Alert When SLA Targets are Missed

Catch SLA breaches before they happen—not after.

Nora monitors Zendesk tickets, calculates time-to-response and resolution SLAs, alerts team members when a ticket is at risk of missing the target, and escalates if the deadline passes.

Every 15 minutes, Nora queries Zendesk for open tickets and checks the SLA policies attached to them. It calculates the time remaining until the next deadline, such as a first response or full resolution. If a ticket is within 30 minutes of breaching its target, Nora sends a direct Slack message to the assigned agent. If a deadline passes without action, Nora escalates the ticket by posting in a manager's Slack channel and optionally reassigning the ticket to a triage queue.

Support leads stop manually refreshing ticket views to spot aging requests. They review the escalated tickets Nora flags, manage the complex cases that missed their window, and handle exceptions. The team relies on the alerts to prioritize their immediate work rather than calculating time limits themselves.

Runs every 15 minutes, checks all open tickets using Zendesk and Slack, run by your Customer Support.

How it works

1. Query open tickets — Nora requests a list of open and pending tickets from Zendesk on a 15-minute schedule, filtering out resolved or closed cases.
2. Check SLA policies — Nora reads the SLA targets applied to each ticket, identifying the exact deadlines for first response and full resolution based on priority and ticket type.
3. Calculate remaining time — Nora compares the current time against the SLA deadlines to determine how many minutes remain before a breach occurs.
4. Alert assigned agents — When a ticket is 30 minutes or less from its deadline, Nora sends a Slack direct message to the assigned agent detailing the ticket ID and time left.
5. Handle unassigned tickets — If a ticket nearing its SLA deadline has no assigned agent, Nora routes the Slack alert to a designated triage channel or the default team lead.
6. Escalate missed targets — If a deadline passes without a response, Nora adds an internal note to the Zendesk ticket and sends an escalation message to the support manager in Slack.

What this replaces

Support leads keep a Zendesk view open, sorting by longest wait time or next SLA breach. They refresh the list throughout the day, manually pinging agents in Slack when a ticket gets close to its limit, and reassigning tickets when an agent misses a deadline.

• Refresh Zendesk SLA views to find aging tickets
• Cross-reference ticket assignees with Slack status
• Draft and send warning messages to individual agents
• Manually reassign breached tickets to active agents

Rough estimate rather than a measured figure: about 45 minutes a day, assuming 15-20 SLA checks per shift taking 2-3 minutes each to locate the ticket and message the agent.

What it needs to run

Accounts and plans

• Zendesk account with API access enabled
• Slack workspace with permissions to install applications

Access it asks for

• Zendesk API Token - required to search tickets, read SLA data, and add internal notes
• Slack chat:write - required to send warning and escalation messages to channels and DMs
• Slack users:read - required to match Zendesk assignees to Slack users

What Nora reads

• Zendesk open ticket statuses, assignees, and SLA deadlines
• Slack user directories to map agent identities

What Nora writes

• Direct messages and channel messages in Slack
• Ticket assignees in Zendesk (if configured to reassign)
• Internal notes on Zendesk tickets

When it goes wrong

• Zendesk API rate limit exceeded Nora receives a 429 status code. It pauses the current run, waits for the limit to reset, and resumes checking the remaining tickets.
• Agent email in Zendesk does not match Slack Nora cannot send a direct message to the agent. It falls back to posting the warning in the default support triage channel, tagging the manager instead.
• Ticket is closed right before the check Nora reads the updated resolved status from Zendesk and takes no action, dropping the ticket from the SLA warning queue.
• Slack workspace temporarily unavailable Nora queues the alerts. If Slack remains down past the SLA deadline, Nora skips the Slack warnings and applies an internal note directly to the Zendesk ticket.

Who this is for

Worth it if

• Support teams managing 50+ tickets a day with strict contractual response times
• Companies using Zendesk SLAs but struggling to notice breaches before they appear on end-of-week reports
• Distributed teams where agents operate asynchronously and managers cannot visually monitor ticket queues

Not worth it if

• Teams handling low ticket volumes where a single daily check is sufficient
• Organizations that do not use Zendesk native SLA policies or rely entirely on custom date fields
• Support setups where every ticket requires deep technical investigation and rigid time limits are intentionally ignored

A worked example

A 40-person software company handles 150 support tickets daily. They require a first response within two hours. Nora checks the queue every 15 minutes to warn agents of impending breaches and escalates failures to a manager channel.

Slack DM to Agent:
Ticket #4928 (Login issue for Acme Corp) breaches its first response SLA in 28 minutes. Current status: Open.

Slack Channel message (#support-escalations):
SLA Breach: Ticket #4910 (Billing discrepancy) missed its 2-hour first response target. It was assigned to Sarah. Nora has reassigned this ticket to the triage queue and added an internal note.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if an agent is on leave but still assigned to a ticket?

Nora reads the assignee field in Zendesk. If the agent is away, Nora still sends the Slack DM. You can tell Nora to check for out-of-office statuses in Slack or Zendesk first, and to route the alert to the team lead instead if the agent is away.

Can I change the warning threshold from 30 minutes to something else?

Yes. You tell Nora in chat to change the warning window. If you want a 45-minute warning for critical tickets and a 15-minute warning for normal ones, you explain that logic to Nora and it updates the checking routine.

Does Nora reply to the customer when the SLA is breached?

No. Nora only sends internal Slack messages to your team and can add internal notes to the Zendesk ticket. It does not send public replies to the customer or alter the content of the ticket itself.

How does Nora know which Slack user corresponds to which Zendesk agent?

Nora matches the email address associated with the Zendesk agent profile to the email address in the Slack user directory. If the emails do not match, Nora cannot send a direct message and posts the alert in a fallback channel.

Connects to

• Slack — all 22 Slack automations
• Zendesk — all 5 Zendesk automations

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