An auto-reply tells customers straight away that their request has arrived, and gives them the ticket number to quote. It's set per help desk, and it's off until you switch it on.
Switching it on
- Go to Settings → Help Desks, pick the desk, and open the Settings tab.
- Turn on Auto-reply (Send automatic acknowledgement when tickets are created).
Only the desk's managers can switch auto-reply on or off and change the template. Every change is recorded in the Audit Log.
A ready-made template is filled in for you:
Hi {{contact_name}},
Thank you for reaching out. We've received your request and a member of our team will get back to you shortly.
Your reference number is {{ticket_id}}.
Best regards, {{desk_name}}
Changing the wording
Click Edit above the template, change the text, and click Save template. You can use these merge tags:
{{contact_name}}: the customer's name{{contact_email}}: the customer's email address{{ticket_id}}: the ticket number, such as HD-1182{{subject}}: the subject of their email{{desk_name}}: the help desk's name{{org_name}}: your workspace's name
To have one written for you, click Generate with AI, choose a Tone (Formal, Friendly or Playful), describe what it should say in What should it say? (for example your response times and business hours), and click Generate. Check the result, edit it if needed, and click Save template.
Letting the AI write each acknowledgement
Under the Auto-reply switch, in the same Auto-reply card, is Write the acknowledgement with AI. When it's on, the acknowledgement for a new ticket that arrives by email is written by the AI from your published help articles (and the desk's Notes for the AI assistant), so it can answer the customer's question rather than just confirm receipt.
- Whenever the AI can't answer confidently, your normal template is sent instead. The customer always gets exactly one acknowledgement.
- It's for email tickets only. Widget, portal and API tickets still get the plain template.
- It runs on your workspace's own AI key, so you pay your own AI provider.
- Only the desk's managers can switch it on, and only when Auto-reply is on and the workspace has an AI key under Settings → AI. Otherwise the switch is disabled and shows the reason; when the key is missing, the reason links to Settings → AI. Switching it off always works.
Because the AI repeats what your articles say, keep them accurate. See Your knowledge base: help articles for customers, agents and the AI.
When it's sent
An acknowledgement goes out when a new ticket is created from:
- an email to the desk's mailbox, or
- your website widget. Widget acknowledgements also quote back what the customer wrote under Your request:, and include a link to view the ticket online without signing in.
It isn't sent:
- when a customer replies to an existing ticket;
- for tickets your team creates, or tickets created through the REST API;
- to automated senders, so you don't end up in an endless loop with another system. That includes out-of-office and other auto-replies, mailing lists and bulk mail, and addresses such as noreply@, no-reply@, mailer-daemon@, postmaster@, notifications@ or alerts@. Their emails still become tickets; they just don't get an acknowledgement back.
The acknowledgement is sent from the desk's mailbox with the desk's name as the sender, and it appears in the ticket's conversation like any other reply. It needs a connected mailbox to go out, and during a free trial it counts towards the 50-emails-a-day sending limit.
Checking it from a ticket
On tickets from a desk with auto-reply switched on, a green envelope icon appears at the top of the ticket. Click it to see the template that was sent (Auto-reply is ON for this helpdesk).
Tip for widget users
If you use the website widget, keep auto-reply on for that desk. Without it, people who submit the form don't get a confirmation email or a link to their ticket. The widget snippet in Channels warns you when it's off.
Related: Can the AI reply to customer emails on its own? (and other places AI writes for you) · Connecting a mailbox: Gmail, Outlook, and IMAP · The embeddable widget: putting a contact form on your site · Why did a customer's reply open a new ticket?