Sending automatic responses to social messages (Social Messaging add-on)

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The Social Messaging add-on is available for purchase with certain Zendesk Support plans (see About Zendesk product add-ons). The Zendesk Support Suite also includes the Social Messaging add-on at no additional cost.

If you have the Social Messaging add-on and have added Facebook Messenger, Twitter DM, WhatsApp, LINE, or WeChat channels to Zendesk Support or Zendesk Admin Center, you may want to set up the auto-responder for those channels. The auto-responder sends messages automatically to an end user when you receive their messages.

This article contains the following sections:

• About the auto-responder
• Adding user properties to automatic responses
• Setting up the auto-responder

Related articles

• Installing and setting up the Social Messaging add-on (Support)
• Setting up Social Messaging channels for the Zendesk Agent Workspace (Admin Center)

About the auto-responder

You need to set up the auto-responder for each of the Facebook Messenger, Twitter DM, WhatsApp, LINE, and WeChat accounts that you have added to Zendesk. You can't do this once for each channel. You must be an administrator to set up the auto-responder.

Here's how the auto-responder works:

• There’s no character limit for the automatic response.

• The automatic response is sent once a day, not every time the end user sends a message.
• If you have automatic responses set up via Chat triggers for live chats, they may also apply to social messaging conversations.
  Triggers created with the following conditions and actions will apply to social messaging conversations:

  • Chat trigger conditions: Visitor department, Account status, Department status, or Chat-related information (all types).
  • Chat trigger actions: Send message to visitor.

  Chat triggers created with other conditions and actions will not work for social messaging.

Adding user properties to automatic responses

You can add user properties to the automatic response, such as the user’s first and last name, if desired.

For example, if your automatic response is configured like this:

Hi, {{firstName}}, Thanks for reaching out. An agent will be with you soon.

The message sent to a user named Martin Smithson looks like this:

Hi Martin, Thanks for reaching out. An agent will be with you soon.

If the user's first name can't be resolved, the message looks like this:

Hi, Thanks for reaching out. An agent will be with you soon.

Also, you can include a default value in the placeholder. This value is used if the user's first name can't be resolved.

For example, if your automatic response is configured like this:

Hi, {{firstName || there}}, Thanks for reaching out. An agent will be with you soon.

The message sent looks like this when the user's first name can't be resolved:

Hi there, Thanks for reaching out. An agent will be with you soon.

For more information about what properties you can use and how to correctly format them, see Managing user information in the Sunshine Conversations help center. The user properties used in the automatic response aren’t the same as user property keywords used in other parts of Zendesk Support.

Setting up the auto-responder

To set up the auto-responder for WhatsApp, LINE, or WeChat

1. If you're using the Zendesk Agent Workspace, in Admin Center, click Channels.

   If you're not using the Zendesk Agent Workspace, from Support, click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then click Channels > Channel Integrations > Social Messaging > Accounts.

2. Open a channel for editing.

   The Edit screen displays.

3. Click Auto-responder.
4. Activate the auto-responder.
5. Edit the default auto-responder message.

   

6. Save your changes.