Send a first reply automatically, a different one outside working hours or per request type, remind silent customers, and close conversations nobody answers.
Auto replies are automatic messages to your customers. They are configured in Project → Support Desk → Auto replies and send templates from your project (Templates in the inbox). Switching auto replies on creates four starter templates — Default message, Out of hours, Follow-up and Closing — for every slot you leave empty, so no dropdown is ever blank. Edit them to match your tone; Edit templates opens the manager right in the settings.
Automatic messages are sent from your support address, carry your signature, and are marked Automatic reply in the conversation, with the name System. They do not count as an answer by a person: they don't stop the response clock in analytics, and they don't change the conversation's status or preview.
Safety rules
- Mail that looks automatic — a
no-reply/noreply/mailer-daemonsender,Auto-Submitted,Precedence: bulkorList-Unsubscribeheaders — never gets an auto reply, so two robots cannot start a mail loop. Your automatic messages carry the headers that tell other auto-responders not to answer back. - Muted senders and the demo conversation never get automatic messages.
- If a person has already replied while the message waited, the auto reply is skipped.
Auto reply
Tick Send a reply to new conversations and choose a Message. It is sent when a customer starts a new conversation: a new customer, a conversation that was closed, or one that was quiet for a week. The same conversation gets it at most once every 7 days.
Different message outside working hours
Tick Different message outside working hours, choose the working days and working hours, and a second template. Hours use the project time zone (shown next to the fields; set it in the project settings). Outside those hours the customer gets the out-of-hours message instead of the default.
Auto reply by request type
For each request type you can choose:
- Default message — use the message above (or the out-of-hours one).
- No reply — send nothing for this type.
- A template — send that message for this type; it is always sent as it is, at any hour.
Spam / auto-reply gets no reply unless you pick a template on purpose; its conversations are closed automatically. Because the type chooses the template, the first reply waits a moment until the AI has classified the conversation.
Auto follow-up and auto close
For conversations that wait for the customer — the last message is a reply written by a person:
- Send a follow-up if the customer is silent — after the chosen number of days (1–60, default 3) since your last reply, the follow-up template is sent. One follow-up per reply.
- Close the conversation if there is still no answer — after the chosen number of days (1–60, default 2) since the follow-up, with no word from the customer and no reply from your team, the conversation is closed. Tick Send a closing message to tell the customer, and choose a template.
Closing needs the follow-up (it is the second step). Any new message from the customer stops the sequence and reopens the conversation, and a new reply from your team restarts it.
Auto close is recorded in the history without a person's name, and counted as closed by automation in analytics. Conversations your team answered before you switched the feature on are never touched.
Follow-ups and closings are checked every 15 minutes.
Tips
- Keep the first reply short and honest: what happens next and when. Put your working hours in the out-of-hours template.
- Use per-type replies for the topics with a standard answer: a refund policy for Refunds & charges, steps for Access & login.
- Review a week of analytics after turning follow-ups on — a rising Closed by automation number means customers stop answering, which is a signal to look at your replies.