Respond Faster with Replies

Understanding Your Reply Toolkit

The Replies page has three tabs, and they do different jobs:

Creating Your First Quick Reply

Quick Replies are the foundation of efficient support. Instead of typing "Thanks for reaching out! Let me look into that for you..." a hundred times a day, you create it once and use it forever.

Start with a group

Every quick reply lives in a group, so the Add Reply button stays greyed out until you have one. Click Add Group at the bottom of the list, type a name like "Sales" or "Billing", and confirm with the check. You can have up to 10 groups, rename or reorder them from the gear icon on the group header, and delete one once it's empty.

Building a template that works

1. 1
   Open Replies

   Click the Replies icon in the sidebar (the speech bubble icon). You'll land on the Quick Replies tab.

2. 2
   Click "Add Reply"

   Top right of the tab. The Create Quick Reply dialog opens.

3. 3
   Give it a clear title

   This is what your team sees when selecting replies, and it's capped at 100 characters. Be specific: "Shipping Policy" is better than "Policy Info".

4. 4
   Pick the group

   The Select group dropdown defaults to your first group. Whichever you choose is how agents will find this reply mid-conversation.

5. 5
   Write your message

   The editor has bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, code and emoji, plus an Edit / Preview toggle. Up to 2,000 characters. Keep it conversational—this isn't a legal document.

6. 6
   Add a personal touch with variables

   Click the Variables button above the editor and insert {{customer.first_name}} at the start. Now every reply feels personal.

7. 7
   Optionally attach one file

   Click Add next to Attachments to pick a file from your library, upload a new one, or drop in a location pin. One attachment per reply.

Using Quick Replies in Conversations

Creating replies is only half the story. The payoff comes mid-conversation, when a two-paragraph answer is one click away.

The quick replies bar

When you open any conversation, look directly above the message input. You'll see one pill per group, each with the number of replies it holds. Groups with no replies in them are hidden.

When a customer messages you, they're wondering: "Did they get my message? How long until someone responds?" Auto replies answer that in seconds. They acknowledge—the actual answering is the AI first responder's job, or a human's.

Two types of auto replies

Which one fires depends on your company working hours, set under Manage. A customer gets at most one auto reply, ever—repeat conversations don't re-trigger it. And on channels where the AI first responder is answering, the AI handles the opening instead, so no auto reply is sent.

Creating your first auto reply

1. 1
   Go to the Auto Replies tab

   Click the Replies icon in the sidebar, then select the "Auto Replies" tab.

2. 2
   Choose your mode

   Each section has its own dropdown. Leave it on the "Send…" option to switch that message on, or set it to Disabled.

3. 3
   Add a variant

   Click "Add Variant", name it ("Friendly", "Short"), and write the message. Set expectations: "Hi! Someone from the team is on this—expect a reply within 10 minutes." Variables work here too.

A/B testing your messages

Not sure which wording works best? Create several variants per section and let the data decide. Each customer gets one at random, and the table tracks:

• Sent count — How many times each variant was used
• Thumbs up/down — Customer feedback, collected on every channel that can render buttons or reactions
• Score — Helpfulness, resolution rate and engagement combined into one percentage

The Scoring Weights box at the bottom of the tab decides how much each of those three counts toward the score. It ships weighted 0.40 helpfulness, 0.50 resolution, 0.10 engagement. Figures cover the last 90 days.

When you find a winner, click the trophy icon: that variant stays active and the rest are switched off. The counter-clockwise arrow resets one variant's stats, and the Active switch takes a variant out of rotation without deleting it.

Channels and surveys

Enabled Channels lists every messaging channel auto replies can go out on—click one to toggle it off. Your own mailbox and X aren't in the list. Below the variants, Disable Survey on Auto-Replies stops CSAT surveys from riding along with these automated messages.

Mastering Variables

Variables are what transform generic templates into personalized conversations. Instead of "Dear Customer," you write "Hi Sarah." Instead of "our support email," you write the actual email. Here's everything you can use:

Built-in variables

Every card on the Variables tab has a copy button, so you can grab the exact syntax instead of retyping it. A variable with nothing behind it resolves to empty text—a contact with no name turns "Hi {{customer.first_name}}," into "Hi ,". Use the display name or a plain greeting when you can't be sure the field is filled.

Creating custom variables Admin / Owner Only

Need to reference your support email, business hours, or return policy URL in multiple replies? Create a custom variable once, use it everywhere.

1. 1
   Go to the Variables tab
2. 2
   Click "Add Variable"
3. 3
   Fill in Variable Key, Display Label and Value

   Keys take letters, numbers and underscores only. Key support_emailuse as {{custom.support_email}}

Now when your support email changes, update it in one place and every reply using that variable updates automatically.

Best Practices & Tips