Effective communication is crucial in today's workplaces, where it's important to stay connected and get things done. Slack is a tool that has changed the way we talk to each other with its simple design and useful features. However, managing a lot of messages, especially the repetitive ones, can waste valuable time and break our focus. That's where Slack Auto Response comes to the rescue—it helps make communication smoother and boosts productivity.

By automatically replying to common questions or setting up messages for when you're away, Slack auto response offers an easy way to keep communication quick and efficient. In this blog, we'll explain everything you need to know about Slack auto response, how to set it up, and how it can greatly improve efficiency at work.

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What Is Slack Auto Response?

An auto-response sends automated, repeated messages in Slack whenever certain triggers or keywords are detected. This feature enables the support team to maintain a continuous presence, quickly answer frequently asked questions, and provide instant acknowledgment to customers at any time, even outside of business hours.‍

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‍Why Is Auto Responder an Essential Tool for Support Teams?

Auto responses can significantly enhance support interaction in four important ways.

1. Time-Saving: Repetitive questions like “What’s the Wi-Fi password?” or “Who do I contact for IT support?” can eat into valuable time. Slack Auto Response automates answers to such queries, freeing up employees to focus on more critical tasks.
2. Enhanced Efficiency: Automation minimizes interruptions and keeps workflows smooth. For example, customer support teams can use auto-responses to acknowledge tickets instantly while they work on resolving issues.
3. Consistent Messaging: Predefined replies ensure clarity and consistency, reducing the chances of miscommunication. This is especially valuable in large organizations where uniform messaging is critical.
4. Reduced Stress for Teams: Knowing that basic inquiries are handled automatically helps reduce stress and improve morale, particularly during high-demand periods.

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How to Set Up Auto Reply in Slack?

Here are three easy ways to set up automatic replies in Slack:

1. With Slackbot: Choose words that will trigger automatic responses.
2. Through Slack workflows: Set conditions in a channel that automatically sends messages or responses.
3. With ClearFeed: Create automatic "Out of Office" replies or answers in Slack.

Let's take a look at each below.

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A. How to Setup Automated Responses Using a Slackbot?

To setup automated responses using Slackbot, perform the following steps:

1. Launch Slack, and locate your Slack workspace name at the top-left corner. Click on it to drop down the menu, then select 'Tools’ -> 'Customise workspace' as shown below:

2. The above action will redirect you to your default web browser, opening the Slack Admin page.
3. Find and click the 'Slackbot' tab on the Slack Admin page. Here, you will be able to start creating your auto responses.
4. Find and select the 'Add New Response' button. This is where you can provide the content for your automated replies or messages.

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5. In the left panel, input the words or phrases you'd like Slackbot to recognize and respond to. You can program Slackbot to respond to multiple triggers by including multiple keywords or phrases separated by c

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B. How to Set Automated Responses Using Slack Workflows

To set automated responses using Slack Workflows, perform the following steps:

1. From the Slack desktop application, open the "..." menu on the left pane and click on Automations and select New Workflow.

2. One can create workflows that post a predefined reply to any message with an emoji, as shown below. This works in channels where emojis are used to signal tasks that need attention.

3. Publishing the workflow will turn on the automatic response.

C. How to Set Automated Responses in Slack Using ClearFeed?

ClearFeed is a conversational support platform for Slack that helps support teams scale customer and employee support to hundreds of Slack channels and users. One of the key functionalities of such software is enabling automated responses. ClearFeed supports both out-of-office responses and automated answers based on FAQs and knowledge bases. Here's how:

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How to Set Out-of-Office Responses in Slack Using ClearFeed

Once ClearFeed is installed in a Slack workspace, the following steps can be followed to set out-of-office responses in Slack:

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1. First, users can set business hours for their team from Business Schedules & SLA > Business Schedules, as shown below.

2. Now, they can define automated response workflows on specific Slack channels where support requests are posted. These responses can be enabled/disabled for different categories of customer requests with different delay timers, as shown below. ClearFeed's software automatically identifies new customer requests and combines related ones where appropriate.

Further details are available in our blog on automated OOO replies.

‍Automated Responses Using Knowledge Bases in ClearFeed

1. Users can add knowledge sources in ClearFeed. Currently, ClearFeed supports knowledge sources like public documentation websites, Notion, Google Docs, KBs in Zendesk and Freshdesk, etc. An example is shown below:

2. Once a knowledge source is configured, it can be configured to generate answers and search results for either a triage channel (where agents are reviewing support requests) or directly for customer-facing request channels. An example suggested answer in a Triage Channel is shown below:

Further details are available in our blog on GPT-powered answers.

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How ClearFeed Addresses Challenges with Slack Auto Responses

As we have seen, while Slack provides a couple of different ways within Slack to post automated responses, these suffer from a lack of critical functionality:

• There is no way of setting up business hours in Slack - neither at a personal level nor at a team level.
• Slackbot provides a way to set up automated responses only at a personal level, and those are also based only on specific keywords.
• Workflows work at a workspace level and are useful for support teams but lack integration with business schedules.
• Workflows can also only be triggered by emoji reactions. Slack lacks the capabilities to automatically identify new requests by customers in a Slack channel, to combine multiple messages into a single request (where appropriate), and so on.

ClearFeed addresses these fundamental challenges and goes further by seamlessly bringing in your documentation and knowledge bases to respond to customer requests on Slack automatically.

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Getting Started with ClearFeed

ClearFeed provides a holistic solution to service teams looking to scale engagement and support on Slack channels. Some of the world's top technology companies use ClearFeed to improve customer experiences and make support teams efficient. You can get started with ClearFeed by signing up for the service, reaching out to us at support@clearfeed.ai, joining our community Slack channel, or booking a free demo with us to understand better our product and how we can help.