Auto-pause and resume on out-of-office replies

Draft — written from product facts + domain knowledge; UI labels to be verified before publishing.

An out-of-office (OOO) auto-reply is not a real reply, and it should not stop your sequence for good. But sending follow-up 2 and 3 while the lead is on holiday wastes those steps. OutreachFox detects OOO messages, pauses the lead's sequence, reads the return date from the auto-reply where possible, and resumes the sequence after that date.

How it works

1. A reply arrives and AI reply categorization classifies it as Out of Office.
2. The lead's sequence is paused. The lead's status shows Paused (OOO) in the campaign Contacts tab, and the conversation gets the Out of Office badge in the Unified Inbox.
3. OutreachFox parses the auto-reply for a return date ("I will be back on 14 October", "returning 10/14"). If a date is found, the resume date is that date plus one day. If no date is found, the default pause length is used (see settings).
4. On the resume date the lead continues from the next unsent step, subject to the campaign's sending schedule and daily limits.
5. OOO replies are excluded from the Replies count and reply rate in analytics, and the lead is not counted as Replied.

Steps: enable and configure

1. In the left nav, click Campaigns and open the campaign.
2. Click Edit Campaign, then Settings, then Show Advanced Configurations.
3. Find Out-of-office handling and switch Auto-pause on out-of-office replies on. It is on by default for new campaigns.
4. Set Default pause duration for auto-replies with no readable return date. Recommended: 7 days.
5. Set Maximum pause to cap long absences. Recommended: 30 days. Beyond this the lead resumes anyway.
6. Choose what happens on resume: Continue from next step (recommended) or Resend the last step. Resending is useful if the last email is the one you want them to see first when they return.
7. Click Resume Campaign (live campaigns) or Save.

Steps: check and override a paused lead

1. Open the campaign and click Contacts.
2. Click Status and choose Paused. Each row shows the resume date.
3. To change the date, open the lead and click Edit resume date.
4. To resume immediately, select the lead and click Resume.

Tips

• Leave the default pause at 7 days. Most OOO replies without a date are for a week or less; a longer default delays real conversations.
• Watch for OOO replies that contain a colleague's contact ("please contact jane@..."). These are categorized as Out of Office but often name the right person — worth a manual look in the Out of Office filter once a week.
• Many companies' auto-replies also fire on every follow-up. OutreachFox only pauses on the first one; repeated OOO replies within the pause window are ignored.
• Around major holidays (late December, August in Europe), expect 10–20% of leads to go OOO. Keep the campaign running; the pauses spread the load.

Troubleshooting

• A real reply was classified as Out of Office. Open the conversation, click the category badge and change it to the correct category. The lead's sequence stops (a real reply always stops the sequence) and the lead is counted as replied.
• The lead resumed too early. The parsed date was wrong (common with formats like 03/04). Set a corrected resume date on the lead. Consider setting a longer default pause if this is frequent.
• The lead never resumed. Check the campaign is still live and the mailbox is connected; a paused campaign holds all resumes. Also check whether the lead unsubscribed or bounced in the meantime.
• OOO replies show up as Replied. Reply categorization is disabled or the custom categories override the default. Check Campaign Settings → Reply Categorization and make sure Out of Office exists and is enabled.

Related articles

• Set AI reply categorization to organize campaign responses
• How to check lead statuses and replies
• Unified Inbox overview: every reply from every mailbox and channel in one place
• Campaign analytics explained: sent, delivered, opens, replies, bounces, opportunities
• Creating sending schedules