How to Set Up an Auto-Reply as an Etsy Seller

In order to become an Etsy star seller, you need to have a message response score of 95% or higher. This means that you responded to at least 95% of messages within 24 hrs of a customer reaching out to you.  This can be tricky, as you aren’t always available to go back and forth with a customer, so how sellers do it?

Simple: they have an auto-reply set up to respond to a customer outside of the hours that the seller has set that they will be available. For example: I know that I am generally available to communicate on Etsy from 7am-2pm, and then I get back whenever I have time available. I set up an auto reply outside of 7am-2pm so that the customer gets an automatic response and that counts toward my 95% response rate.

Today, I will teach you this simple hack to help you climb the ladder to star seller status. This can take as little as a few minutes to set up and will be completely worth it in the end. Let’s get started!

How to Set Up Your Auto-Reply

1. You can’t do this yet in your Etsy Seller app, so you will need to log into Etsy.com in your internet browser.
2. On the left hand panel, there will be a button to open your “Messages”. Click it.
3. On the top of your screen you will see a button that says “auto-reply”. It is located to the left of the icon to compose a new message. Click it.
4. The button will give you a drop down menu with 2 options: “Temporary Auto-reply” and “Manage Weekly Auto-Replies”. The first option will be for when you are going on vacation or know you will be unavailable for a period of time. The second option allows you to create a message and set your weekly availability. Any messages outside of your availability will be responded to with an auto-reply. That is what we will be setting up.
5. Click on “manage weekly auto-replies”.  A dialogue will pop-up to manage your settings.
   1. First you have the option to turn on and off your auto-reply.  Turn it on.
   2. Next you will manage what you want your message to say. I’ll give you some tips below on what to include in your message.
   3.  The last setting to manage will be your availability. There are 2 criteria to meet in order to set up your auto reply: You need to be available for 4 days a week and 8 hours each day.  For me, I say that I’m available from 7am-3pm Monday-Thursday because I know that I can respond to messages during those times and on those days. Any messages that I receive outside of those times will get an auto-reply.
   4. Once you fill out this information, your auto-reply is ready!

What do I include in my auto-reply?

I have found that an auto-reply should be relatively short, but contain important information that might answer a customer’s question before you even need to respond.  For example, two questions that I get almost daily are “How do I download my files?” and “does this download contain [insert file format here]?”

To answer the first question, I originally just shared the steps to downloading files  Recently, I wrote a tutorial with pictures to answer this question, so I simply include that link in my auto-reply.

The second question is easy to answer: read the description.  To be more polite, I am straight forward that I don’t sell SVG files and to look in the description for the answer to their question.

MOST of my messages are cleared up just by having those two pieces of information in my auto-reply.  Not only does it save me time in the long run, but it offers a fast solution to your customers.  Win-win!

I always start any message sent to a customer with a friendly hello and I validate how important their time is to me and that I appreciate their sale.  This is something that I learned to do while working customer service for a few years.  I then answer questions, like I mentioned above, and then mention that they will hear from me soon.

An example of an auto-reply:

Thank you for reaching out! I will do my best to get back to you quickly. Because your time is valuable to me, I’ve answered some frequently asked questions below.

⭐️ HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR DIGITAL FILES ⭐️
I wrote a tutorial with pictures here:
http://inspiredbyjames.com/how-to-download-digital-files-on-etsy/

⭐️ HOW TO USE YOUR PRINTABLE⭐️
https://inspiredbyjames.com/how-to-use-your-printable-common-questions-answered/

⭐️ ADVERTISED FILE FORMAT ⭐️
The files you received are in the format that they were advertised in. There are NO SVG files included in a PNG bundle.

Please read product description prior to purchase.

⭐️ PERSONALIZED ORDERS ⭐️
I will respond to your request soon!

⭐️ RETURNS ⭐️
Due to Etsy policy and the nature of digital downloads, I do not accept returns. It is your responsibility to read the description before purchase.Some exceptions can be made.

That’s it!

As you can see, adding an auto-reply message is a quick and easy way to climb your way to star seller status.  It adds an extra layer of customer service to your business, and will also save you and your customer time in the long run.  I hope that this tutorial helped you out. Happy selling!