Bump, bump, solve: the Zendesk automation we set up on almost every build

Zendesk

2 friendly reminders while a ticket waits on the customer, then a polite close. It isn't clever. It's the reason your Pending view and your backlog number start meaning something again.

Last updated October 11, 2026. Zendesk behavior verified against Zendesk documentation October 8, 2026.

Smart Instinct is a helpdesk implementation and AI agent setup agency and a Zendesk Advanced Partner. The automation we recommend most often is also the least exciting one we build. It won't impress anyone in a demo. It just stops your Pending view from turning into a museum. We call it bump, bump, solve.

What is bump, bump, solve?

When a ticket is waiting on the customer, it sends a friendly follow-up at 24 hours. Another goes out at 48 hours. On the third pass, the customer is told the ticket will close for inactivity, and it is solved.

That's the whole thing: tags and automations. Nothing clever.

Why does it matter more than it looks?

• Zendesk documents a Bump-Bump-Solve recipe specifically to clean up outdated, dormant Pending tickets.
• Automations can remind the requester that you are still waiting on a reply.
• After the reminders, the ticket can be solved automatically if the customer never responds.
• Agents no longer have to chase those Pending tickets by hand (Zendesk: "You no longer have to manually manage these Pending tickets that don't receive a response.").

How do you build it in Zendesk?

Zendesk automations are time-based business rules that check tickets every hour. Zendesk's own documentation describes the pieces:

• Zendesk ships a standard automation called "Pending notification 24 hours" that is inactive at signup. Check whether yours is still off.
• Use the Hours since status category Pending condition with greater than, not is. Zendesk recommends greater than because automations run hourly and can miss an exact hour.
• Every automation that uses greater than needs a nullifying condition. The usual pattern is a tag: the automation checks the tag is absent, then adds it when it fires, so it only fires once per ticket.
• Zendesk publishes a workflow recipe with the same 3-step shape (bump, bump, solve), using longer intervals of 4, 6 and 7 days. Pick the interval that fits your customers. We usually start at 24 and 48 hours.

A typical setup:

1. Bump 1: status category is Pending, hours since Pending greater than 24, tags contain none of bump1. Actions: add bump1, email the requester.
2. Bump 2: status category is Pending, hours since Pending greater than 48, tags contain bump1 and none of bump2. Actions: add bump2, email the requester.
3. Solve: status category is Pending, tags contain bump2, enough time has passed since the last update. Actions: email the requester that the ticket is closing for inactivity, set status to Solved.
4. Cleanup trigger: when the requester replies, remove the bump tags so the sequence resets.

What makes it work?

Two rules:

1. The messages sound like a person, not a legal notice.
2. Any reply from the customer takes the ticket out of the sequence, so nobody gets closed out mid-conversation.

Who should use it, and who should not?

Use it if:

• Your Pending view is full of tickets nobody has touched in weeks.
• Agents send manual follow-ups on waiting tickets.

Think twice if:

• You run support through messaging. Zendesk notes that messaging has its own inactivity reminders, which may fit better.
• Your tickets wait on long external processes, like warranty claims. Those belong in On-hold, not Pending (On-hold is optional in Zendesk, so an admin has to activate it first).

FAQ

What is a bump automation in Zendesk?

An automation that emails the requester when a ticket has been Pending for a set time, so the customer is reminded to reply.

Does Zendesk have a built-in pending reminder?

Yes. Zendesk ships a "Pending notification 24 hours" automation that is inactive at signup.

Why use "greater than" instead of "is" in Zendesk automations?

Zendesk recommends it because automations run hourly and can miss an exact time window.

How do I stop an automation firing twice on the same ticket?

Add a nullifying condition, usually a tag that the automation checks for and then adds.

What happens if the customer replies after a bump?

With a cleanup trigger, the reply reopens the ticket and removes the bump tags so the sequence starts over.

Verified against

Checked October 8, 2026:

• Zendesk, "About the standard Support automations"
• Zendesk, "Workflow recipe: Sending automated ticket reminders to customers"
• Zendesk, "Using the Hours since condition in automations"
• Zendesk, "Workflow: How to solve a ticket automatically after a certain amount of time"
• Zendesk, "Sending conversation inactivity reminders to end users"

If your Pending view needs more than one automation, the audit is the simplest next step: smartinstinct.com/audit