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Set Up Auto-Response Rules
Auto-response rules let you automatically send email responses to lead or case submissions based on the record’s attributes. For example, you can send an automatic reply to customers to let them know someone at your company received their inquiry.
Required Editions
| View supported editions. |
| User Permissions Needed | |
|---|---|
| To create auto-response rules: | Customize Application |
Create auto-response rules for leads captured through a Web-to-Lead form and for cases submitted through a:
- Self-Service portal
- Customer Portal
- Web-to-Case form
- Email-to-Case message
- On-Demand Email-to-Case message
Case auto-response rules are also available in the Essentials edition.
Create as many response rules as you like based on any attribute of the incoming lead or case. Keep in mind that you can activate only one rule for leads and one rule for cases at a time. Your team can see the email responses in the Activity History related list for the lead or contact and in the Email related list on cases.
Emails sent from case auto-response rules don’t count towards the daily limit for outbound email messages.
Create Auto-Response Rules
To create a Web-to-Lead response rule, from Setup, enter Auto-Response Rules in the Quick Find box, then select Lead Auto-Response Rules. To create a response rule for cases, from Setup, enter Auto-Response Rules in the Quick Find box, then select Case Auto-Response Rules. On the Auto-Response Rules page:
- Click New.
- Enter the rule name.
- To activate this rule, select Active.
- Click Save.
- Create rule entries.
Create Response Rule Entries
- Click New from the rule detail page.
- Enter a number to specify the order this entry is processed.
- The rule processes entries in this order. The rule stops processing at the first matching entry, and then Salesforce sends the email using the specified email template.
- If no auto-response rules apply, then Salesforce sends an email using the default template specified on the Web-to-Case or Web-to-Lead Settings page.
Note To create an error-proof rule, always create the last rule entry with no criteria. This rule entry catches any leads or cases that the previous rule entries did not. This practice is especially important for Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case, which don't have default templates. - Enter your rule criteria:
- Choose criteria are met and select the filter criteria that a
record must meet to trigger the rule. For example, set a case filter to
Priority equals High if you want case records with the
Priority field marked High to trigger the rule.
If your organization uses multiple languages, enter filter values in your organization’s default language. You can add up to 25 filter criteria of up to 255 characters each.
When you use picklists to specify filter criteria, the selected values are stored in the organization's default language. If you edit or clone existing filter criteria, first set the Default Language on the Company Information page to the same language that was used to set the original filter criteria. Otherwise, the filter criteria may not be evaluated as expected.
- Choose formula evaluates to true and enter a formula that
returns a value of “True” or “False.” Salesforce triggers
the rule if the formula returns “True.” For example, the formula
AND(ISPICKVAL(Priority,"High"),Version<4.0)triggers a rule that automatically responds with the selected template when the Priority field on a case is set to High and the value of a custom field named Version on the case is less than four.
- Choose criteria are met and select the filter criteria that a
record must meet to trigger the rule. For example, set a case filter to
Priority equals High if you want case records with the
Priority field marked High to trigger the rule.
- Enter the name to include on the From line of the auto-response message.
- Enter the email address to include on the From line of the auto-response message. This email address must be either one of your verified organization-wide email addresses or the email address in your Salesforce user profile. This email address must be different than the routing addresses that’s used for Email-to-Case.
- If you want, enter a reply-to address.
- Select an email template.
- If you’re creating a response rule entry for Email-to-Case, select Send response to all recipients to send auto-response messages to anyone included in the To and Cc fields in the original message.
- Save your work.
- Differences Between Auto-Response Rules and Workflow Email Alerts
Auto-response rules and workflow email alerts provide similar functionality. This table lists some of the differences between workflow alerts and auto-response rules, so you can decide which process to use.
