Macros

What it is for

A macro does several things to a case in one press: the steps your team takes every time a refund is approved, or a case waits on the bank. A macro may do any of these:

• Put a reply in the reply box — with the same fill-ins as a saved reply ({{customer_first_name}}, {{agent_name}}, {{case_number}}), filled in the same way. A macro never sends anything. The reply waits in the box for you to read, change and send, as any reply.
• Set the status (new, open, pending or closed) and the priority (low, normal, high or urgent).
• Give the case to somebody: whoever runs the macro, nobody, or one named member.
• Add an internal note, written as you. The customer never sees it.

Where it is

• Settings › Macros (/settings/macros) lists the organization's macros, each with what it does. Every member reads it.
• On every case, above the reply box, beside Knowledge and Saved replies: Macros. The list shows each macro and what it does; the whole row is the button.

Who may do what

• Making, changing and removing a macro: whoever may keep the organization's saved replies (the permission "change or remove anyone's saved replies" — an Owner or an Administrator, and a role of your own given it). Everybody else reads the list and is told who keeps it.
• Running a macro is working the case: whoever may work cases, on a case their role may change (the same as the case page's Status, Priority and Owner controls).

Making one

1. Open Settings › Macros and press New macro.
2. Title: what your team will look for, up to 120 characters ("Refund approved"). Two macros cannot share a title.
3. Fill in any of Reply to put in the box, Status, Priority, Owner and Internal note. Each left as "Leave as it is" (or empty) is a step the macro does not take. A macro does at least one thing.
4. Press Save the macro.

Choosing a named member for Owner keeps that member: if they leave the organization, the macro says "gives the case to a member who has left", and running it is refused until somebody changes it.

Running one

On a case, press Macros, then the macro. ContactRoll then, in one go:

1. writes the note (as you),
2. sets the priority, then the status,
3. gives the case to its new owner last — so a macro that hands a case on can take it out of your own sight, as the Owner list can;
4. puts the reply in the box, with the customer's first name, your name and the case's number filled in where they are known; a fill-in with nothing to fill it stays spelled out, as in a saved reply.

The page says what it did: "Ran "{macro}": a note added, priority high and status pending. Its reply is in the box below, to read and send."

All or nothing. Before anything is changed, ContactRoll checks every step: that you may work this case, that you may write notes if the macro adds one, that its named member is still here. If any step cannot be done, nothing is done, and the list says why where you pressed: ""{macro}" was not run, and nothing of it was done: {reason}".

On the timeline

Each run is one entry on the case's timeline (and the customer's): "Ran the macro "{macro}": …", by whoever ran it. Each change it made says so too — the status's, the priority's and the owner's entries end "· by the macro "{macro}"". The note is a note, by whoever ran it.