The Challenge I Solved

My team handles hundreds of support tickets daily through Zoho Desk, and we’re held to pretty tight SLAs – first response within 10 minutes, resolution within 24 hours. Meeting these targets isn’t just about good service; it directly impacts our bonuses as well.

The problem? About 20-25% of our daily tickets are simple information requests that could be answered immediately if someone was available to check our knowledge base. But with our workload, these “easy” tickets were still taking valuable time away from complex technical issues.

What I Built

When our company invested in n8n enterprise, I saw an opportunity. I architected a zero-touch workflow to classify 200+ daily support tickets with over 85% accuracy, reducing the manual support workload by 40% and improving first-response SLA compliance from 70% to over 90%.

Here’s how it works:

• Ticket Intake: Every new Zoho Desk ticket triggers my n8n workflow automatically
• Smart Classification: The workflow analyzes the ticket content against our knowledge base
• AI Decision Making: If it’s an information-based request, OpenAI generates an appropriate response using our internal documentation
• Automatic Response: The system replies directly through Zoho Desk’s API – no human intervention needed

The Technical Evolution

Initially, I used n8n’s Agent AI node, but after digging through Reddit forums and community discussions, I discovered it could create bottlenecks under high load. So I rebuilt the workflow using direct OpenAI API calls with custom prompts pulled from ticket content. This change made the system much more reliable and faster.

Testing and Rollout Strategy

I didn’t just throw this into production. For the first month, I configured the workflow to create private comments that only our technical team could see. This let us monitor accuracy and catch any issues before it started responding to customers directly. Once we were confident it was performing well (and actually better than some of our rushed human responses), I flipped the switch to full automation.

Real Impact

• 40% reduction in manual ticket handling for information requests
• Emergency response time improved from 10 minutes to under 5 minutes
• SLA compliance jumped from 70% to over 90% for first responses
• Team productivity increased significantly – we can focus on complex technical problems instead of repetitive information requests

I’m constantly tweaking the AI prompts and decision logic based on new ticket types we encounter. It’s become one of those solutions that just keeps getting better the more we use it.

Technologies Used: n8n, OpenAI API, Zoho Desk API, JavaScript, Workflow Automation