About the Waiting Sort

The column Waiting in the folder views aims to give you a quick and accurate read out of how long customers have been waiting for a reply. In most folders across the app, Waiting is the default sort option.

Waiting in Help Scout works a little differently than what you might find in other help desks or email clients, as they often work on a last updated principle. This article will help you understand how Waiting works.

How Waiting Works

The Waiting timestamp only changes when a new thread (a customer or User reply) is added to a conversation. Waiting only applies to Active and Pending conversations. Conversations are automatically sorted in folders by how long customers have been waiting for a reply unless you change the default sort.

Here’s how it works:

Waiting is shown in all top level folders (except for Drafts) as well as custom folders. You'll also see Waiting in reporting drill down modals.
Waiting displays the most recent reply, from a customer or a User. Notes added by Users do not impact Waiting.
When a customer creates a new conversation, and no Users have replied, the Waiting time shows when the conversation was created.
If a customer sends more than 1 message in a row, Waiting will show the oldest timestamp belonging to the first message from the customer.
Waiting only applies to Active or Pending conversations. If a conversation is Closed, the customer is no longer considered to be waiting for a reply.
Workflows that send an email to a customer will update the Waiting time. For example, a workflow sends an email to the customer, changing the status to Active (or Pending). The Waiting time will update, showing when the workflow sent the email.

Waiting and Closed Conversations

In the Closed folder, the Waiting column changes to a Closed column. If a conversation is Closed, the customer is no longer waiting for a reply. The timestamp in the Closed column displays the time the conversation was closed.
Workflow-based folders that display Closed conversations will also show the time when a conversation was marked as Closed.

Drafts

The Drafts folder uses a Last Updated timestamp, as that is showing when the draft was updated.