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Using Commslayer

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Using automations

Automations run actions on conversations based on rules you define. When something happens (a new conversation, a message), Commslayer checks your conditions and executes the actions. How automations work Each automation has three parts: - Event — What triggers the automation (new conversation, new message, etc.) - Conditions — What must be true for the automation to run (sender email contains "noreply", subject includes "refund", etc.) - Actions — What happens when conditions match (add label, assign agent, send reply, resolve) You can combine multiple conditions with AND/OR logic, and chain multiple actions together. Events - Conversation created — Runs when a new conversation comes in - Conversation updated — Runs when something changes (status, assignee, labels, etc.) - Conversation opened — Runs when a closed conversation is reopened - Message created — Runs when a new message is added to a conversation Conditions Set conditions based on: - Inbox — Which channel the conversation came from - Email subject — Text in the subject line - Message content — Text in the message body - Email address — Sender's email, including partial matches - Labels — Whether specific labels are present - Country — Customer's location - Status — Open, pending, snoozed, resolved - Assignee — Which agent (or no agent) is assigned - Shopify customer tags — Tags from your Shopify customer data - Shopify purchase history — Whether they've ordered before, total spend - Customer intent — Detected intent from AI Conditions support operators like "equals", "contains", "starts with", "is one of", and "is present/not present". Actions - Send message — Auto-reply to the customer - Add label — Tag the conversation - Remove label — Remove a tag - Assign agent — Route to a specific agent - Assign team — Route to a team - Change status — Set to open, pending, or snoozed - Resolve conversation — Close and skip CSAT survey - Change priority — Set urgency level - Send email to team — Notify team members via email - Send webhook — POST conversation data to an external URL Example: Auto-reply to new conversations Send an acknowledgment when customers reach out. - Event: Conversation created - Conditions: Inbox equals "Email Support" - Actions: Send message → "Thanks for reaching out. We'll get back to you within 24 hours." Example: Label conversations by content Tag refund requests automatically. - Event: Message created - Conditions: Message content contains "refund" OR "money back" - Actions: Add label → "Refund request" Example: Auto-resolve by sender Close automated notifications from no-reply addresses. - Event: Conversation created - Conditions: Email address contains "noreply@" OR Email address contains "no-reply@" - Actions: Resolve conversation Example: Auto-resolve by subject Skip order confirmation emails. - Event: Conversation created - Conditions: Email subject contains "Order confirmation" OR Email subject contains "Shipping notification" - Actions: Resolve conversation, Add label → "Auto-closed" Tips - Automations won't loop infinitely. If an automation changes something that triggers another automation, Commslayer limits executions to prevent runaway rules. - Test your conditions carefully. Use "contains" for partial matches, "equals" for exact matches. - Order matters when multiple automations could match the same conversation—they run in the order they were created.

Last updated on Feb 02, 2026

Spam management in Commslayer

How to manage the spam messages in Commslayer Managing spam effectively helps you maintain a clean inbox and focus only on relevant communications. Since email comes through your own email provider, Commslayer can't really delete these messages. Alternatively, there are two main approaches depending on what information you have about the spam messages. Case 1: When you know the exact email address or domain If you already know the sender’s email address or domain that should be treated as spam, you can automate the process to close these emails automatically. Steps: 1. Go to Settings > Automations > Add Automation Rule. 1. Identify the most common spam email address or domain you receive in your inbox. 2. Add this address or domain as a condition in your automation rule. 3. Set the action to automatically close the email. This ensures that any future emails from that address or domain will be handled without manual effort. Case 2: When you only know the typical content of the spam messages If the spam cannot be identified by sender address or domain, you can use the Spam Auto-label tool to filter it based on content. Note: this feature is available only for the basic and plus plans Steps: 1. Go to Settings > Labels. 2. Enable Auto-labels > Add auto-label 3. In the Prompt field, describe the type of emails that should be automatically labeled as spam (e.g., "emails offering fake giveaways" or "messages containing cryptocurrency scams"). 4. Save your settings. Once enabled, Commslayer’s AI will recognize similar spam patterns and automatically label these emails, making them easy to review or ignore. ✅ Tip: For best results, combine both methods—use automation rules for known addresses and auto-labeling for content-based spam—to keep your inbox completely organized. Troubleshooting Sometimes, legitimate emails may be incorrectly flagged as spam. Here’s how to handle these situations: - Review your automation rules: Check if the sender’s email or domain has been mistakenly included in the conditions. Remove or update the rule if necessary. - Refine your spam prompt: In the Spam Auto-label tool, adjust your prompt to be more specific. For example, instead of “emails about promotions,” you could specify “emails about cryptocurrency promotions from unknown senders.” - Whitelist important senders: Add trusted contacts or domains to a safe list within your settings to ensure they are never flagged as spam. By fine-tuning your rules and prompts, you can keep your inbox spam-free without missing important communications.

Last updated on Feb 02, 2026

Assigning tickets in Commslayer

Proper ticket assignment is key to having clear ownership, faster replies, and no "orphan" conversations. In Commslayer, there are two main ways to assign tickets to agents: 1. Manual Assignment 2. Auto-Assignment Both methods can be used together: manual assignment is the foundation, while auto-assignment helps you distribute new incoming tickets efficiently across your team. 1. Manual Assignment (Recommended Base Practice) Manual assignment is the first action an agent should take when they open a ticket. This ensures that every conversation has a clear owner from the very beginning. How to manually assign a ticket to yourself - Open the ticket you want to work on. - Go to the right sidebar menu. - Click on Assign agent. - Select your name from the list. Once assigned, you can reply and manage the ticket as the owner. What if I forget to assign the ticket? If an agent replies to a ticket that is still unassigned, Commslayer will automatically assign that ticket to the last person who responded. This means: - Ideally, you should always assign the ticket to yourself first. - If you forget, your reply will still create ownership: the ticket will be automatically assigned to you as soon as you respond. This behavior helps keep the queue clean and prevents tickets from staying unassigned after someone has already taken action on them. 2. Auto-Assignment of New Tickets If you want new incoming tickets to be distributed automatically among your agents, you can enable auto-assignment at the inbox level. How to enable auto-assignment 1. Go to Settings. 2. Click on Inboxes. 3. Select the inbox you want to configure. 4. Go to Agent Assignment. 5. Enable Auto-assignment. Once enabled, Commslayer will automatically assign new incoming tickets in that inbox to agents who: - Are collaborators of that inbox, and - Are online at that specific moment. Capacity limit: maximum number of conversations per agent To avoid overloading a single agent, you can configure a maximum number of active conversations that can be assigned to each agent. This acts as a capacity limit. - When an agent reaches this limit, they will temporarily stop receiving new auto-assigned tickets. - As they resolve, close, or otherwise reduce their active load, they will become eligible again for new auto-assigned tickets. The distribution logic is round robin, which means that Commslayer will assign new tickets in turns, cycling through the eligible agents one by one, instead of sending everything to the same person (as long as they are online and below their capacity). Practical Examples Let us assume: You have 4 agents assigned as collaborators in the same inbox. - Auto-assignment is enabled. - All other settings are standard. Scenario 1: 3 out of 4 agents are offline - Only 1 agent is currently online. Result: All new incoming tickets will be auto-assigned to the single online agent (until they reach their capacity limit, if set). Scenario 2: 2 agents online, 2 offline - 2 agents are online, 2 are offline. Result: New incoming tickets will be distributed between the 2 online agents according to the auto-assignment logic and their capacity limits. Offline agents are never included in auto-assignment, even if they are collaborators of the inbox. Important Note on Scope of Auto-Assignment When auto-assignment is enabled, it applies only to new incoming tickets; it is not retroactive. Any tickets that are already unassigned in your inbox will not be automatically distributed. To handle existing unassigned tickets, agents should use manual assignment (assign to themselves or colleagues). Frequently Asked Questions Can other agents see tickets that are assigned to me? Yes! Assigning a ticket to yourself does not make it private or hidden. All agents can see all tickets in the "All Conversations" view. Assignment is purely for tracking ownership and responsibility—it doesn't restrict visibility. If you want to see only your own tickets, use the "Mine" filter in the sidebar. But other team members can always find your tickets if they need to help out or take over. What does "Participants" mean? Participants are agents who want to be notified about updates to a ticket without being assigned to it. Use this when: - You want to stay in the loop on a conversation someone else is handling - Multiple people need visibility into a ticket's progress - A manager wants to monitor specific conversations Participants receive notifications but aren't responsible for responding. The assigned agent remains the owner. A colleague is out—can I reply to their assigned tickets? Absolutely. You can reply to any ticket regardless of who it's assigned to. When you reply: - The ticket will be reassigned to you automatically (since you were the last responder) - Or you can manually reassign it before replying using the dropdown next to the Send button This makes shift handoffs easy—just jump in and respond. Why are some tickets not appearing in my inbox? If tickets seem to be "missing," check these common causes: 1. AI agent filtering: Tickets being handled by the AI agent are filtered out of regular views. Find them under AI Agent → Pending in the sidebar. 2. View filters: Make sure you're in "All" status, not just "Open" or a custom filter. 3. Inbox selection: Check that you're viewing the correct inbox in the sidebar.

Last updated on Feb 02, 2026

Setting up a contact form

For setting up a contact form, there are two options: 1. Native Shopify “Contact us” form The standard contact form included with every Shopify theme sends each submission to your designated support address, where you can reply from your support inbox. How to setup the basic form Limitation: The form is basic and does not support advanced fields such as dropdowns or multi-step workflows. 2. Shopify Forms app connected through Flow If you require a more flexible form—such as a multi-step questionnaire for wholesale requests or warranty claims—use Shopify Forms and connect it to Commslayer with Shopify Flow. Submissions are delivered to the specified Commslayer inbox, with the customer shown as the sender, enabling direct replies. Sending Shopify Forms submissions to Commslayer Note: These instructions are for the Forms app, the native contact us page sends form submissions to your store email automatically. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsFsNy2ro_U 1. Create and test the form in the Shopify Forms app, submitting a test entry for use in Flow setup. 2. Create a new workflow. - Trigger: Metaobject entry created. The test submission should appear. - Action: Commslayer Helpdesk & Chat → Create a ticket. 3. Populate the “Initial note” field with the required variables, for example: {{metaobject.firstName}} {{metaobject.email}} {{metaobject.formSubmittedAt}} 4. Select the destination inbox by entering the email address of the appropriate Commslayer inbox. Save the Flow, submit another test entry, and confirm that the ticket is created as expected. For additional assistance, contact karri@commslayer.com

Last updated on Jan 27, 2026

Create a CSAT survey

Both the chat widget and email inboxes have the option to enable a Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) survey that will prompt the customer to leave a review of the customer service provided when a conversation is resolved. When CSAT is enabled and an agent resolves a conversation, then end customer will see the following button in the message: To enable CSAT in the Shopify chat widget go to Settings > Inboxes > Shopify chat widget > Configuration > Enable CSAT. To enable CSAT in the email inbox Settings > Inboxes > Email > CSAT.

Last updated on Jan 27, 2026

Tips and tricks (you didn't know about)

Commslayer has many undocumented quirks and features. Some are useful, some aren’t. But all are good to know! In this living document, I’ll walk you through some essential tricks: - Bulk editing tickets – how to select multiple tickets at once - Sorting & filtering conversation list - CMD + K opens the console - How to trigger automation based on the subject line or message content - My new agent can’t see any inboxes?! - How to add new views - How to mention other people on private note Bulk editing tickets – how to select multiple tickets at once This is a slightly unintuitive easter egg in the UI. https://youtu.be/UyYdAha2OV8?si=8CaDB4K5wYB7fbQy Sorting & filtering conversation list This little dropdown causes 20% of my support load. You can use it to switch between different ticket statuses (Open, Snoozed, Resolved, All, etc.). If you leave it on 'ALL', you'll see all your tickets on the conversation list. Remember to switch back to 'Open' to just see the new open conversations when you play around with it. CMD + K opens the console Makes switching between dark and light mode easy. How to trigger an automation based on the subject line or message content Many are using this to build spam filters as the app doesn't have a built-in spam folder. Switch the triggering event to "Message created" and you'll find the "Message content" option. My new agent can’t see any inboxes?! You need to add them to an inbox OR create a team and assign inboxes to that team. How to add new views Adding a new view is easy, but saving it isn't as intuitive. How to mention other people on private notes Just '@' them!

Last updated on Jan 27, 2026

How to work tickets efficiently in Commslayer

This article describes the recommended workflow to manage support tickets in Commslayer. When we designed the app, we built this workflow as a common denominator: it is a good compromise between the different needs and requests we received from merchants. You can adapt it slightly to your processes, but we suggest starting from this approach. 1. Set Up Your Inbox Tab Before you start replying, make sure your workspace is focused on what matters most. - Filter by Status: “Open” Go to your ticket list. Set the Status filter to Open. This view shows all conversations that still require an action from your team. - Sort by “Last activity” The most common and useful sorting option is Last activity, which considers the most recent interaction (customer or agent) on a ticket. In the Sort by dropdown, choose Last activity. Decide your preferred order: Oldest first: ideal if you want to ensure that nothing has been waiting too long. Newest first: ideal for teams that need to react quickly to the latest activity. You can switch between these two depending on your priorities (SLA, workload, escalation rules, etc.). 2. Start from Your Own Tickets: “Mine” Tab To ensure pending replies are handled first, start from the tickets that are already assigned to you. 1. Open the Mine Tab. 2. Keep the Status filter on Open. 3. Work through all the tickets that are in your Inbox and assigned to you. This ensures: - You clear all pending replies. - Customers who are already in conversation with you receive continuity in the interaction. Note: As soon as you reply to a conversation, Commslayer automatically assigns that conversation to you. That is why “Mine” is your primary working queue. 3. Pick Up New Work: “Unassigned” Tab Once you clear your personal inbox (all open tickets in Mine view): 1. Switch to the Unassigned tab. 2. Keep the Status filter on Open. 3. Work through the New tickets: - Pick a ticket. - Reply to the customer. - The ticket will automatically become assigned to you after your reply. This approach balances: - Taking care of ongoing conversations first. - Then, picking up new work from the shared pool. 4. What Should I Do After I Reply to the Customer? After you send a reply, you have two main options, depending on whether the issue is solved or not. 4.1 If your reply fully resolves the issue If you are confident the conversation is complete and no further action is needed: Click the Resolve button. Use this when: You have provided the final answer or fix. There is no reason to keep the ticket open or waiting. 4.2 If you are waiting for the customer’s answer If your reply moves the ball back to the customer’s side, but the ticket is not resolved yet: Snooze the ticket “until next customer reply.” We introduced this snooze option to simulate a “Pending” or “Waiting for customer reply” status. What happens then: The ticket is not in your active “Open” list anymore, so it does not clutter your queue. As soon as the customer replies, the conversation will automatically reappear in your Inbox as an Open ticket, ready for further action. 5. How to Review Snoozed or Resolved Tickets If you have any doubt about a conversation you just snoozed or resolved, or you want to double-check its status: 1. Change the Status filter: - From Open to Snoozed to see all conversations you are waiting on. - From Open to Resolved to see all completed conversations. 2. If you want to limit the view to your own tickets, stay in the Mine tab. This way you can: - Audit your recently resolved tickets. - Quickly re-open a conversation if needed. - Track what you are currently waiting for from customers. This workflow keeps your queue clean, ensures customers in ongoing conversations are prioritized, and provides a simple way to manage pending responses without losing track of anything.

Last updated on Feb 02, 2026