Autopilot: How does email reply tracking work?

Autopilot allows you to track email replies and configure Journeys based on whether or not a contact has replied.

How do I configure reply tracking?

In Settings, go to Reply Tracking to configure your reply address:

This will be inserted as the Reply-to address in emails that have reply tracking enabled. Your From Email will still be what you specified in the email:

Next, enable the "Track replies" setting on your emails as desired:

Finally, remember to publish your Journey after you've enabled this setting.

What happens when a contact replies to a tracked email?

When a contact replies to an email their reply will be forwarded to the From Email that you specified in the email. So it's important that you use a valid From Email where you can receive email (for example, don't use a "no reply" address). 

You can also view the reply in the Activity Feed:

How do I configure a Journey based on whether or not a contact has replied?

You can do this using the email shapes (i.e. the Email Activity trigger, the Send Email action and the Check Email Status condition): 

How do I create a smart segment based on whether or not a contact has replied?

Create a smart segment, choose "Email status", then select either "Replied" or "Not replied":

You can select "Any Email", as demonstrated above, or select a specific email:

FAQ

If I'm using the same email more than once, but only enable the track replies option on one of them, what happens?

We'll only track replies for emails sent via the shape that has the setting enabled, even if you use the email more than once. Emails that are tracked are representing by the arrow on the envelope icon:

What if another account uses the same reply address as me?

This is completely fine; even if you want to use something generic, such as contact@reply.autopilotmail.io, and another account is using the same address, we use magic to ensure that replies to your emails end up in your account.

If I turn off reply tracking on an email, what happens to emails sent while it was enabled?

If you had reply tracking enabled, any emails sent prior to turning off reply tracking and re-publishing the Journey will still be tracked.

What happens if someone replies from a different email address?

Sometimes people have their emails forwarded to another address, and reply from it. We still track replies in these cases; they will be associated with the contact that you sent the email to.

Do out of office emails or auto responders count as replies?

No. To achieve this, we check:

• in the email headers whether an email identifies itself as an auto reply; or
• if the email reply was received in a short time frame (40 seconds or less).

If it does, we forward the reply along, but a reply event isn't triggered in Autopilot (which also means it won't display in the Activity Feed).

If you see something like this counted as a reply that you don't think should have been, please let us know.

Can I change the domain portion of the reply address?

No, the domain portion of the reply address, i.e. "@reply.autopilotmail.io" can't be changed. It's part of the unique infrastructure that powers this feature.

Where can I view reply metrics?

Reply metrics will be available in Insights in a future release.