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Auto-Response Rule vs. Workflow Email Alert in Salesforce

Auto-Response Rule vs. Workflow Email Alert in Salesforce

Auto-response rules and workflow email alerts provide similar functionality. Generally speaking they are both ways to automatically send emails from Salesforce based upon changes to leads or cases, however, their use cases and functions are a bit different.

Workflow email alerts are designed to send out an email to anyone who needs to be notified of activity on a case or lead. Specifically, these alerts run when a case or lead is created or edited and can be sent to anyone you choose. Finally, it should be noted that workflow email alerts send only one email per email alert. 

Email alerts, in general, can be sent out from processes, flows, workflow rules, approval processes, or entitlement processes. Use cases for the workflow email alerts vary depending on your business needs but can include anything from notifying the rep assigned to a case when a new action is taken to keeping management in the loop on changes to high profile leads to keeping your sales team on top of their pipeline.

Our other automated email option for leads and cases, Auto-response rules, are designed to be sent to just the person who either submitted the lead on Web-to-Lead, or to the contact who created the case. These emails send out automatically when a new case or lead is submitted to Salesforce. This functionality sends one email based on the first rule entry criteria it matches in a sequence of rule entries.

Most commonly, these emails are variations of a ‘thank you’ notification and explain what next steps are being taken.

For a quick and easy breakdown, the following table lists some of the differences between workflow alerts and auto-response rules to help you determine which process to use:

TYPE OF PROCESS DESIGNED FOR RUNS WHEN SENDS EMAIL TO NUMBER OF EMAILS SENT
Workflow email alerts Notifications to interested parties. A case or lead is created or edited. Anyone you choose. Sends one email per email alert. Each workflow rule can have up to:

  • 10 email alerts as immediate actions
  • 10 email alerts per time trigger as time-dependent actions
  • 10 time triggers
Auto-response rules Initial response to the contact who created a case or the person who submitted the lead on the Web. A case or lead is created. Contact on a case or the person who submitted the lead on the Web. Sends one email based on the first rule entry criteria it matches in a sequence of rule entries.

 

-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz Team


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