Writing an Instant Greeting That Doesn't Sound Like a Bot

September 1, 2026 · the WarmReply team

A good Yelp instant greeting names the customer, repeats the job they asked about in plain language, and sets an honest expectation for when a person will follow up, nothing more. WarmReply’s instant greeting runs on merge fields for first name, business name, job type, and requested dates, sent once per lead within seconds, and it reads as human precisely because it stays specific instead of generic.

Why do most auto-replies sound obviously automated?

Usually because they’re vague on purpose, trying to cover every possible job with one message: “Thanks for reaching out! We’ll get back to you soon!” That line works for literally any inquiry, which is exactly the tell — a real person replying to a specific Request a Quote would reference the specific job. Yelp’s customers chose Request a Quote over calling partly because they typed real details into that form; a greeting that ignores those details reads as a template rather than a business paying attention. Yelp reports 84% of its users prefer RAQ over calling, worth remembering that these customers already gave you specifics to work with.

What should the greeting actually include?

Four things, using the merge fields WarmReply supports: the customer’s first name, so it doesn’t read as a broadcast; your business name, so it’s clear who’s replying; the job type they requested, pulled from their own Request a Quote details; and the dates they asked about, if they gave any. A greeting built from those four fields sounds like: “Hi [first name], thanks for reaching out to [business name] about [job type] — we saw you’re looking at [requested dates] and we’ll follow up shortly with next steps.” That’s specific enough to feel like someone actually read the request, because in a structural sense, someone, or something reading the same fields a person would — did.

What should the greeting avoid saying?

Avoid promising a response time you can’t guarantee, and avoid asking questions the customer already answered on the Request a Quote form. If they already told Yelp their ZIP code and the job type, asking “what area are you in and what do you need done?” in the very next message signals the greeting didn’t actually look at their submission, which undercuts the point of sending one instantly.

Is one greeting per lead enough, or does it need to keep talking?

WarmReply sends the instant greeting once, when the lead first arrives — it isn’t a chatbot carrying the rest of the conversation. That’s a deliberate boundary: the greeting’s job is to close the gap between the lead landing and a real person replying, not to negotiate scope or price on your behalf. Everything after the greeting is a person typing into the same HighLevel conversation, replying back into the Yelp thread with delivery confirmed by Yelp.

Does the greeting replace a real reply?

No, and it shouldn’t try to. Yelp’s own data suggests customers are twice as likely to respond when a business replies within an hour with real project detail, that’s a person engaging with specifics, not an automated line. The greeting buys the minutes before that happens; it doesn’t substitute for it. One more thing worth knowing: HighLevel workflows can tag, assign, or notify your team off a new Yelp lead, but they can’t send a reply through the Yelp channel itself — the instant greeting and any follow-up have to come from WarmReply’s greeting feature or from a person, since HighLevel doesn’t allow standard messaging actions on this kind of custom channel.

Where do you set this up?

The greeting is owner-written once, during setup, and then runs automatically per lead after that. For the full walkthrough of where the greeting fits alongside the rest of the Yelp-to-HighLevel sync, see how WarmReply handles Yelp Request a Quote conversations in HighLevel.

WarmReply is $49/month with a 14-day free trial, install it from the HighLevel marketplace.

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