Contact form

How do you reply automatically to contact form requests?

To reply automatically to your website's contact form requests, route its email notification to a Muzau agent. It writes to the visitor the notification points to, not to the form's technical address, using what it knows about your offers, prices and lead times. Since the visitor did not write to the agent, the reply waits for you in "To approve" and goes out in one click. On the agent's address, a form marked as trusted can let it go out on its own.

Why contact form requests wait

A contact form does not pass you a visitor's email: it sends you a notification, often from a technical address, with the fields listed one under the other. Clicking "Reply" writes to the form, not to the person. You have to copy their address, find a subject line, then write. So the notification waits until the evening, or the next day.

The visitor, meanwhile, took the time to describe what they are looking for. Their request is ready to move forward, and every hour without a reply cools it down. Your team keeps the meeting, the quote and the relationship; the first written reply is what the agent prepares.

How the agent goes about it

Input

The email notification from your contact form

It does

Finds the visitor's address, reads their request, drafts a first message

It delivers

A reply addressed to the visitor, ready in "To approve"

Three ways to hand your contact form to the agent

Any form that sends an email works: WordPress, Webflow, Google Forms, Typeform, Tally. Either its notification reaches the agent's address, directly or forwarded from your inbox. Or you connect your Gmail, Outlook or IMAP inbox: Muzau spots form notifications from the last 30 days on its own, and with one click on "It's for the agent", the following ones go to it. Or, if the form sends no email, it passes its requests along through a secure web address protected by a key. Typeform and Tally also connect directly: see replying to a Typeform or Tally form.

The agent writes to the visitor, not to the form's "no-reply" address

The agent does not reply to the notification's technical address. It finds the visitor's address in the reply-to address. If the notification is forwarded to it from your inbox, or arrives in a connected inbox, it also reads it in a form field, "Email" for example. In a connected inbox, you can designate that field if needed. A notification that points to nobody is ignored.

A reply to the visitor written as a first message

The visitor has not received anything from you yet, so the agent writes as a first message. It replies with what the Brain knows about your offers, prices, lead times and rules, and looks up the page of your site that answers a specific question. If it finds nothing, it tells the visitor so and the question comes back to you. At the bottom, in small print, the reply carries a note that it was prepared by your company's AI assistant. An agent that qualifies prospects also gathers the information you have chosen.

The form reply waits for your approval, unless the form is trusted

On the agent's address, the notification is handled as soon as it arrives, day or night. Since the visitor did not write to the agent, the reply waits for you in "To approve". Muzau emails you right away, then reminds you if it is still waiting after four hours. You send it as it is, edit its text, or set it aside. You can also mark your form's address as trusted: if its messages are authenticated and the agent is set to reply on its own, the reply goes out without you, unless it has doubts. In a connected inbox, it always waits for you.

Replying to a contact form request: the first email

The visitor did not write to you from their own inbox: your reply comes from an address they do not know yet. It has to say where it comes from. Whether you write it or review it, check five points.

• The subject line: the topic of their request, not that of the notification, "New contact form message".
• The first line: "You wrote to us from our website about [their request, in their words]." They do not mistake the email for an ad.
• The answer: what can be said right away, a price, a lead time, the link to the right page.
• A single step: one question, one time slot or one document.
• The signature: a first name, and a way to reach the team.

Three mistakes come up again and again. Replying to the notification, which goes back to the technical address. Writing from a "no-reply" address yourself: the visitor can no longer answer you. Sending only "we have received your request": if you need time to price it, see the acknowledgement of a quote request.

In the notification, put the visitor's address in "Reply-To", if your tool allows it. And fill in your form from time to time, as a visitor would: does the notification arrive, outside the spam folder, at an address read every day?

What it does not do

• It does not reply to a notification that does not point to the visitor: with no reply-to address and no readable field, a "no-reply" notification is ignored.
• In a connected inbox, the reply to the visitor always waits for your approval: the trust given to a form only applies on the agent's address.
• It only spots forms on its own in a connected inbox, and only those with at least two "label: value" fields and the visitor's address in a field.

Frequently asked questions

How do you reply to a contact form that comes from a no-reply address?

Do not reply to the notification: write to the address the visitor typed into the form. A Muzau agent finds it in the notification's reply-to address, or in the field that holds the email when the notification is forwarded to it or arrives in a connected inbox. A notification that points to nobody is ignored.

How do you set up an automatic reply on a WordPress contact form?

WordPress form plugins generally let you send the visitor a confirmation email, set up in the form's notifications. It confirms receipt without answering the request. For a real reply, route the notification to a Muzau agent: it writes to the visitor with what it knows about your company and, by default, you review it before it goes out.

Can an automatic contact form reply go out without review?

With a Muzau agent, yes, if the notification reaches the agent's address from an authenticated address you have marked as trusted, the agent is set to reply on its own and it has no doubts about its reply. Otherwise, and always in a connected inbox, the reply waits for you in "To approve", where one click is enough to send it.

What should you do with contact form requests left unanswered in recent weeks?

In a connected Gmail, Outlook or IMAP inbox, Muzau shows you the form notifications from the last 30 days, so you recognize the form. One click on "It's for the agent" hands the following notifications to the agent, not those already received: reply to those yourself, starting with the most recent.

How do you connect a contact form that sends no email to an AI agent?

Such a form can pass its requests to a Muzau agent through a secure web address protected by a key. Muzau prepares the steps for your site's tool, or a complete message for the person who looks after it. The key is shown only once: if lost, you have to make a new one, which cuts off the old one.