run Auto-Delay Manually

Click Run Auto-Delay Now to immediately check your existing open tickets against the configured inactivity period.

Smart Support will update eligible tickets to the Delayed state.

Manual processing is useful when:

• Testing Auto-Delay settings.
• Applying a newly configured inactivity period.
• Reviewing an older ticket queue.
• Immediately identifying inactive support requests.

Tickets that do not meet the configured conditions remain unchanged.

Use Email Notifications With Auto-Delay

Smart Support includes configurable customer and agent email notifications for important ticket events, including delayed tickets.

Combining Auto-Delay with email notifications helps make sure users know when a request changes state.

Depending on your support workflow, delayed-ticket notifications can encourage customers to return to an inactive conversation before the ticket eventually qualifies for closure.

Choosing an Auto-Delay Period

There is no single delay period that works for every support team.

A shorter period may be useful when:

• Your support team normally resolves requests quickly.
• Customer responses are expected within a few days.
• You want inactive tickets highlighted early.

A longer period may be better when:

• Customers often need additional time to test solutions.
• Tickets involve complex troubleshooting.
• Your organization has longer customer communication cycles.

The goal is to make inactivity visible without creating unnecessary state changes.

Recommended Ticket Automation Workflow

A practical Smart Support workflow might be:

1. Keep new and active requests in Open status.
2. Auto-delay support tickets in WordPress after an appropriate period of inactivity.
3. Use delayed-ticket notifications to encourage follow-up.
4. Auto-close eligible tickets after a longer inactivity period.
5. Archive older closed tickets to keep normal ticket lists clean.

This creates a structured ticket lifecycle while reducing repetitive administrative work for support agents.

After configuring your Auto-Delay options, click Save Changes.

Smart Support will then automatically monitor eligible open support tickets and move inactive requests to the Delayed state according to your selected period.