Overview
The Busy Message is an automated response sent when a customer sends an email with a new subject line while they already have an open conversation. This message informs the customer that their inquiry cannot be addressed separately until the current conversation is resolved.
This mechanism helps avoid duplicate or overlapping conversations, ensuring smoother handling by support teams.
When Is the Busy Message Triggered?
A Busy Message will be sent if all the following are true:
- A customer sends an email with a different subject line.
- An open conversation with the same customer already exists.
- The "Busy Message" field is configured with a message (i.e., not empty).
If the message box is left empty, the system will merge the new email into the existing conversation instead of sending a busy message.
How to Configure
- Navigate to the Channel Setup > Email Connect > Email Inbox > Busy Message Configuration section in your Admin Console.
- Enter the message you'd like to send in the text box provided (up to 400 characters).
- Click Save.
Benefits of Using a Busy Message
Here’s how enabling the Busy Message can improve your operations:
Streamlined Support Experience: Prevents customers from creating multiple tickets for unrelated or follow-up issues, reducing confusion.
Agent Efficiency: Helps agents focus on resolving one issue at a time, reducing context switching and workload fragmentation.
Cleaner Conversation History: Avoids merging unrelated issues under one thread, preserving clarity for both agents and customers.
Better Customer Guidance: Sets clear expectations for the customer and keeps communication focused on a single issue.
Reduced Duplication: Lowers the number of redundant or duplicate conversations in your support system.
Scenario
A customer named Sarah emails your support team:
- First Email (Subject: "Issue with Login") → A conversation is created.
- Before the issue is resolved, Sarah sends another email (Subject: "Payment Failed")
Case 1: Busy Message is Set
Configuration:
Busy Message:
"You already have an open request with us. Please reply to that email so we can help you faster."
What Happens:
- The system does not open a new conversation for “Payment Failed.”
- Instead, Sarah receives the Busy Message via email.
- Her “Payment Failed” message is not merged into the previous conversation.
- Agents will only see the original "Issue with Login" conversation.
Customer Experience:
Sarah sees an auto-reply saying she must reply to the ongoing thread.
Case 2: Busy Message is NOT Set (Field is empty)
What Happens:
- The system merges the “Payment Failed” email into the existing "Issue with Login" conversation.
- No new conversation is created.
- No auto-reply is sent to the customer.
- The subject line "Payment Failed" is not preserved—email contents are added to the original conversation thread.
Customer Experience:
Sarah sees no acknowledgment for her new message. From her point of view, both issues are combined under one conversation.
Summary Table
Behavior | Busy Message Set | Busy Message Not Set |
|---|
New conversation created? | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Auto-reply sent to customer? | ✅ Yes (with configured message) | ❌ No |
Email merged into existing convo? | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
Agent sees multiple topics? | ❌ No - Only the first topic is tracked | ✅ Yes - All emails merged into same conversation |
Useful when? | When agents need to resolve one issue at a time, clearly | When all customer input must be in one thread |