Configuring E-Mail Auto-Responders in GoldMine

This is a question we get fairly often.  “How do you set up an auto-reply in GoldMine?”  We begin by telling customers that if they are looking to setup an out-of-office vacation auto-responder, I am sorry to say, GoldMine may not be the best solution.  The best place for that is their e-mail server or e-mail host.  Here’s why:

  • GoldMine must be open and auto-downloading ALL e-mail for it to be able to send out the response.
  • If GoldMine shuts down, or is logged off, or there is a power or network interruption, the auto-responder will stop working.
  • Setting it up and turning it on could be a little cumbersome.

If you still want to use GoldMine for your auto-responder, make sure you have a decent spam filter setup.  The last thing you want to do is auto-reply to spam… confirming this is a good address to send even more spam to.  Also, be sure to write good e-mail rules.  If you auto-respond to every e-mail, you might auto-reply to someone’s auto-reply and end up creating a crazy loop.  However, using GoldMine’s E-Mail Rules to auto-respond to specific items, move attachments, file to folders, mark as private, etc, can be extremely powerful.  All that said, let’s get started.

  1. Setup your e-mail template.  If you don’t already know how to do this, see the following blog post. Using E-Mail Templates
  2. Setup your e-mail rule.
    • Open the E-Mail Center, click the Actions button
    • Select Set up E-mail rules
    • Click the New button on the toolbar
    • Name the Rule and click Next
    • Click New to add ALL the various Conditions as you see fitConfiguring_Auto-Responders_01
    • Click Next
    • Click New to add the ConditionConfiguring_Auto-Responders_02
    • Click OK, then click Finish
    • After excluding various conditions, add a catch-all “From is Not Empty”.
    • Click the Save button on the toolbarConfiguring_Auto-Responders_03
  3. Configure your E-Mail Preferences.
    • Tools | Options | E-Mail tab | More Options… button | Retrieval tab
    • Turn on the “Retrieve mail every ___ minutes”
    • Consider activating “Skip messages from contacts not on file.  See GoldMine’s Built-in Spam Filter
    • Accounts button, then Edit button
    • Turn on “Auto-retrieve” and “Auto-delete”
    • OK, OK, OK
  4. Turn on/off the Rule as needed.  Notice the checkmark next to the title of the rule.  With that, you can turn it on when you are ready to leave the office and turn it off when you return.  Be sure to hit the Save button every time.

Again, an “out-of-office” isn’t the only reason one might want to set up an auto-reply from GoldMine.  Unlike most other auto-responders, GoldMine’s solution gives you a wide-variety of conditional logic you can apply, and can therefore be very helpful for many users!Configuring_Auto-Responders_04

A subject containing the work of “RMA” can be Re-directed to another user.  A body containing the word “Confidential” can cause the e-mail to be “Set as private”.  In the Actions window you can create multiple conditions such as Reply, Forward to another user, AND also Send E-mail, using another e-mail template, to someone else. The possibilities are endless!

 

Enjoy and Happy GoldMining!!

 

Related

Latest posts

Categories

Archive List