Customer support is one of the most valuable aspects of running a successful business. Connecting with customers can seem challenging at times. This is especially true when you have dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of customers, depending on your business size.
Slack is an increasingly popular channel for supporting customers for both external and internal customers. Automatic responses in Slack are critical to any such setup. It can be an easy way to give your customers quick responses in a personalized manner while also making customer service much more efficient. In this blog, we will discuss what auto-response messages in Slack are, where they can be used, and how to set them up. We will discuss how they can be set up using Slack and tools like ClearFeed for Customer Support scenarios.
What Is Slack Auto Response?
As the name suggests, an auto-response sends automated and recurring messages responding to specific triggers or keywords in Slack. This feature allows the support team to maintain an uninterrupted presence, address commonly asked questions instantly, and offer immediate acknowledgment to the customer at all times (including non-business hours).
Why Is Auto Responder an Essential Tool for Support Teams?
Auto responses can significantly enhance customer interaction in two important ways.
- Immediately acknowledging customer queries: In the service industry, timing is everything. Being able to promptly answer or at least acknowledge a customer's inquiries, even during non-working hours, not only avoids frustration but also demonstrates attentiveness to customer needs.
- Provide immediate solutions to common queries: Bots using AI and Search technologies can point customers to relevant resources for help or even provide a generated answer. Automated auto responses promote efficiency - part of the workload is automated, allowing the support team to focus on more complex inquiries.
How to Set Up Auto Reply in Slack?
Here are three easy ways to set up automatic replies in Slack:
- With Slackbot: Choose words that will trigger automatic responses.
- Through Slack Workflows: Set conditions in a channel that automatically sends messages or responses.
- With ClearFeed: Create automatic "Out of Office" replies or answers in Slack.
Let's take a look at each below.
A. How to Setup Automated Responses Using a Slackbot
To setup automated responses using Slackbot, perform the following steps:
- Launch Slack, and locate your Slack workspace name at the top-left corner. Click on it to drop down the menu, then select 'Tools & Settings' -> 'Customise Workspace' as shown below:
- The above action will redirect you to your default web browser, opening the Slack Admin page.
- Find and click the 'Slackbot' tab on the Slack Admin page. Here, you will be able to start creating your auto responses.
- Find and select the 'Add new response' button. This is where you can provide the content for your automated replies or messages.
- 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 commas.
B. How to Set Automated Responses Using Slack Workflows
To set automated responses using Slack Workflows, perform the following steps:
- From the Slack desktop application, open the "..." Menu on the left pane and click on Workflows -> Create Workflows, as shown in the screenshot below.
- 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.
- 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:
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:
- First, users can set business hours for their team from Settings -> SLA, as shown below.
- 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
- 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:
- 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.
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.
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.
