Answered

Why would you want an auto-reply feature? (Question from an Intercom Product Manager)

  • 25 January 2021
  • 50 replies
  • 234 views
A
  • Anonymous
  • 0 replies

Hi folks! I'm Alissa, a Product Manager at Intercom. 👋 I wanted to ask whether any of you ever requested the ability to create auto-replies for conversations? If so, I'd love to know more! Why would that be useful? When would you want to send auto-replies? Detailed examples of your workflows would be super helpful! 🙏 @Product Wishlist​ 

icon

Best answer by User682 25 January 2021, 13:01

View original

50 replies

Eric Fitz
Userlevel 1

@roy s11​ @user682​ @nathan s11​, tagging you three here because you've expressed an interest in this kind of feature in the past!

Eric Fitz
Userlevel 1

@anya​ @mohamed e11​ I reckon this will be of interest to you, too!

U
Badge +1

Thanks @eric f11​ 

@Alissa Tyrangiel​ my idea is based on two needs:

 

1) Clients who doesn't have a special service support, we'll be offering a free service but for those clients the support will need 2-3 business days. It would be great if I can set the answer to be sent in a specific time.

Or even for a contact where the person asked to be reached in a specific time, or if someone is waiting for a come back of technical support;

2) A strategy I have for discounts or holding for an answer. I have a % approved that I can give to some clients. If I give the discount on the same time the client asked for it, the person thinks it can ask for more, but if take some time, gives an impression that I ran out of options and I got as much as possible.

 

Situations like these would be great to have a scheduled message sent, just like Gmail provides on their service.

Hope that this helped a bit 😉

A

Thanks @eric f11​ 😄

A

@Alissa Tyrangiel​ Glad you're looking into this!

 

In our case, there are two main scenarios:

 

1) It would be handy to have automated replies combined with conversation rules for unresponsive users. Currently we have a rule set up that closes conversations if a client has been unresponsive for 3 days, building in time for us to send a follow up to check they've seen our reply. It would be ideal if we could build that reply into the conversation rule with automated replies

2) To have a personalised holding message if the team is busy or away - so only clients initiating a conversation are notified about the slower response times. Putting something in the messenger could potentially put people off a conversation!

 

I'll ask my team if we have any more use cases and will get back to you!

Thanks,

Anya

A

Thanks for elaborating on that @user682​ ! Just to clarify, you're essentially looking to schedule a reply to be send at a later time?

U
Badge +1

Yes, that simple.

I can snooze the conversation and answer latter, but if I schedule the reply I don't need to get back into it.

For my reality here, it would be good

A

Thanks for the details @anya​ ! I have a few follow up questions, if you don't mind: Regarding 1): Am I right in understanding that you're currently snoozing the conversation and then, if the customer has been unresponsive, you'd like to send a reply + close the convo? Regarding 2): Are you using the task bot to share your typical reply time? If so and this doesn't suit your needs, could you explain why? What's missing? Many thanks!

A

Thanks! Another question regarding the first example you gave: If you manage to respond to customers on the free service earlier than 2-3 days, why would you want to wait with sending the response?

U
Badge +1

To force the person to hire the premium service that has the costumer support on time.

It's a benefit for premium only

A

Great thank makes sense, thanks a lot for clarifying that!

U

@Alissa Tyrangiel​ I have also submitted a feature request for this recently! I was looking into using one of the app's in the store called 'Bump' by Userfeed.

 

For context, our team has conversations that could benefit from an automated follow-up, for example bug-related questions. Sometimes we don't have an update for a user but want to ensure they don't feel forgotten about. An automated reply at set times would help provide a bit of a better experience in these cases.

R
Rank
Userlevel 1
Badge

Hello @Alissa Tyrangiel​ , Hope you are doing well.

 

Let's discuss the case step by step:

 

1. You know that lots of Intercom customers asking about the Ticket System?

What actually ticket systems are doing? Once customers create a new ticket, the system automatically sends a confirmation e-mail.

 

In Intercom, most customers want that confirmation e-mail, not an actual Ticket System.

 

Auto Replay feature in Automation rule can fix this, example:

Auto-Reply2. The similar problem with conversations created via Facebook.

 

Facebook actually sends an auto message about Working Hours, Greetings, etc...

Once you set-up Integrations with Intercom, all the following stops working.

 

Custom-bots are also not supported in conversations created via Facebook.

 

Simply it's not possible to send an auto message to conversations started via Facebook.

Example:

Facebook-Auto3. SLA trigger

 

Once the SLA pass will be nice to explain to users that due to lots of incoming conversations in the queue, the response can be delayed, and this case escalated to VIP Support.

 

vip 

4. If there will be any downtime, we can send a follow-up message to the customer.

(If compare this with a Custom bot, this will work for the Facebook/e-Mail as well).

 

5. On the customer account 3 days left before the trial ends, Once he starts a conversation and waiting for the agent we can follow up with some useful information about his account.

Example:

Trial6. Once the conversation gets closed, send an auto-reply to follow to the customers after X (24/48) Hour.

 

There so many use cases for Auto-Reply, the main thing auto-reply should be sent via teammate or bot name.

 

@Alissa Tyrangiel​ , I hope this will be helpful. Let me know what do you think about this.

R
Rank
Userlevel 1
Badge

@eric f11​ , Thanks for tagging 🙏

R
Rank
Userlevel 1
Badge

@Alissa Tyrangiel​ , One more please 😃

 

During Christmas, COVID Pandemic time it was impossible to set-up out of the office message to the conversations that come through the e-mail channel. 

A

Thanks for this @user28​ ! Just out of curiosity, how come you're not using Bump? Is it not suiting your needs and if so, why not? How would you want it to work? Or are you simply not interested in using a third-party app at the moment?

A

Thanks so much for all of these examples @roy s11​ ! This is very helpful. I have a follow-up question if you don't mind: Regarding examples 1 and 2: You showed how inbox rules could be used to set expectations for emails and Facebook. I was wondering, if we were to create a similar solution like the one that exists for chat (see task bot to share your typical reply time) but for email and Facebook, would that solve this problem for you?

R
Rank
Userlevel 1
Badge

@Alissa Tyrangiel​ , Definitely nope, why?

  • Task bots are not customizable at all
  • Task bot only supports the English language

 

Also, Keep in mind that an e-mail confirmation response is a long message, including some information or even tips before staff replies.

Task bot can't do that.

A

That makes sense, thank you. Just to clarify, the task bot is actually localized. I totally understand the feedback on customization though - thanks for bringing this up.

A

Hi @Alissa Tyrangiel​ 

1) Yes, that's what we're currently doing in terms of responding to unresponsive conversations

2) We're not currently using a task bot, mainly because it's too impersonal, and also not required regularly enough to make it worth setting up

 

I've spoken to my team who have an additional use case:

 

  • Automated replies that could be set up based on organisation IDs - we have separate training materials for different clients, and it would be great to set up replies for each organisation with links to the relevant material
U

We actually haven't begun to use Bump yet but we'll be looking to start a trial shortly. May be too early to tell, but feature-wise it seems that their offering solves our need. The reason we were looking for a native solution is because of the additional cost of using Bump + we prefer the reliability of native features over third-party apps.

A

Thanks for clarifying. A few more questions:

 

Regarding 2)

a) Could you elaborate on what's too impersonal about it? What would you like the message to say ideally?

b) How would you want this holding message to be triggered i.e you mentioned "if the team is busy or away" - what exactly does this mean?

 

Regarding the organization ID: When do you want to send these links? At the start of a conversation or later?

A

That makes total sense, thanks for clarifying that!

A

In terms of busy or away, these are rare situations, as we have a team in the UK and US so most days has at least some coverage. However, over the Christmas period our office is closed, so it would be good to notify anyone writing in that we will respond, but that we'd be slower.

Currently, we're customizing the messenger to show a special notice, but we'd rather not have that.

 

Ideally we'd like the message to read something like:

 

Hi ***

Thank you for writing in!

Over the festive period we will be slower to respond than usual, but we will get back to you.

In the meantime, please check out our help centre

Thanks,

XXXX

 

 

A

I think we intend to use it more like a personalised OOO message

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings