Auto-response rule in Salesforce

  • March 21, 2022

Auto-response rules let you automatically send email responses to lead or case submissions based on the record’s attributes. For example, you can send an automatic reply to customers to let them know someone at your company received their inquiry.

There are two types of auto-response rule:

Lead auto-response, which you use to send automated email responses to leads created by web-to-lead.

Case auto-response, which you use to send automated email responses based on cases created by:

  • Self-service portal
  • Customer portal
  • Web-to-case form
  • Email-to-case message
  • On-demand email-to-case message

NOTE: Auto-response rules will not trigger if the records are created manually through the user interface.

Setting up auto-response rules in Salesforce

  • From Setup, enter Auto-Response Rules in the Quick Find box, then select either Lead Auto-Response Rule or Case Auto-Response Rule.
  • Choose New, then give the rule a name. Specify whether you want this to be the active rule for leads or cases submitted. Then click Save.

NOTE: At any point, there can be only one auto-response rule (one for Lead and one for Case). So, if an active rule already exists and you create a new active rule for same object, the new rule will be active and the previous rule will be deactivated.

  • Once the rule is created, you can create multiple entries for the rule. Rule entry includes the following sections:
    • Sort order, which determines the order of evaluation of rule entries.
    • Select the criteria for the rule entry. Entry criteria determines the rule entry through which the email notification will trigger.

      You will get options here:
      • Criteria are met — and select the filter criteria that a record must meet to trigger the rule.

        For example, set a case filter to Priority = High if you want case records with the priority field marked high to trigger the rule.

        If your organization uses multiple languages, enter filter values in your default language. You can add up to 25 filter criteria, each of which can be up to 255 characters. When you use picklists to specify filter criteria, the selected values are stored in the organization’s default language. If you edit or clone existing filter criteria, first set the Default Language on the Company Information page to the same language used to set the original filter criteria. Otherwise, the filter criteria may not be evaluated as expected.
      • Formula evaluates to true — and enter a formula that returns a value of “True” or “False.” Salesforce triggers the rule if the formula returns “True.”
    • Specify the name of your mailbox and the email address to include on the auto-response message from line. The email address should be a verified organization-wide address.
    • Select the email template for the auto-response rule.

      For example: If your organization has set up web-to-lead on the web-to-lead form, it will include a required picklist field called Interested Product that has three values — Monitor, Motherboard and Graphics-card.

      The three email temples that you have are:
      • Inquiry for Monitor
      • Inquiry for Motherboard
      • Inquiry for Graphics-card

      If any lead is submitted using the web-to-lead form with Interested Product = Monitor, then the email should be sent to lead using the “Inquiry for Monitor” template. The same is true for the other two options.

      Step 1: Go to Setup and search for Lead Auto-Response Rule

      Step 2: Click New and name the rule “Interested Products”

      Step 3. In Rule entries, click New and fill in the following details:

      • Sort Order = 1
      • Run this rule if the criteria are met (Lead: Interested Product = Monitor)
      • Name and email address (enter the name and address of your mailbox)
      • Email Template = (Inquiry for Monitor)

      Step 4: Do the same for the other two options

— By Rishabh Dubey