How to Create an Automatic Email Reply
Use the Inbound Email workflow trigger with a Send Email action to reply automatically to incoming emails, such as an out-of-office message while you are away or an acknowledgment from a general inbox.
Before you start
Which incoming emails reach the trigger depends on your email setup. With a dedicated sending domain, JourneyCARE can capture email from unknown senders, email from known senders, and replies. With Gmail or Outlook two-way sync or another SMTP setup, the trigger captures email from existing contacts but not all cold inbound email. Check your email setup before you build, so you know which incoming messages your automatic reply will cover.
Add the Inbound Email trigger
The Inbound Email trigger fires when an email arrives in the mailbox JourneyCARE monitors. It is different from the Customer Replied trigger, which starts a workflow when a contact replies to a message you sent. Use Inbound Email when the reply should respond to emails people send you, not to replies in an existing conversation you started.
Open Automations > Workflows and create or open a workflow.
Click + Add New Trigger and select Inbound Email.
Enter a Trigger Name.
Click + Add Filters and choose which emails start the workflow.
Configure the trigger settings, then click Save Trigger.
Add the Send Email action and write the reply (see below).
Publish the workflow.
Filters narrow which emails fire the trigger. The available filter labels are Email Sent To / Mailbox, From, CC, Subject, Body (plain text), Has Attachments, Replied to Workflow, and Contact Tag. For example, filter by mailbox so the workflow only replies to email sent to one address.
An advanced trigger setting can limit the trigger to new email conversations only. When that setting is off, which is the default, replies inside existing email threads also fire the trigger.
Write the reply with the Send Email action
The Send Email action sends your automatic reply, and the Email Template Builder is built into the action, so you can compose the message right inside the workflow.
Add the Send Email action to the workflow.
Write the out-of-office or acknowledgment message in the email action, including anything members should know such as when you will follow up or where to reach your organization in the meantime.
Publish the workflow to make the automatic reply live.
Limit replies to a time window
If the automatic reply should only go out during business hours, use the workflow's communication settings. Set Timezone to the account timezone or the contact timezone (a contact without a timezone uses the account timezone), and turn on Specific Time to define a window with Start Time, End Time, and Include Days. A reply scheduled outside the window pauses until the next available time, so members who email overnight still get a reply once the window opens.
Two more workflow settings affect automatic replies:
Stop on response ends the workflow as soon as the contact replies. For an automatic reply workflow, keep it off so a reply to your automatic message does not stop future automatic replies.
Mark as read controls whether workflow-generated messages are marked as read in the conversation.
Test before you launch
Publish the workflow first: a workflow only runs after it is published. Then send a test email to the monitored mailbox from a separate email address and confirm the automatic reply arrives. For a complete walkthrough, see How to Test a Workflow Before Using It With Members.