Quick Start
What is respond.io?
Setting Up an Account
Connecting Channels
Inviting Your Teammates
Getting Contacts to Message You
Automated Welcome and Away Messages
Responding to Messages
Glossary of Terms
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Getting Ready for Inbound Conversations
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How to Automate Product Info Sharing in Conversations Initiated via CTC Ads
How to Automatically Qualify Contacts Based on Budget Using AI Agent
Assignment Strategy: How to Automate Contact Distribution & Load Balancing
How to Maximize Customer Service Potential with AI Agent
How to Automate Contact Information Collection with AI
How to Block Contacts and Manage Spam
How to Create Automated Welcome and Away Messages
How to Create Automated Chat Menus
How to Route Contacts to Preferred AI Agent
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How to Optimize Customer Onboarding with Automated & Customized Welcome Messages
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How to Transfer Contacts to the Next Shift Automatically
How to Optimize Agents’ Productivity in the Inbox Module
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How to Draft Customer Replies with AI
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How to Automate Lifecycle Tracking in Google Sheets
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How to Route VIP Contacts
How to Send CSAT to Customer and Save Data in Google Sheets or CRMs
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How to Send a Simple Broadcast
How to Start a Workflow Based on Broadcast Response
How to Import to Broadcast via WhatsApp
How to Troubleshoot a Failed Broadcast
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Dialogflow Overview
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Table of Contents
- Home
- Quick Start
- Automated Welcome and Away Messages
Automated Welcome and Away Messages
When someone messages your business, you’ll want to respond to them as soon as possible. Automated welcome and away messages allow an immediate response and can be used to manage Contacts’ expectations.
Benefits of Welcome and Away Messages
Use welcome and away messages to:
- Provide a standard greeting and introduction to your business.
- Respond to Contacts immediately.
- Let Contacts know when they can expect a reply.
Methods for Sending Welcome and Away Messages
1. Send a basic automated reply when a Contact opens a conversation.
2. Send welcome and away messages based on business hours.
Send a basic automated reply when a Contact opens a conversation
Method Objectives
- Set up the Workflow templates to send a welcome or away message.
Workflow Setup
There are Workflow templates set up by our team that you can use immediately. These templates can be edited to fit your business needs.
Set up the Workflow templates to send a welcome or away message
On the respond.io platform menu, click Workflows > + Add Workflow and choose your templates.
To send a welcome message, click Welcome Message > Use Template
To send an away message, click Away Message > Use Template
The Workflow template is set up with a Trigger and the Send a Message step. This sends an automated reply to Contacts when a conversation is opened.
Edit the welcome and away messages to send an automated reply
Send a Message step configuration for Welcome Message
Send a Message step configuration for Away Message
A basic Away Message lets Contacts know that no one is currently available. Turn this Workflow on when agents are all away and turn it off when they’re back online.
Send welcome and away messages based on business hours
Method Objectives
- Set up the Workflow templates to send a welcome or away message based on business hours
- Configure business hours to send an automated reply
- Configure Welcome and Away message steps if needed
Workflow Setup
There are Workflow templates set up by our team that you can use immediately. You can edit the templates to fit your business needs.
Set up the Workflow templates to send a welcome or away message based on business hours
On the respond.io platform menu, click Workflows > + Add Workflow. Then, Click Away Message with Business Hours > Use Template.
To send an away message based on business hours, click Away Message with Business Hours > Use Template
The Workflow template is set up with a Trigger, Date & Time step and the Send a Message step. This sends an automated reply to Contacts when a conversation is opened based on business hours.
Configure business hours to send an automated reply
Use the Date & Time Step to set your business hours.
Configure Welcome and Away message steps if needed
Use the Send a Message Step to send an automatic welcome or away message.
Click the Welcome Message or Away Message step to edit the Message Content. The Message Type should remain as Text. Finally, click Save and Publish to activate the Workflow.
Feeling stuck? Do not fear.
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Getting Contacts to Message You
Responding to Messages
Related Articles
How to Create Automated Welcome and Away Messages
Learn how to set up automated welcome and away messages to respond to customers immediately.
Step: Send a Message
Learn about the configuration, best practices and use cases when implementing the Send a Message Step.
How to Optimize Customer Onboarding with Automated & Customized Welcome Messages
Learn how to automatically send customized welcome messages to Contacts coming from various messaging channels and assign them to relevant agents with whom they have interacted earlier.
