Saturday, December 19, 2015

Holiday Out of Office Auto-responder

We know many of our customers are planning to work very hard during the upcoming holidays. However, if your are planning to be closed, be sure to create "holiday specific" auto-responders to keep your customers in the loop.

The following examples detail rules for setting auto-responders during the Christmas holiday. These can easily be used in conjunction with any current auto-responders already configured whether on a rule or on a folder. Just be sure to change the rank so the Holiday Rule overwrites the previous auto-responder as ReplyManager will only send one auto-response.

** Update for 2015.

Things to Remember
  1. Rank your holiday responders high, to have them be the first rule evaluated, and process rule "After Spam filter"
  2. Update your rule to be “Active” prior to the holiday
  3. Create your specific details for day and time
  4. Update your rule to "NO" (not be active) after the holiday. ReplyManager lets you save this rule to update and use again without having to delete it
  5. Be sure to use  "noreply@   for the "From" address. Sending an auto response to Spam email can create much unwanted emails back into the system
  6. Be sure to have a folder set up to move the email when the rule is matched
**Important Note for eBay and Amazon:  
For eBay API emails, remember that the eBay system messages and notifications rule along with the duplicate eBay emails rule needs to be set at a higher ranking than the auto-responder rule. Those particular emails need to be filtered first since ReplyManager cannot return a message to an eBay system message. Be sure to send an auto-response to only those specific messages from customers. The same holds for Amazon email, place the auto-responder rule ranking just below the system notifications rule.

These rules will automatically stop sending based on the dates you select. Be sure to customize the dates based on your holiday hours. You can use the same concept for New Year's or any holiday during the year.

eBay Christmas Out of Office Auto-Responder
Go to Maintenance > Rules. Add New Rule.



Amazon Christmas Out of Office Auto-Responder
Go to Maintenance > Rules. Add New Rule.






Your Website Christmas Out of Office Auto-Responder
Go to Maintenance > Rules. Add New Rule.



Related articles:
Automatically Answer Weekend & After Hours Email


by Dale Gaines
Customer Care