For any business, strong communication with customers and leads is a pillar of good relationships. Even more, reactivity has become a key asset when building a great brand identity.

As 34% to 44% of companies already use AI to augment their customer service, it is believed that automation is becoming a key asset in the customer service field.

Email is still a channel that is highly used when contacting businesses. According to Kinsta, email is a top 3 distribution channel for both B2C and B2B marketers. Nevertheless, other channels such as messaging apps and live chat are growing fast. Not taking them into account could lead your company to poor customer service.

Autoresponders, also known as automated reply messages, are useful in multiple situations. It's not only an email thing anymore. People now want convenience and efficiency, so businesses must take advantage of digital communication channels.

In this article about automated reply messages, you'll get:

An introduction to automated reply messages and multichannel auto responder 🧐
Why automatic answers have evolved 🚀
Specific autoresponder examples to handle multi-channel conversations 🏆

What is an automated reply message?

Historically, autoresponders have been set to empower businesses that wanted to build better relationships, automatically. Especially using bulk email sender.

To give you a quick definition, here is how it is defined on Wikipedia: "An autoresponder is a computer program that automatically answers e-mail sent to it"

Quite basic, isn't it? This definition may not have been modified for a while.

To give you a better definition, an autoresponder is a tool that lets you set predefined messages based on multiple criterions such as: message origin, team availability and message pattern. Thanks to the autoresponder, you can answer customers automatically based on their inquiries.

It lets you automate the 1st level of interaction that is genuinely know as repetitive and boring for customer support team.

As quickly mentioned, autoresponder used to be an email thing only. Nowadays, we see multichannel autoresponder rising to help companies scale their customer relationship on multiple channels.

What is a multi-channel automated replier?

A multichannel auto-responder is an autoresponder that has the ability to answer the same message on multiple channel.

Depending on the origin of your messages, companies can set specific answers to bring automated responses to their leads or customers.

Still looking for some advantages to set auto reply messages inside your company? Here are 4 definitive assets that will push you to set automated replies inside your company:

Autoresponder advantages

Set expectations automatically

One of the main point of auto reply messages is setting expectation. when can the other side ('aka' your customer) can expect an answer? It has been shown that a known wait feels shorter than an unknown wait.

This resonate especially in customer support as you may find lot of answers lacking a specification about the estimated time to response.

Now, some modern live chat display this information immediately to customers but not each of them.

A common mistake in out-of-office replies is stating that you might check your email now and then. That resolution is easily neglected when enjoying beaches and coconuts. Be honest, you'll get back to them when back from holidays.

Add transparency

Transparency is another important ingredient to bring into multichannel auto messages. This is mainly due to the power of the "Because". In a famous Harvard study, the researchers asked people queuing to use a print whether they could cut in line. Here are the three sentences they used:

"Hello, I have 5 pages, May I use the machine?"

"Hello, I have 5 pages. May I use the machine because I'm in a rush?"

"Hello, I have 5 pages. May I use the machine because I need to print?"

Option 2 (94% success rate) naturally beats option 1 (60%); you can empathize with someone in a rush. The real surprise came from the minimal difference between options 2 (94%) and 3 (93%).

What does it mean to our business? Well, instead of stating that you're on vacation, simply indicate that you're not able to check your email and explain why.

For support replies, it works the exact same way, we will review this a bit later in the article.

It offers alternative options

The advantage of multichannel auto messages is the ability to get in touch with you on various channels. Setting up a multichannel responder means you're able to support customers on multiple channels, which is great!

Live Chat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Whatsapp, Text messages, or any other channel can bring happiness to your customers.

For example, here is an example of how you can build a Facebook autoresponder using a third-party app:

67% of consumers expect to use messaging apps when interacting with a business.

According to Chatbots Magazine, just over two-thirds of people now expect to see or use messaging apps when talking to a business. Not only are messaging apps a quick, convenient way for consumers to reach out to customer support, but the use of chatbots makes customer service operations more efficient and cost-effective for businesses.

And it is that simple, emails aren't the only channel anymore. Nowadays, companies have to deal with multichannel messaging, that's why autoresponders have to adapt themselves to help their customers the best way.

Automatic reply messages examples for your business

In this part, we will cover some examples of automated messages to give you some ideas.

We will cover emails, live chat, and also text messages.

Automated email responses examples

This is the most popular category as autoresponders have been created for emails. Here are a few examples of auto-response for emails that will let you automate some answers.

The well-known out-of-the-office automatic email

Hi there,

Sorry I missed you! I’m currently out of the office with limited access to email. If you have a question about billing, please contact our Billing Department at [Email]. If you’d like to book a service, please schedule your appointment online at [Link] or contact [Support Staff Contact Information] for more information.

I will follow up once I’m back home, but in the meantime, the team will take great care of you in my absence!

The working-hour automatic email

Hi,

Thank you for getting in touch. We’re working on your request—hang tight! We will get back to you within 8 business hours (Monday - Friday 9 am to 6 pm EST).

Here are some important links that might direct you to where you need to go:

Scheduling: [Web Page Address], [Phone Number]

Pay Your Invoice: [Web Page Address], [Phone Number]

Please note that this email can (and should be) combined with a chatbot that can answer customers' questions.

Live chat auto reply messages samples

Live chat is quite different from email as it requires much more instantaneity. Over these examples, you'll be able to

The weekend responder

Hi! Our support is closed on weekends (Saturday & Sunday). You may still ask all your questions right now.

We will follow up on Monday. Until then, have a great weekend! ;)

The competitor responder

Hey, regarding <your competitor> here is how we compare:
- Asset 1
- Asset 2
- Asset 3

Quick example of Crisp automated responder for competitors' request

The internal responder
Hey <name of your employee>, I have a question for you
// @<your employee name>

This one uses a private note to mention automatically an employee that has been mentioned by a customer or a lead. It's the perfect way to bring in more contextualization and personalization.

Quick example of Crisp automated internal responder

The feature responder

Hey, thank you for requesting more information, here are some articles that should help you to better :
- <url 1>
- <url 2>
- <url 3>

The GDPR responder

Hey, here is our policy regarding GDPR: <url>

The integration responder

Hey, we do have the <integration name> plugin, here is a way for you to add it to your account: <url>

There are many more examples available. Please note that those are also available for social inboxes such as Twitter or Facebook and WhatsApp.

On a global scale, the team inbox will make companies' life easier.

Text message auto-reply message examples

Text messages are very personal and get very high deliverability and open rate. They are very powerful when trying to reach a customer or a lead.

The appointment reminder

Hey <customers' name>, quick reminder about your meeting tomorrow with <employee name> at <address>

The Opt-in responder

Hi <name>, thanks for opting in for SMS updates from <your company>! Please reply with Y to confirm. You can text STOP at any time to unsubscribe.

The SMS status alerts

Hello <name>, this is <employee name> from <your company>. We are still working on your order, but we expect that it will be complete by <date>. Please text back if you have any questions!

As you can see there are lots of different business examples where auto-reply messages are great for your company.

As long as it doesn't get too spammy or too impersonal, it can get your customers or leads very happy and give them the extra mile they're looking for.