AI + Workflows

Hi all,I’ve been exploring automation features in Front and I’m curious how other teams balance automation with maintaining a personal customer experience.Automation definitely helps with:Faster response times Reducing manual workload Organizing conversations efficientlyBut at the same time, I’ve noticed that too much automation can sometimes feel less personal for customers.For example, I’ve seen workflows where:Auto-replies are sent instantly Conversations are routed automatically without reviewI’m wondering:How much automation do you currently use in your workflows? Have you ever reduced automation to improve customer experience? What’s your approach to keeping responses efficient but still personal?Would love to hear different perspectives and real examples!

Our company has been using Front for many years across nearly every department, including Support, Sales, Ops, Sales Support, and Finance. As we’ve grown more distributed, we are looking to move away from a "one-size-fits-all" business hours setting to get more accurate analytics and finally implement SLAs for all teams.We have a complex geographic footprint: Global Support: Distributed worldwide, providing near 24/7 coverage. Ops & Sales Support: Primarily U.S. East Coast (Mon–Fri, 8–5). Finance: Based in Europe, operating on a completely different workday. After looking into Front’s documentation, I see there are a few ways to structure this (Workspace-level vs. Inbox-level hours), but I’m wary of the trade-offs.I’m curious to hear from other global teams: which of these approaches have you implemented, and what worked best? Option A: Multiple Workspaces (e.g., a "Europe Workspace" and a "US Workspace"). Concern: Does this silo the teams too much and make cross-departmental

Hi everyone,I was wondering if anyone has set up a rule that automatically takes tickets that have been in a “Waiting” status for a certain period of time and sends an automated response like:“Closing the loop here as we haven’t heard back from you. Please feel free to reach out if you have any additional information.”Then moves the ticket to a resolved status.Tried creating this ( see below) but for some reason when I test conversation for this rule, Front gives me a warning message saying “Condition isn’t supported for testing”. If anyone has any idea why this is happening, it’ll be super helpful!Thanks!! 

We've revamped the Connectors Academy course to reflect all the recent improvements to the no-code framework—and this time, you'll build something you can actually use right away.The updated course walks you through building a Connector with Asana that lets teammates create a new task in Asana directly from Front. Along the way, you'll learn how to:Chain multiple app requests together to pull in workspaces, projects, and tasks from Asana Build dynamic dropdown menus that let teammates select the right project, task, or any other context—adaptable to any use case, like selecting the correct order for a customer! Use pagination and other new Connector features recently added to the platform Arrange complex logic visually in the flow builder, including using app request nodes to perform external actions without writing that logic inside a dynamic variableHead over to the course to access the new example, or view the full learning path if you’re new to Connectors.

Hello Front Community! 👋 I'm Greg, Front's Director of Corporate IT & Enterprise Security, and I'm thrilled to share how our team is leveraging Front to revolutionize our internal IT support. It's been a while since my last update, and with all the exciting product enhancements over the last year, I couldn't wait to give you a fresh perspective on our journey.Some of these features that I am going to talk about are in beta, so contact your Front account team or our Support team should you have any questions or want to try them out yourself! Quick Snapshot of Our IT LandscapeOur mighty team of five handled an average of 120 tickets per month in 2024. We're proud to report an average ticket resolution time of just 1 hour and 15 minutes, often wrapping things up in two replies or fewer. (Thanks to our shiny new resolution report for this insight!) We've built a robust tech ecosystem with Okta (identity provider), Okta Workflows (integration platform), BlueTally (asset management), an

Hi everyone,I manage a shared inbox environment where multiple team members handle a fairly high volume of operational emails from different regions. One workflow that has helped us a lot in Front is combining Rules + Tags + Assignments to keep things organized and avoid overlap.Here’s how we structured it:• Automatic tagging by keywords or sender domain – For example, emails from certain partner domains automatically receive tags like Vendor, Logistics, or Client Support.• Rules to assign conversations – Based on the tag or email subject pattern, the message gets automatically assigned to the responsible team or teammate.• Status visibility using tags – We also use tags such as Pending Vendor, Internal Review, or Waiting for Customer so anyone opening the conversation can quickly understand where things stand.This helped us reduce duplicate replies and improved response time since messages are already routed to the right person when they arrive.Curious how other teams structure their

Integrate Google Sheets into Front in 3 simple steps: Step 1: Open your Google Sheet normally and Copy the url. Step 2: Create a new App, add a name and an Icon you can easily recognize: Step 3: Add the Sidebar plugin feature to your app and paste the url from Step 1: You’re all set! 😃 Go to your inbox and open your new plugin: No more switching back and forth to copy or paste information!

If you’re having trouble getting up to speed with Connectors, you can now submit your feedback directly in Front.  You should see a Share feedback option when using the Send app request node and other Connector options in your rules, macros, and other workflows. We look forward to hearing from you! 

One approach that worked well for us when routing conversations automatically was combining multiple rule conditions instead of relying on a single trigger.For example, instead of routing only based on the recipient inbox, we built rules that check:• Sender domain (partner/vendor/client)• Keywords in the subject line• Whether the email came through a specific shared inbox• Presence of certain tagsThis allows Front to route conversations much more accurately. A typical rule for us looks something like:IF:– Email received in Support inbox– Subject contains a keyword like “invoice” or “billing”THEN:– Add tag Billing– Assign to Finance queue– Set a reminder if no reply within 24 hoursWe also make sure automation only assigns if the conversation is unassigned, which prevents rules from overriding manual assignments.One thing that helped long term was documenting our rules because once you have many automations running, it can get difficult to track which rule is triggering.Curious if anyone

I am wondering if anyone has found an easier way to navigate through the Auto-Created Customer Contacts? At this point, the only option I am seeing is to scroll from top to bottom. Is there currently a more efficient way to search through this list, aside from exporting and filtering?

If you’ve been using Connectors or are curious about incorporating them into your Front workflows, we’re looking to partner closely with a few customers to help you adopt them or take your existing usage to the next level. We’d also like to hear about what improvements we could make. Interested? Become one of our design partners: 

Connectors allow you to supercharge your macros with dropdown menus powered by API results. This means that Front teammates can select from a dynamic list of items populated from an external service, such as contacts from a CRM or goods from an inventory management system.  When your teammates open the dropdown menu in the macro to select the item they want to view or update in the macro, they might be confronted with a long list of results, making it hard to find the correct item. To solve this, add search and pagination parameters to your app requests. Search parameters allow teammates to search only for the items they’re interested in, filtering down the total results. Pagination parameters automatically add scrolling to the list, pulling in more results as your teammates your mouse down reviewing results. Video walkthroughThis example video explains how to add search and pagination parameters to an app request that searches for charges in Stripe. For more details about connecting w

Integrate Google Scheduler into Front in 3 simple steps: Step 1: From your Booking Page Sharing Options copy the src url form the Website embed tab (Inline Booking page):  Step 2: Create a new App, add a name and an Icon you can easily recognize: Step 3: Add the Sidebar plugin feature to your app and paste the src url from Step 1:  You’re all set! 😃 Go to your inbox and open your new plugin: 

Integrate Calendly into Front in 3 simple steps: Step 1: From Calendly Scheduling links, click on Copy link. Step 2: Create a new App, add a name and an Icon you can easily recognize: Step 3: Add the Sidebar plugin feature to your app and paste the link from Step 1: You’re all set! 😃 Go to your inbox and open your new plugin: 

Integrate AirTable into Front in 3 simple steps: Step 1: From your table sharing options, go to Embed this base and copy the src url. Step 2: Create a new App, add a name and an Icon you can easily recognize: Step 3: Add the Sidebar plugin feature to your app and paste the url from Step 1: You’re all set! 😃 Go to your inbox and open your new plugin: 

HI! Is it possible to upload an Excel file that shows our transit time for delivery lanes into Front Knowledge base and then have that information auto-populate/suggest response into an email response based on the email containing “transit time”? 

What we covered: We walked through how to build a Connector that lets your teammates update Salesforce objects—like opportunities, cases, and contacts—directly from Front conversations, no code required. Resources:Workshop Recording (starts at 3:50) - Watch the session to learn how to set up your Salesforce Connector in just 10-15 minutes  Front Academy: API Fundamentals Course - Learn API basics like requests, responses, authentication, and how to read the docs Front Community - Explore more Connector examples and join our Connectors group to share what you're building and get help from other users Salesforce API Documentation - Reference for all available Salesforce API endpoints. Endpoints (called "app requests" in the Front Connector framework) used in the workshop include Execute SOQL query, Describe object, and Update record. If you have any questions as you continue building, drop them in the comments below. We're here to help!Looking for more Connectors workshops? Register for

Hi everyone,I'm currently setting up Front for a Manufacturer's Rep agency in the HVAC/Plumbing industry. We have a specific workflow where "Stocking Orders" (POs over $25,000) need to be routed differently than standard daily orders.The challenge is that the dollar amount is usually located inside the attached PDF Purchase Order, not in the email body.Has anyone found a workaround for routing rules based on text/numbers inside an attachment? Or is the best practice to train our vendors to put "$25k" in the subject line so Front's rules can catch it?Thanks!

Hello,I would like to share my wish to have an “ALL” tab within every Tag.Currently when within a tag you have to look in Open, Snoozed, Archived, Trash or Spam. It would be amazing to have an “ALL” tab where everything is listed.  It would save a lot of time when looking for something to go to “all” rather than each tab.Perhaps a new year’s wish will come true  ;)   

Join Front’s community team for three hands-on Connectors workshops in January! Follow along as we automate workflows between Front and your 3rd-party tools. January 15: Salesforce <> Front workflows: Use Connectors to update Salesforce objects directly from your inbox. January 22: HubSpot <> Front workflows: Use Connectors to easily manage customer data in HubSpot. January 29: Jira <> Front workflows: Use Connectors to create Jira tickets from Front with just a few clicks. Register nowCan’t make it? No problem! Join the community group to access self-paced examples and view the workshop videos later. Note: To access Front pre-built Connectors, you must be on the Professional plan or above.

We recently launched a detailed video explaining how to set up a macro leveraging Connectors to process Stripe refunds for customers. This week, we expand upon that video with a useful tip for filtering your list of customers using an email address.Hope you enjoy!Video tutorial: Want to learn more about Connectors?Check out these resources:Connectors space on the Community Help Center: Understanding Connectors Developer Portal: Connectors Documentation Academy Course—Unfamiliar with APIs? Start here!This example is just one way to harness the power of Front Connectors to streamline your workflows and improve efficiency. We can’t wait to see what you’ll build! Stay tuned for more examples and happy building!

One of the actions inside a rule is to send an email. You can send multiple people each the email of course. What would be great is to send a person an email and cc another person along with it. I use a template email inside a rule, and having to send two or three people the email seems clunky. 

Hey Front community!We’re thrilled to showcase a new example of leveraging Front Connectors to process refunds in Stripe directly from your Front inbox. The best part is, the full walkthrough takes less than 15 minutes and there is no coding required! This setup involves just 3 app requests and 1 macro, allowing teammates to easily select the customer, the payment to apply the refund to, and the amount to refund. Teammates will also see a confirmation message once the refund has been successfully processed in Stripe.  Pre-requisites:Before diving in, make sure you’ve done the following in Stripe:Have access to your Stripe dashboard We recommend switching to your sandbox for testing Within your sandbox, you’ll want to add customers and invoices with payments charged via test credit cards so that the Front Connectors have access to usable data. You can do this in the dashboard; no coding required. Make note of your API keys for the sandbox environment (you can switch to a production key