Keyword auto-replies

Where comment-to-DM answers a public comment, keyword auto-replies answer a private message: an inbound DM, or a reply to one of your stories.

What it is good for

The three or four questions you answer every week. Opening hours. Where to book. The price list. The link you send forty times a month.

Setting one up

Trigger on DM keyword (or story reply), match on the word, and send your written reply. Add a link action if the answer is a URL.

Keep it shallow

The builder can branch, wait, split and hand off to other flows. Resist most of that for inbound replies.

A person who has messaged you wants an answer, not a menu. Two levels deep is usually one too many, and the most common failure mode of keyword systems is the customer who types the wrong thing three times and leaves.

Two rules that keep it usable:

• Have a path to a human. Notify a human exists for exactly this, and the inbox is where the conversation continues.
• Never leave a branch with no reply. Silence reads as broken.

Tagging as you go

Add tag and set custom field let a reply record what the person was asking about. That is what makes segments useful later: a segment of "people who asked about pricing" is only possible if something wrote that down at the time.

The sending rules still apply

Every send is subject to the platform's messaging window and disclosure rules. See staying inside platform rules.