If you’ve tried to build an ecommerce autoresponder in Onsite Support, you may have had trouble with message delivery or Amazon’s 24-hour SLA. But don’t worry—your free ChannelReply integration can solve those problems for you. Just follow the guide below to create an autoresponder for Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, Shopify, eBay, Back Market or Newegg.
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Important Notes
How Timing Works in Our Onsite Support Autoresponder
When the autoresponder is triggered in Onsite, the autoreply will appear immediately on the ticket. It will be posted by “System” rather than by one of your agents.
The message will be immediately followed by an internal note. This will be credited to “Integration User” or to the user who integrated ChannelReply with Onsite. It will state the time when your autoreply is scheduled to be delivered to the customer, which should be sometime within the next hour.
Once the reply is delivered to the customer, a second internal note will appear with the time the message was delivered.
You can safely answer your messages at any time. If an agent replies before the "Autoreply delivered" note appears, the autoreply will be canceled. The agent’s response is delivered to the customer immediately instead.
Limitations with Some Marketplaces
If you follow this guide, Amazon, eBay and Newegg’s systems will treat these replies as human responses. However, if you sell on Etsy, Walmart or Back Market, there are some limitations you should know about.
Etsy sellers: It's important to note that autoreplies do not appear in Etsy Messages and cannot be delivered in some cases.
If an Etsy customer contacts you about an order, ChannelReply will deliver your autoreply to the customer's email address. The customer will get your autoreply, but it will not count toward Etsy Star Seller requirements.
If an Etsy customer contacts you through a listing or your seller profile, Etsy will not provide their email address. Your autoreply will therefore not be delivered.
Walmart sellers: Walmart does not count autoreplies toward their response time requirements. Under Walmart’s Customer Care Requirements, a human must reply to every message within 48 hours.
Back Market sellers: Since Back Market handles most support on behalf of sellers, the few tickets they send your way usually require your direct attention. Most replies also go to the Back Market support team rather than directly to your customer.
We therefore don't recommend setting up a Back Market autoresponder at this time. However, if you decide to set one up, it will work flawlessly.
1. Prevent Rule Violations and Extra Autoreplies with Tags
Since marketplaces like eBay and Amazon often have strict rules on communication, it’s best to be careful. We recommend creating an autoresponder just for ChannelReply and using other rules for your other tickets.
Make Sure You Have ChannelReply Tags
If you haven’t done so already, set up ChannelReply tags for all marketplace accounts you have connected to ChannelReply. It only takes a few seconds per account!
Exclude ChannelReply Messages from Existing Autoresponders
Once your tags are all set, go to your Onsite Support account. Click “Administration” (the gear icon in the lower left), then choose “Automation & Notifications.”
See if you already have any auto-reply rules in place, like “Ticket is Created - Auto-Reply.” If you do, you can simply disable them by unchecking them, then skip ahead to step 2.
If you’d prefer to keep an existing autoresponder, click “Edit” (the pencil icon on its right).
Make sure “Conditions” are set to “Match All.”
Click “Add condition.” Then enter the following:
Object: Tag | is not | (enter all your ChannelReply selling account tags here)
Click “Submit” once you’re finished.
Be sure to repeat for any other autoresponder rules that may affect ChannelReply tickets.
2. Ensure Delivery with Custom Fields
To ensure your replies count toward systems like Amazon’s 24-hour SLA, we recommend setting up our custom fields for Onsite Support. These can automatically personalize your auto-replies. That way, they’re more helpful to the customer and never contain the exact same text.
3. Create a ChannelReply Autoresponder in Onsite Support
Return to your Administration > Automation & Notifications screen in Onsite. Click “New Trigger.”
Configure the new trigger as follows:
Name
Give the rule an easy-to-remember name like “ChannelReply Autoresponder” or “Amazon Autoresponder.”
Event
Leave the Event set to “Object is Created.”
Conditions
Leave “Conditions” set to “Match All.” Click “Add Condition.”
Enter the following condition:
User: Team | is | User's Team
Hit "Add Condition" again.
Enter the following condition:
Object: Tag | is | (enter the ChannelReply tags of all selling accounts you want this autoresponder to work with)
Hit “Add Condition” again, and then enter the following:
Object: Tag | is not | (enter all automatic tags related to all marketplaces this autoresponder will work with)
Set Actions
Click “Add Action.”
Select the following:
Notify | Author | Custom Template
You now have two fields, visible in the screenshot above: Subject and Body.
Leave the Subject line blank. It must be blank to be consistently compatible with ChannelReply.
Note: Your customers will receive messages with the original ticket's subject line. You don't have to worry about them receiving emails with blank subjects.
Body is an HTML field. If you know HTML, you can use it to format your autoreply. Just note that not all marketplaces accept HTML, and some (like Amazon) even have rules restricting the kind of formatting you can use. It’s safest to stick with only entering text and variables unless you are certain about your marketplaces' rules.
Best Practices for Autoresponder Messages
Many marketplaces, like Amazon and eBay, have systems set up to automatically mark overused autoreplies as spam. Here’s how to make sure your autoreplies go through (and even count as answers) every time:
- Write the most human-sounding autoreply you can. Avoid using stuffy business language.
- Use our custom fields for Onsite Support. These can automatically personalize your message with details like the status of the customer's order and their order ID. That way, no two messages will be exactly the same.
- Plus, once you’ve created custom fields in ChannelReply, they’ll appear under “Variables.” That makes them super easy to add to autoreplies!
- Be very careful to avoid including any marketing materials, contact info, or links. Sites like eBay and Amazon often block any message that contains so much as a single link or phone number. (Exception: This is not usually a problem for Shopify messages.)
Save & Activate
Once all the above settings are filled in, just hit “Submit.”
You’ll see a success notification, then be taken back to the Automation & Notifications screen.
The success notification shown above will only be visible for a second or so before you are redirected.
Your autoresponder will now leap into action on exactly the tickets you want it to!
4. (Optional) Create a Follow-Up Autoresponder
The autoresponder you just created will autoreply to the first message in each ticket. If you want to autoreply to every message in each ticket, you'll need to set up a follow-up autoresponder as well.
To create a follow-up autoresponder, simply repeat step 3, but change the event to "Comment is Created."
Be sure to make the name of your trigger and the content of your message different from your initial autoreply. Beyond that, everything else can stay the same.
Please feel welcome to contact us if you have any questions. Our Awesome Support Team is always happy to help!
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