Configure timeout rules

Time-out rules are useful settings that administrators can configure to enact certain automatic actions when conditions are met. The timeout rules can help businesses run their operations smoothly and meet the required service-level agreements (SLAs) when they connect with their customers through the messaging channels. Sometimes, AI agents are used as an equivalent to the customer service representative (service representative or representative) persona.

Prerequisite

• The Omnichannel Administrator role.
• Workstreams are configured for the channels for which you want to configure timeout rules.

Configure the timeout rules

For the automatic actions to run, set up the timeout rules per workstream.

1. In your Dynamics 365 Customer Service instance, open Copilot Service admin center.

2. In the site map, select Productivity under Agent experience, and then select Manage for Timeout rules.

3. In Timeout rules, select New.

4. In Add new timeout rule, do the following steps in Rule details:

   • Enter a rule name.
   • Set the Status toggle to active.
   • Trigger event: Select one of the following events:
     • Customer Non-Response Time: The time a customer stays inactive after the representative’s last message. The duration is calculated by subtracting the time of the representative’s last message from the current time. The system calculates the duration only when the service representative sends the most recent message.
     • Representative Non-Response Time:
       • Unresponsive to the first message: The duration between the first message by the customer and post-assignment of the representative to the conversation. The duration is calculated by subtracting the current time from the representative’s assignment time. The system calculates the duration only when the representative accepts the notification, autoassigns the notification timeout, or the supervisor force-assigns the conversation.
       • Unresponsive to the messages mid-conversation: The nonresponsive time of the representative since the customer’s last message. The duration is calculated by subtracting the customer’s last message time from the current time. The system calculates the duration only when the last message is from the customer.
   • Select a workstream that corresponds to the channels where you want the rule to run.

5. In Trigger conditions, for the trigger event that you selected on the previous page, enter the following details:

   • Operator: By default, Greater than.
   • Value: A numeric value that denotes the timeout period.

     Note

     • A small difference of a few seconds between the exact time and the performance for the action might be there.
   • Unit of time: Time in days, hours, or minutes.

6. In Actions, select one of the following actions:

   • Send a message: The system sends the message automatically that you configure. The message sent to the customer appears as sent by the representative, while the message to the representative appears as a system message. Enter the following details:

     • Message recipient: Select Customer Service Representative or Customer.

     • Custom automated message: Select the language code in the Select language list, and enter a message text that you want to display to the agent or customer.

     • Repeat the steps to configure the message text in other languages.

     • In Default / Fallback, select a language to be the default language if the languages that you configure don't match the language set in the workstream.

       

   • Close conversation: Closes the conversation automatically based on the duration set for the channel. The conversation moves from open, active, or waiting to the closed state and the system frees the representative capacity.

   • Move active conversation to waiting: For asynchronous messaging or persistent chat channels, the system moves the active conversation to the waiting state. The representative receives a notification when the customer restarts the conversation. Representatives can restart the conversation from their inbox.

   • Release conversation back to queue for reassignment: Releases the conversation from the current representative and reassigns the conversation to a different representative in the same queue. 

7. Select Done. The rule that you created is listed on the Timeout rules page.

8. You can then set a priority for the rules by entering a value. If two conditions are same, then priority determines the timeout rule to run. The workstream rules are independent of each other and follow the priority of their workstream order.

Manage rules

Select a rule to enable the edit button that you can use to edit the rule.

You can change the priority per timeout rule so that if any condition is the same, the system runs the prioritized timeout rule first.

Enable override by representative

The ability to override ensures automation never disrupts active or sensitive conversations. Representatives can pause or restart timeout rules as needed. This behavior prevents conversations from closing too early and supports flexible, customer-focused service.

To enable the representative override option, you need to:

1. Enable timeout rules

• In Copilot Service admin center, turn on the Customer service representative override toggle. This setting ensures that the feature is available for the conversations with timeout rules enabled.

2. Turn On CSR Override Panel:

   1. Go to Workspace > Experience profiles > Productivity pane.
   2. Switch Timeout Rules to On.

For default profiles, the representative override option is turned on for Customer Service Workspace and channels.

For custom profiles, you need to manually activate the panel for representatives.

After the representative override option is on, representatives can pause or restart time‑out rules as needed during live conversations.

Related information

Understand conversation states
Use timeout rules