If you’re tired of spending your days clicking the same buttons, copy-pasting info, or chasing tickets that should’ve moved themselves, this guide’s for you. Whether you’re the person cleaning up support tickets, managing sales pipelines, or just want more time for real work, setting up workflow automations in Freshworks can genuinely help—if you skip the fluff and keep it practical.
Below, I’ll walk you through how to actually use Freshworks automation tools, where they work best (and where they don’t), and how to avoid common rookie mistakes. No hype, just useful steps.
Why Automate in Freshworks? (And What to Ignore)
Freshworks has built-in automation tools across its products—like Freshdesk, Freshsales, and others. These can automatically update ticket statuses, assign tasks, send canned replies, or even escalate stuff when someone drops the ball. Done right, automations clear your plate so you can focus on problems that need a real human.
But let’s get this out of the way:
- Automations aren’t magic. They’re only as good as the rules you set up.
- Don’t automate chaos. If your underlying process is broken, automating it just makes the mess faster.
- Start simple. It’s tempting to automate everything. Don’t. Pick the top 1-2 repetitive tasks first.
Step 1: Identify Your Biggest Time Wasters
Before you touch Freshworks, figure out what you actually want to automate. Look for tasks that:
- Happen often (daily or weekly)
- Don’t really need human judgment (e.g., assigning tickets, sending reminders)
- Slow you or your team down
Examples: - Assigning new support tickets to the right team based on keywords or product. - Sending a follow-up email to leads who haven’t replied in 3 days. - Closing tickets that have been “waiting for customer” for over a week.
Pro Tip:
Ask your team what they hate doing the most. Chances are, that’s what you should automate first.
Step 2: Get Familiar With Freshworks Automation Features
Depending on what Freshworks product you’re using, you’ll see different automation options:
- Freshdesk (Support): “Automations” (for tickets)
- Freshsales (CRM): “Workflows”
- Freshservice (ITSM): “Workflow Automator”
They’re all basically rule-based: If this happens, then do that.
Types of automations you’ll find: - Trigger-based: Kick in when something happens (e.g., a new ticket arrives). - Time-based: Run on a schedule (e.g., check for stale tickets every night). - Manual: Run when you hit a button (less common, but handy for batch tasks).
What’s worth your time:
Start with trigger-based automations—they’re the easiest to set up and show value fast.
Step 3: Plan Your First Automation (Don’t Overthink It)
Let’s say you want to auto-assign incoming support tickets based on their subject line. Here’s how to break it down before you build:
- Trigger: New ticket created
- Condition: Subject contains “billing”, “invoice”, or “payment”
- Action: Assign ticket to the Billing team
Write it out in plain English first. If it sounds confusing, it’ll be a pain to maintain later.
Tip:
Don’t chain too many actions together in one rule. If you need lots of “if this, then that, but only if…”—split it into smaller automations.
Step 4: Set Up the Automation in Freshworks
Here’s how to do it (using Freshdesk as a concrete example, but the steps are similar in other Freshworks tools):
1. Log in and Go to Admin Settings
- Look for the “Admin” or “Settings” gear icon in Freshdesk.
- Find “Automations” or “Workflows.” In Freshdesk, it’s usually under “Admin > Automations > Ticket Creation.”
2. Create a New Rule
- Click “New Rule” or “Add Rule.”
- Give it a name you’ll recognize later (e.g., “Assign Billing Tickets to Billing Team”).
3. Define Your Trigger
- Set the rule to fire “When a ticket is created.”
4. Add Your Conditions
- Add a condition like: “Subject contains any of [billing, invoice, payment]”
- You can stack conditions (e.g., only for tickets from certain email addresses), but again—keep it simple.
5. Set the Actions
- Choose “Assign to group” and pick the Billing team.
- Optionally, set priority, add a tag, or email someone.
6. Save and Enable
- Double-check your rule, then save and enable it.
7. Test It
- Submit a test ticket with “Invoice issue” in the subject. See if it lands in the Billing team’s queue.
- If it doesn’t, tweak the rule. Most problems are typos or missing conditions.
What to Watch Out For: - Automations run in order. If two rules overlap, the first one might “catch” the ticket before the second gets a chance. - Don’t set rules that fight each other (e.g., two different assignments for the same ticket).
Step 5: Monitor and Tweak
Automations aren’t “set and forget.” Things change—new products, new teams, different ways people write tickets.
- Check automation logs (usually under “Automations” or “Audit Logs”) to see what ran and why.
- Ask for feedback from the people on the receiving end. If automations are dumping junk on the wrong team, fix it.
- Update rules as your process changes. Delete ones you don’t need. (Stale automations are a hidden time waster.)
Pro Tip:
Set a reminder to review automations every quarter. You’d be surprised how fast things drift.
Common Automation Pitfalls (And How to Dodge Them)
- Overcomplicating things: If you need a flowchart to explain your rule, it’s too complex.
- Automating broken processes: If something’s not working, fix the underlying process first.
- Ignoring exceptions: There will always be weird cases. Build for the 80%, handle the rest manually.
- Not communicating changes: If you set up a new automation, tell your team. Otherwise, people get confused when things move by themselves.
Advanced: Chaining Automations and Integrations
Once you’re comfortable, you can start linking automations together, or even connecting Freshworks to other tools (like Slack, Google Sheets, or your internal database).
- Webhooks: Some Freshworks products let you trigger external actions via webhooks. Handy, but not beginner-friendly.
- Marketplace apps: Check if there’s a prebuilt integration before you try to roll your own.
Honest opinion:
Unless you have a clear, ongoing need (and someone technical on hand), stick to what’s built in. Custom scripts and integrations can break after updates and eat up more time than they save.
Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Automating repetitive work in Freshworks can genuinely save you hours—if you keep it practical and maintainable. Start with your top pain points, build one simple automation at a time, and check them regularly. The real trick is to solve today’s problems, not to build a Rube Goldberg machine for every “what if.”
As with most things in ops and support, the simplest solution is usually the best. Automate the boring stuff, keep an eye on it, and move on to bigger things.