An autoreply is an automated response to a customer’s request, sent through an email or web form. You can create email autoreplies using triggers, which determine when the reply is sent and what information is included in the email response.
- Autoreply with articles: This action includes suggested help center articles in the email response to help the customer resolve their issue.
- Autoreply: This option attempts to directly answer the customer’s request in the email response. The autoreply is typically triggered based on AI predictions about intent, language, and sentiment. These are called advanced autoreplies, and are available as part of the Advanced AI add-on.
This article discusses the following topics:
Requirements for email autoreplies
To use the Autoreply with articles action, you must activate your help center. For more information, see Getting started with Guide for your help center: Setting up.
To use the Autoreply action, you must have the Zendesk Advanced AI add-on and have intelligence triage enabled. For more information, see Introduction to Zendesk Advanced AI and Turning on and configuring intelligent triage.
Configuring an email autoreply with article suggestions
To set up an email autoreply with article suggestions, create a new trigger or update an existing one to use the Autoreply with articles action.
Before you start, make sure you're familiar with triggers. For more information on triggers, see Creating triggers for automatic ticket updates and notifications and Managing triggers.
To configure an email autoreply with articles trigger
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Triggers.
- To create a trigger, click Create trigger.
- To edit a trigger, click the title of the trigger you want to edit.
- 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, but only from a mobile device. That trigger would include the following
conditions:
- Ticket | Is | Created
AND
- Requester: Role | Is | (end user)
AND
- Ticket: Channel | Is | Mobile
- Ticket | Is | Created
- Next, configure the trigger to perform the following action:
- Autoreply with articles | (requester)
This establishes that all tickets that meet the above conditions will send your autoreply email (see below) to the ticket requester.
- Autoreply with articles | (requester)
- When you select Autoreply with articles from the Actions drop-down, the
autoreply email field appears:
- Fill out the subject and body text you want to include in the autoreply email.
Use the following placeholders to customize the email text. You can also click
View available placeholders to view and copy placeholder text:
- {{autoreply.article_count}}
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>
- {{autoreply.article_count}}
- In the section Configure labels and test autoreply, click Configure
and test to filter the list of offered help center articles 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.
- Article restrictions by label: Enter labels you want to use to filter the articles. As you type into the tag field, autocomplete displays available labels beginning with the same word or characters. Any articles with any of these labels will be used as potential autoreply articles.
- Click Show suggested answers for a list of articles the user may receive if these labels are applied when submitting a similar ticket. If you approve, click Apply labels; if you don't, edit the entries and try again, or click Cancel.
- If you’re creating a trigger, click Create.
If you’re updating an existing trigger, click Save.
Converting a default trigger to an email autoreply with article suggestions
Zendesk Support provides a set of standard triggers, including triggers for email notifications. After enabling 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
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Triggers.
- Click the title of the Notify requester and CCs of received request or Notify requester of new proactive ticket trigger you want to edit.
- In the triggers Actions section, click the Convert to autoreply with
articles button.
This updates the trigger, including adding the autoreply placeholders into the email body.
- Edit the email as needed, and click Save.
Configuring an advanced email autoreply
To set up an advanced email autoreply, create a new trigger or update an existing one to use the Autoreply action. Triggers for advanced autoreplies typically use the Intent, Language, or Sentiment conditions for intelligent triage. For more information about these trigger conditions, see Creating triggers for automatically triaged tickets.
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Triggers.
- To create a trigger, click Create trigger.
- To edit a trigger, click the title of the trigger you want to edit.
- Configure the trigger conditions. For example, you may want to send an
autoreply email to new requests from end users based on intent and language.
That trigger would include the following conditions:
- Ticket | Is | Created
AND
- Requester: Role | Is | (end user)
AND
- Intent | Is | <select the intent you want the trigger to be based
on>
AND
- Language | Is | <select the language you want the trigger to be based on>
- Ticket | Is | Created
- Next, configure the trigger to perform the following action:
- Autoreply
This establishes that all tickets that meet the above conditions will send your autoreply to the ticket requester.
- Autoreply
- When you select Autoreply from the Actions drop-down, the autoreply
field appears:
- Fill out the body text you want to include in the autoreply. You can also click View available placeholders to view and copy placeholder text.
- If you’re creating a trigger, click Create. If you’re updating an existing trigger, click Save.
Accessing email autoreplies
For Zendesk Support Suite accounts, email autoreply triggers appear in the
Autoreplies page’s Email tab. In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Bots and automations > Bots. Then click Manage autoreplies.
For accounts on legacy Support Suite plans, or the standalone Zendesk Support + Guide
package, autoreplies are called Article Recommendations. For these accounts, you can
access email autoreply triggers on the Article Recommendations page’s Email
tab. In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Bots and automations > Article
recommendations. Then click the Emails tab.
28 Comments
Is there a way to remove or edit the "Do any of these articles answer your question?" header within the email?
Hello @...,
That is part of a pre-determined placeholder, answer_bot.article_list, and unfortunately cannot be edited or replaced, since it is required by the automation.
Hope that answers the question!
Hi everyone!
I've been configuring answer bot during these past weeks, and I'd like to know if there is any possibility to change the behavior of the button "yes, close my request" at the end of the article displayed in the email.
I'm talking about this one.
The change that we are thinking is about making that the button actually solves the ticket and doesn't redirect the user to the article on the help center. Is there a possibility to configure it like that on our end?
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Hi Luis,
Thanks for reaching out to our Community!
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but at the moment, it's not possible to customise the way the Answer Bot's suggestions are displayed in email notifications. The reason for this is that the message is returned by the Answer Bot through placeholders that are added to your triggers. These placeholders are {{answer_bot.article_list}} and {{answer_bot.first_article_body}}.
The button from your screenshot is added by the second placeholder {{answer_bot.first_article_body}} and is visible on the first article. Unfortunately, there is currently no way to access these placeholders and change the content they return.
Let us know if you have further questions!
This looks so exciting, cannot wait to get it setup!
Two questions:
Hi James,
Thanks for reaching out! Yes you can use Zendesk placeholders in your dynamic content. For example, you can add placeholders for ticket and user properties. See Zendesk data object (placeholders) referenceZendesk data object (placeholders) reference. You can also add other dynamic content placeholders.
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203663356-Providing-multiple-language-support-with-dynamic-content
Dynamic content is also how you would setup support for multiple languages, so this should work for both of your inquiries.
Thank you!
Jason Schaeffer | Customer Advocate |
Thanks for coming back on this Jason, much appreciated!
Should this answer bot code work from within Dynamic Content:
{% if answer_bot.article_count > 0 %}
{{answer_bot.article_list}}
{{answer_bot.first_article_body}}
{% endif %}
I tried it but with no success.
I am having the same issue. Answerbot is not working when I place the code within Dynamic Content
Hi James,
It appears that the Answer Bot placeholders don't work with dynamic content, see more details here: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004477627
Thank you!
Yours truly,
Sonny Rebenito | Tier 1 Associate Customer Advocate | support@zendesk.com
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We recently added new labels to content related to an upcoming holiday campaign. As we're trying to create associated triggers for this content, it doesn't allow the addition of NEW labels when we try to configure & test. Any insight?
I hope you are doing very well.
It seems that you are having a doubt about (Given that the brand setting is for testing only, how do I ensure the correct brand is used for suggestions?).
Could you tell me more about your issue?
Hi Tiffany Maberry
In relation to the Labels, I will recommend checking these articles:
Using labels on your help center articles
Best Practices: Using labels in Answer Bot triggers
These labels should be added already in the Help Center articles to be able to be reviewed by Answer Bot.
Sincerely,
Julio H | Technical Support Specialist | Zendesk EMEA
Enjoy Free Zendesk Training
Hello. How do you prevent/ restrict INTERNAL Articles from showing up through the Answer Bot?
Internal articles that will show up in bot recommendations are restricted to the user segment the end-users belong to. Let's say for example you have enabled "Signed-in user" in your help center, even without signing in the end-user can still access the link the bot provided. But it's limited to articles that belong to their segment. They can't see any other articles that belongs to another user segment like "Agents and Admins".
Hope this helps.
I guess I am not 100% clear. I don't want our distributors to be served up an INTERNAL Articles. Can I add a restriction that includes the word [INTERNAL] so that any article labeled [INTERNAL] will not appear? For example: Any internal articles are titled as such: How to Set up the new Office Printer [INTERNAL]
Thanks!
Can we have the answer bot send an email to the agent (assignee) instead of the requester?
The suggested articles are not always accurate but it would be nice to prompt the agent with the suggested ones and they can evaluate them.
thank you
It is only available for requester and CC.
However, your agents can review the articles that were sent on the actual ticket.
How can I suggest my own list of articles instead of having AB suggest it for me? I could just use a normal trigger, but I want the ability for end-users to mark their ticket as solved.
We don't have this feature yet outside of Answer Bot.
Would you mind posting your use case to our Feedback on Support topic? We have a template you can copy and use in your post. This is to help get more visibility and votes on the idea. Then, others can share their use cases to further drive demand for that feature. Thanks!
Hi there,
We have AnswerBot(now Autoreplies) enabled in our production and sandbox Zendesk instance. While it continues to work in the production instance, it has stopped working in the sandbox.
A little context: we have the trigger set up to respond to customers, via email, as soon as they open a ticket. The email gets sent, but no suggestions are included.
When testing using the `Configure and test` button, the expected articles show up for multiple queries.
Our help centre is set up for signed-in users only.
Are there other considerations that I may be missing? Could someone help me figure out why the same exact trigger works in production but not in the sandbox, please?
Thanks!
Hello,
Coming back to the questions asked on May 14 and June 5 2021, is there in the meantime a way to alter the text or the behavior of the button "yes, close my request" at the end of the article displayed in the email?
We have a lot of confusion with our clients, that close their tickets with these buttons without meaning to. They then create new tickets when not receiving response on their first created (and mistakenly closed) ticket, being frustrated about the extended waiting time and lack of responsitivity from our customer care teams.
Is there a solution for this?
Thanks!
I'm afraid that the text
yes, close my request
cannot be modified as this is part of the placeholder{{autoreply.article_count}}
which adds a list of up to three articles in the request and inserts the buttons Yes, close my request, and View article.I encourage you to create a new post in the Guide Product Feedback topic in our community to engage with other users who have similar needs and discuss possible workarounds. Conversations with a high level of engagement ultimately get flagged for product managers to review when they go through roadmap planning.
Hello,
I have a scenario where I want to serve suggested articles in a local language based on a specified custom field value I am setting from my contact form. Is this presently supported ?
The Scenario: Based on the language a user selected,and submit a contact form with, we are setting a custom field to pick that locale. Based on that we are sending auto reply to the customer. Our dynamic contents seems to be working fine with this (some if and else to achieve that). But we noticed the article suggestion below the body of the autoreply does not, it always defaults to english (default user language). Is there a way to specify which locale to serve the articles in?
I created a ticket for your question as we may need to do some testing in order to check the possibility of achieving your workflow. Our team will reach out to you via email.
Thanks!
How can this placeholder be both optional and required?

Hi Cristian Cernaianu,
Would you mind sharing your use case? Although we cannot change the placeholder rule, may I know why would you like placeholders to be both required and optional?
Cristian Cernaianu,
I think the {{autoreply.article_count}} in #5 is a typo.
Arianne Batiles
Can you confirm if that was indeed a typo?
That's right. Thanks for flagging, Walter. The first placeholder should be
We'll be updating this article shortly. Thanks!
Hi Arianne,
I don't want the placeholder to be both required and optional at the same time, I just asked how is it possible. =)
Sorry for not phrasing it clearer and thank you for flagging the article to be fixed.
Hi Walter,
I assumed that it was a mistake. Thank you for clarifying the situation.
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