u/Background-Buy8048

If you’re still manually replying to routine emails and forwarding them internally, this three-step Zap will sort it in about 20 minutes.

The setup:

•	Trigger: Gmail — New Email Matching Search (add your keywords — “absence”, “invoice”, “booking”, whatever applies to you)

•	Action 1: Gmail — Reply to Email (map the thread ID from step 1 or it sends a new email instead of replying in thread — this is the bit most people miss)

•	Action 2: Gmail — Send Email (forward the original to your internal inbox)

That’s it. Zapier watches your inbox, catches anything matching your keywords, sends a templated reply to the sender, and copies it internally. Nobody touches it manually.

I use this for absence requests but I’ve seen it used for customer enquiries, supplier emails, HR inboxes — anything where the same type of email keeps arriving and always needs the same response.

Took me longer than it should have to figure out the thread ID mapping so hopefully this saves someone the headache.