We’re running Service Hub Pro with an active support portal and ticketing.
I’m trying to set up an automated response in HubSpot that fires specifically when a contact replies to a ticket that’s already been closed (status: Done). I already have an email that triggers telling customers when a ticket is closed and to open a new ticket for new issues, but they ignore it and reply to the closed ticket anyway, which reopens it and forces us to manually split it into a new ticket.
Here’s what I want to happen: When a contact replies to a closed ticket thread, they automatically receive an email telling them the ticket is closed and directing them to open a new ticket through our support portal.
What I know so far: HubSpot’s documentation states that if I turn on “A customer replies to an email” and a contact then replies to an existing thread on a ticket, the ticket’s status is automatically updated to the first open status in the pipeline. Set up pipeline automations for objects (#7 under Automate actions based on ticket status)
Based on this, it looks like the ideal approach is probably:
- Make the first open status in my pipeline something specific like “Replied After Close”
- Build an automation that fires when a ticket enters that status and sends the email
My concern: Even though this is the direction I’m leaning, this doesn’t look like it would work the way I want it to. The documentation says, “the ticket status will change when a contact replies to the same thread the ticket was created on. If the ticket was closed and then reopened, any new threads on the ticket will also update the ticket status.”
My question: Does the “first open status” rule apply only to closed ticket replies, or would it also affect tickets in other open statuses (like “In Progress”) if a contact replies to those as well? We actively email to and from tickets. I don’t want every customer reply to move the ticket from “In Progress” to “Replied After Close” and send an email telling them it’s closed. Based on what I’m seeing, I’m afraid that’s what would happen. Can anybody confirm whether or not this is the case? If it is, can anybody offer any solutions for my situation?
Hey @JasonCer,
Thanks for posting in the Community!
To my understanding, and based on the knowledge base article you’ve linked, the “first open status” rule would apply to all tickets in the open statuses. So your concern is valid.
I’d like to tag in some Community experts here to see what they might suggest in terms of best practices getting this set up in a way that might achieve your goal. @karstenkoehler , @RomyFuchs1, and @HFisher7 - any thoughts on how @JasonCer might be able to force customers replying to closed tickets to open a new ticket?
Shane, Senior Community Moderator
@JasonCer - I’d use a custom workflow to send the ‘This ticket is closed please open a new one’ email, over the pipeline rule.
You could use the same trigger as the pipeline rule automation uses:
But add in a custom action to send your email, without rolling the pipeline status back.
You could even go one step further and add a ‘Copy ticket’ step in there to create a new ticket and link that / explain that in the email too.
Hi @JasonCer,
The “first open status” behavior only applies when a customer replies to a tracked ticket thread that is currently in a closed status. So if a ticket is already in an open stage like “In Progress,” a customer reply will not move it to your custom “Replied After Close” status. It only reopens tickets that are considered closed.
So your proposed setup actually makes sense; the main thing to watch for, however, is operationally what happens after that. Some teams leave those tickets there for review, while others automatically re-close them after sending the email if no agent action is needed.
Honestly, this is a pretty common support workflow issue in HubSpot, especially for teams trying to prevent ticket-thread sprawl. A lot of companies end up needing custom lifecycle logic around reopened tickets because the native behavior is a bit basic out of the box.
If you’re ever reviewing or cleaning up your Service Hub workflows more broadly, it can help to get a second set of eyes on the setup. The team at WebGuruz Technologies works with HubSpot support automation quite a bit and can usually spot small workflow improvements that save teams a lot of manual work later on.
