Think of Case Watchers as your way of keeping the right people in the loop on service cases. Both your internal team and your customer contacts can be added as watchers, ensuring they receive updates as the case progresses.
Watchers are notified when notes are added to a case, so long as the right options are ticked. This makes it easy to keep colleagues and customers updated, without manually forwarding emails or duplicating messages.
When do Watchers receive updates?
Internal watchers → notified whenever a case note is added and the Notify watchlist
box is ticked.External watchers → notified when a case note is added and both Visible to customer and Notify watchlist
are ticked.
🚨 Important: External watchers must already exist as Contacts on the customer record.
How do I add a Watcher to a case?
Open the case.
Click the
Watchers icon in the top-right corner.The Case Watchers panel will appear with two tabs:
Users (your internal team).
Contacts (the customer’s contacts).
Tick the names of the people you’d like to add.
That’s it, they’ll start receiving updates from that case immediately.
💡 Tip: If you want to add multiple customer contacts so they can receive full case emails (not just watchlist updates), you can do this when creating a case. See: Creating a Customer Case.
How do I set default Watchers?
For some customers, especially larger ones with several contacts, it makes sense to have one or two “default watchers” who always receive updates.
To set this up:
Go to the Contacts tab in the customer record.
Click the Gravatar/image of the contact.
Tick the Case Watcher box.
From then on, that contact will automatically receive updates for all cases raised for their record.
What’s the best practice for using Watchers?
Always tick Notify watchlist when you want watchers (internal or external) to receive a case note.
Use default watchers for key customer contacts, so nothing slips through the cracks.
Remind customers that watchlist notifications are for visibility only; they should reply to "Case Updated" emails, not watchlist emails.
If you’re the case owner, remember: you won’t automatically be notified of notes. Use @mentions if you want an email notification.
💡Tip: If your customer needs to reply to emails, include attachments, or have multiple stakeholders automatically CC’d, consider using Multiple Case Contacts instead of Watchers. Learn more about Multiple Case Contacts
What can’t Watchers do?
Replying to Watchlist Emails
Replies to watchlist emails won’t appear in the case. This is intentional: it avoids duplicate notes being created. Customers should always reply to Case Updated emails instead.Closed Cases
Adding notes or tasks to closed cases won’t trigger notifications. Best practice is to reopen the case (set it back to “In Progress” or “Open”) before making updates.
Should I use Watchers or Multiple Case Contacts?
Here’s a quick side-by-side to help you decide which to use:
Feature / Scenario | Case Watchers | Multiple Case Contacts |
Purpose | Keep people updated (internal or external) | Include multiple customer contacts directly in case comms |
Who can be added? | Internal users + customer contacts on the record | Primary contact + additional contacts (including “case-only” contacts) |
How updates are sent | Watchlist emails (read-only) | Standard case emails (via Email Wizard) |
Can they reply? | ❌ No, replies to watchlist emails don’t go into the case | ✅ Yes, replies from any case contact are swept into the case |
Attachments | Not supported | Supported – attachments can be shared |
Best for… | Internal visibility, or one-way updates to external contacts | Active communication with multiple stakeholders (customers, suppliers, partners) |
🚩Rule of thumb: Use Watchers to keep people in the loop quietly. Use Multiple Case Contacts when you need proper two-way communication and customer replies.
Frequently Asked Questions
▶️ Why am I not receiving email notifications for new cases raised by my support team?
Notifications for watchers are triggered from within the case itself. If you want to be alerted to every new case as it’s created, you can also use Workstack Subscriptions.
▶️ Why didn’t my customer’s reply (or an internal reply) appear in the case?
Sometimes it looks that way because of how watchlist emails work. Emails with [Watchlist] in the subject line are deliberately ignored by the case sweep, so they don’t duplicate notes inside the case.
👉 Customers should not reply to Watchlist emails. Instead, they should only reply to Case Updated emails.
If customers need visibility across multiple cases, the Multiple Case Contacts feature is usually a better option. [Read more here]
▶️ If I’m the case owner, will I be notified when notes are added to my case?
Not automatically. At the moment, case owners don’t receive watchlist notifications just because a note is added.
The best practice here is to use @caseowner inside the case note to make sure the owner is notified.
💡 In short: Case Watchers are a simple way to keep colleagues and customers updated on service cases. Add them to cases (or set them as default), tick the right boxes when adding notes, and use @mentions for owners when needed. If your customer needs proper two-way communication, switch to Multiple Case Contacts instead.