Auto-Responses

Auto-responses help B2B support teams stay clear and proactive. Whether you’re managing a surge in requests, navigating an incident, or just want to acknowledge a message quickly, auto-responses help you to set the right expectations with your customers from the start.

By automatically replying to new support threads under specific conditions, you keep customers informed, reduce duplicate follow-ups, and give your team the breathing room they need to respond thoughtfully.

To set one up auto-responses, go to Settings → Auto-responses

When Auto-responses Trigger

An auto-response is sent when a new thread is created with a small delay (~1 minute) to give the customer a chance to follow up.

You can configure them to trigger only under certain conditions, such as:

• Specific support addresses (e.g. support@, security@)

• Inside or outside business hours

• Threads with certain labels, tiers, or priorities

Supported Channels

Auto-responses can be enabled across multiple support channels:

• Slack – for threads started via Slack Connect

• API – for programmatically created threads

• Email – for inbound messages to your support inbox

• Chat – for sessions started in your website widget

You can set channel-specific replies, or tailor responses by customer tier or support hours.

Writing Effective Auto-responses

Keep your messages short, warm, and human. Overly scripted or link-heavy replies tend to be ignored.

A good auto-response might:

• Acknowledge the message

• Let the customer know you’ve received it

• Give a sense of when they can expect a reply

• Offer any immediate next steps (e.g. “We’re currently investigating the issue”)

Advanced Use: Custom Auto-responses via API

If you need more control – such as dynamic content or conditional logic – you can build interactive auto-responses using Plain’s API and webhooks. See our Thread autoresponders documentation for more.