Note: This article has been archived because its contents are covered in Using autoreplies to recommend articles in email notifications instead.
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This functionality is part of AI agents. Usage is measured by automated resolutions.

An autoreply is an automated response to a customer’s request, sent through an email or web form. Autoreplies are created using triggers , which determine when the reply is sent and what information is included in the email response. You can create new triggers to send autoreplies, or update existing triggers.

Autoreply triggers can run at any time, but will only run once on a ticket. You must activate autoreplies before you can create autoreply triggers.

Note: If you have the Advanced AI add-on, you can use autoreplies based on AI predictions in email notifications.

This article discusses the following topics:

  • Configuring autoreply triggers
  • Converting a default trigger to an email autoreply with recommended articles

Configuring autoreply triggers

Before you start configuring autoreply triggers, make sure you're familiar with how triggers work. See Creating triggers for automatic ticket updates and notifications and Managing triggers.

To set up an email autoreply to recommend articles, you'll need to create a new trigger, or update an existing trigger to include the Autoreply with articles action.

Note: In some older accounts, autoreplies are known as article recommendations.

To configure an email autoreply trigger

  1. In Admin Center, click Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Triggers.
    • To start with a new trigger, click Create trigger.
    • To edit an existing trigger, click the title of the trigger you want to update.
  2. Configure the trigger conditions. For example, you may want to send an autoreply email with suggested articles to an end user as soon as they submit a help request via email. That trigger would include ALL of the following conditions:
    • Ticket > Ticket | Is | Created
    • Requester > Role | Is | (end-user)
    • Ticket > Channel | Is | Email
  3. Next, configure the trigger to perform the following action:
    • Notify by > Autoreply with articles | (requester)

      This establishes that all tickets meeting the above conditions will send your autoreply email (see below) to the ticket requester.

  4. When you select Notify by > Autoreply with articles from the Actions drop-down, the autoreply email field appears:

  5. Fill out the email subject and body text you want to include in the autoreply email. Use the placeholders listed below to customize the email text.
    • {{autoreply.article_list}} (required). You must include this placeholder for the feature to work. This placeholder adds a list of up to three articles that best match the request, links to those articles, and inserts buttons the end user can use to choose which article solved the request.
      Note: This placeholder includes two pieces of text that are determined by the user's profile language: The header Do any of these articles answer your question?, and the two buttons located underneath each suggested article Yes, close my request and View article .
    • {{autoreply.first_article_body}} (optional). This placeholder renders the first matching article (full HTML) into the email body, allowing end users to read the article and solve their problem without needing to leave the email experience.
    • {{autoreply.article_count}} (optional). This placeholder allows you to create an optional condition to send different body copy to customers based on how many articles are returned, for example: 
      
        {% if autoreply.article_count > 0 %}
    Here are some great articles that may help:
    {{autoreply.article_list}}
    {{autoreply.first_article_body}}
{% endif %}
      Note: Autoreplies are not compatible with the {{header}} placeholder, which is an unsupported and deprecated placeholder that some customers may still be using in their HTML Email Template. The HTML Email template can be found in Admin Center , by clicking the Channels icon () in the sidebar, then selecting Talk and email > Email and scrolling to the Email templates section.
      While this placeholder currently functions with standard email notifications, it produces a malformed header in autoreply emails To resolve the issue, remove this {{header}} placeholder from the Zendesk HTML Email template. To replicate the look and feel of this placeholder, you can add the following code (with appropriate styling added as desired) to the Email Body section of your account's Notify Requester triggers. 
      
          <a href="{{ticket.link}}">Ticket #{{ticket.id}}: {{ticket.title}}</a>
  6. In the section Configure labels and test autoreply, click Configure and test to filter the list of help center articles offered based on labels:

    • Ticket brand: Use the drop-down to select a brand to run the test on. The brand selected here is purely for testing purposes, and will not be added to the trigger you are creating.
    • Ticket subject: This field is used to test the articles returned when a ticket is filed with this subject.
    • Ticket description: Enter a short description of seven or more words, written from the ticket submitter's perspective.
    • Search articles by label (optional): Enter any article labelsyou want to use to filter the results. As you type into the tag field, available labels beginning with the same word or characters are displayed. Any articles with the selected labels are considered in autoreplies.
  7. Click Show suggested articles for a list of articles the user may receive if these labels are applied when submitting a similar ticket. If the results are acceptable, click Done to save the trigger. If the results are not acceptable, edit the entries and try again, or click Cancel.
  8. Click Create (if you're creating a new trigger) or Save (if you're updating an existing trigger).

Converting a default trigger to an email autoreply with recommended articles

Zendesk Support provides a set of standard triggers, including triggers for email notifications. After activating autoreplies, you can update the default Notify requester and CCs of received request and Notify requester of new proactive ticket triggers to use the Autoreply with articles action.

To convert a default trigger to an email autoreply with articles

  1. In Admin Center, click Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Triggers.
  2. Click the title of the Notify requester and CCs of received request or Notify requester of new proactive ticket trigger you want to edit.
  3. In the trigger Actions section, click the Convert to autoreply with articles button.

    This updates the trigger, including adding the autoreply placeholders into the email body.

  4. Edit the email as needed, and click Save.
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