Glossary
How should outreach handle an out of office auto reply?
An out of office auto reply is an automatic notice that the person is away, often with a return date and a colleague to contact. It is not a reply from the person, so it should not count in your reply rate, should not be answered by an AI agent and should not use up a follow up. The right move is to pause and write again after they return.
Published by Sellinger AI. Numbers and settings checked on 24 October 2026 against the fact register. Report an error.
Why is an auto reply not a real reply?
Because nobody read your message. Counting auto replies as replies inflates reply rates, especially in holiday months. Answering them wastes a message, and a reply to a robot that later lands in the person's inbox looks careless. Treat them as delivery information: the address works, and the person is away until a date.
What should you do with the information in it?
- Note the return date and pause the sequence until a few days after it.
- Do not write to the named colleague unless they are a sensible contact for your topic.
- If there is no date, wait a few weeks before the next touch.
- If the notice says the person has left the company, treat it as a change of contact, not an absence.
How is it different from other automatic mail?
| Kind | Example | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Absence notice | Out of office until 3 November | Pause, then resume after the return |
| Helpdesk acknowledgement | Your ticket number is 4821 | Hand to a person; nobody is coming back |
| No reply sender or survey | Rate your experience | Ignore as a reply; hand to a person if needed |
| Bounce | Address not found | Remove or correct the address |
How Sellinger handles it
An out of office or other absence notice is not counted as a reply from the person: the agent does not answer it, it does not use up a follow up step, and the lead is contacted again 7 days after the return date the notice gives, or after 21 days when no date can be read. This applies on email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Automatic replies from helpdesks, no reply senders, satisfaction surveys and empty messages are marked as machine mail. They never count as a human reply, the agent does not answer them, and the lead is sent to a person with a named reason.
Common questions
Do out of office replies count toward reply rate in Sellinger?
Should I email the colleague named in the auto reply?
What if the person never comes back?
Sources and method
Sellinger behaviour from the fact register (auto reply and machine mail entries), read from the product code on 24 October 2026. Table examples are illustrative.
Related: Reply rate, Keeping AI agents out of machine mail, Sentiment analysis, Email sequence.
