Create a Rule-Only Template take the pressure off your teams and let eDesk automatically handle the commonly-asked questions from your customers.

This help file will guide you through creating these automated templates.
 

Before you start

 
  • You’ll need to have access to Templates in your Settings in order to view, create and edit templates. If you don’t have access, you can request it from an Admin user within your business.  

Note: to find out more general information regarding Templates in eDesk, click here.
 

Everybody will recognize that there are some customer messages that come up again and again, like “Where’s my order?” or “Thanks for your help”. You can set up eDesk to spot common messages and then auto-respond to the customer with an appropriate template, freeing up your team to focus on the tickets that need the human touch. 

eDesk identifies common messages using rules. A rule contains a set of conditions such as Ticket Type is “Thank you” and Language is “English”. When an incoming customer message matches the conditions in the rule, the rule triggers actions that are automatically performed by eDesk. To read all about Message Rules, click here. 

We can bind a Rule-only template to a Message Rule so that when eDesk receives a message that matches the rule’s conditions, it auto-responds with the template.

For example: if the customer message is simply a thank you note in English, then eDesk can automatically respond with a template that reads “Dear #customer-first-name#, thank you for your feedback! We’re delighted that you are happy with the service you received from our team!”

01 Creating a Rule-only template

In this article, we’ll show you how to create a Rule-only template, which you can then bind to a rule. If you'd like to see some typical examples of how retailers use Rule-Only templates, including how to set them up, click here. 

  1. To create a new Rule-only template from scratch, go to Settings → Smart Tools → Templates, click + Add Template, and select Rule-only from the menu.
    Pro-tip: You can also create a new template from a copy of an existing template by selecting the three dots on the right.    

  2. First, you need to fill in the General information for the template. In the Template section, enter a unique name for the template, and tick the Active Template checkbox so that the template is shown in the Settings → Smart Tools → Templates → Active tab. eDesk will use a Rule-only template only when it is bound to a rule.

    Note: the Template Type field isn’t used for Rule-only templates so you can leave it unchanged.

  3. Complete the field in the Message and Language section. These are the same as the fields we use to create Manual templates, see here for a description.  

    Note: You can leave the Subject field blank as it won’t be used in an autoresponse.

    Click the Attach Invoice checkbox if you want eDesk to attach the customer’s invoice to the template.

    Note: The fields in the Usage Conditions section are not used for Rule-only templates, as we set the conditions in the rule. Leave this section unchanged.

  4. In the Rule only tab, you can configure when eDesk will send this template and also whether it should change the ticket status.

    • If you want eDesk to auto-respond with the template during recurring weekly time periods, complete the Date & Time Conditions section.

    • Alternatively, you can tell eDesk to auto-respond with the template during a one-off date period, e.g., during a national holiday, by completing the Date & Time conditions - One-off section.
      We also use these fields for Out-Of-Office and Autoreply templates; you can click here for instructions on completing these fields.

      Note: You can set either Date & Time Conditions OR Date & Time conditions - One-off for a Rule-only template.
      Date Time Conditions populated

  5. In the Autoresponder Options section, you can tell eDesk to delay sending the response and also place limits on how often the template is sent for a single ticket.

    • Delay: If you would like the template to simulate a response from a human Support Agent, you can delay eDesk’s response for a few minutes. This will also prevent Amazon from detecting that the response is automated. E.g., by setting the minimum to 0 and the maximum to 5, eDesk will send the response between 0 and 5 minutes after receiving the customer’s message.

    • Frequency: This tells eDesk how often to use this template for a single ticket. E.g., by setting the frequency to Once every 24 hours, then if the customer responds with further questions, eDesk won’t auto-respond to their message with this template again for 24 hours.

    • Exclude fields: Use this to exclude particular email addresses from receiving this template.

    • Include the channel signature: tick to include a signature at the bottom of the template for the channel. 

  6. In the Misc section, the Change Message status field allows you to tell eDesk to change the status of the message once it has sent this template.

  7. Optionally, if you want eDesk to ‘suggest’ this template for Agent Assist in relevant tickets, click the AI Settings tab and select an AI Classification. To find out more about Agent Assist templates, click here.

     8. Click Create Template to save the new template.

The new template is added to the list in Settings → Smart Tools → Templates. It won’t be used by eDesk until it’s bound to a rule.

The next steps are to bind the Rule-only template to a rule. For instructions on setting up a Message Rule, click here.

Further Reading

To find out more about Out-of-office and Auto-Reply templates, click here.

To learn more about Manual-Usage Templates with eDesk, click here.