Zendesk Triggers vs Automations
One fires the instant something happens. The other fires because time passed. Nearly every Zendesk workflow question comes down to that.
Triggers: event-based
A trigger runs the moment a ticket is created or updated. If the conditions match, the actions run immediately.
Use a trigger for anything that should happen because someone did something: routing a new ticket to the right group, notifying the assignee of a customer reply, setting priority from a form field, or applying a tag based on the channel.
Triggers run in order, top to bottom, and they can fire each other. That ordering is the single most common source of "why did this ticket end up in the wrong group" confusion.
Automations: time-based
An automation runs on a schedule, roughly hourly, and acts on tickets that have been in a state for a period.
Use an automation for anything that should happen because nothing happened: closing a pending ticket after five days of silence, escalating a ticket untouched for eight hours, or reminding an assignee about an ageing ticket.
Automations need a condition that stops them re-firing forever, usually a tag or a status change. Without it you get the classic reminder loop that emails a customer every hour until somebody notices.
A quick decision rule
Three mistakes worth avoiding
Frequently asked questions
Can a Zendesk trigger merge tickets?+
No. Triggers act on one ticket and merging is a decision about the relationship between two, so it is outside what the rule engine can express.
How often do automations run?+
Approximately hourly, so treat them as "within the hour" rather than exact. Anything needing precise timing belongs in a trigger.
The workflow rules cannot build
Merging duplicates needs a live view of the whole open queue. That is what Ticket Merger adds alongside your triggers.
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