---
title: "Auto-reply to form enquiries with Outlook"
description: "Connect formformform to Microsoft Outlook so every enquiry gets an instant acknowledgement from your own mailbox. Setup steps, field mapping and fixes."
url: "https://www.formformform.com/automations/microsoft-outlook-auto-reply-new-enquiries"
type: static
generatedAt: "2026-08-23T18:56:58.727Z"
---
![Microsoft Outlook logo](/logos/integrations/microsoft-outlook.ico)

# Send an automatic acknowledgement to every new enquiry

Every enquiry gets a same-minute acknowledgement sent from your own Outlook mailbox, naming what was asked and when a real answer follows.

When this happens

New submission on your contact or quote-request form

Do this

Send an email from your Outlook mailbox to the person who submitted

One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form.

An enquiry form that asks for company size and timeline sets an expectation: someone is reading. The acknowledgement closes that loop within seconds, sent from the mailbox the prospect already has in their address book rather than a no-reply alias.

Firms with a long qualification step lean on it hardest — recruiters, B2B agencies, industrial suppliers. The reply cannot quote a price, so it does the next best thing: it repeats what was asked, names the person who will pick it up, and says when.

## Setting it up

1.  1
    
    Publish the business enquiry form and keep Work Email required. The acknowledgement has exactly one recipient and it comes from that field.
    
2.  2
    
    In Zapier, create a Zap with the formformform New Submission trigger and choose the enquiry form as the form to watch.
    
3.  3
    
    Add Microsoft Outlook as the action app, pick Send Email, and connect the mailbox prospects should see in their inbox — hello@ or newbusiness@, not a personal account.
    
4.  4
    
    Map Work Email into To. Leave CC and BCC empty so the message reads as one person writing to another.
    
5.  5
    
    Build the subject from Type of Inquiry, so a partnership enquiry and a supplier enquiry do not arrive under the same line.
    
6.  6
    
    Open the body with Full Name and Company Name, then quote Tell Us More back in full. That is the part which proves a person, not a robot, has the message.
    
7.  7
    
    Use Timeline to decide the promise the email makes: same working day for anything marked urgent, two days otherwise. Write it as a number rather than the word shortly.
    
8.  8
    
    Submit a test enquiry, check the reply arrives from the right address and not in Junk, then turn the Zap on.
    

## What maps where

Using the [Business Inquiry Form](https://www.formformform.com/templates/business-inquiry-form) as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way.

Form field

Microsoft Outlook

Work Email

To field of the Outlook message

Type of Inquiry

Subject line of the Outlook email

Full Name

Greeting line at the top of the email body

Company Name

Body, beside the greeting, so group enquiries are addressed correctly

Tell Us More

Body, quoted back under a "what we received" heading

Timeline

Body, where the reply promise is stated

## Variations worth knowing

Send a draft instead while you tune the wording

Swap Send Email for Create Draft for the first week. Every enquiry then produces a draft addressed to the prospect that you read before sending, which is the quickest way to find the sentences that sound wrong. Switch the action back once the wording settles.

Split urgent enquiries onto a second message

Add a Zapier path on Timeline. Anything marked immediate gets the acknowledgement plus a second Outlook email to your own address, so a short-fuse enquiry reaches you even when the shared inbox is only checked twice a day.

## If something isn't arriving

The acknowledgement goes out with an empty greeting.

Full Name was blank on that submission. Make the field required on the published form, and give the Outlook body a Zapier default value so the greeting falls back to Hello instead of leaving a gap.

Prospects say the reply came from a name they do not recognise.

Zapier sends as the connected Outlook account, display name included. Connect the mailbox you actually correspond from, and change the display name in Microsoft 365 rather than trying to override it inside the Zap.

## Frequently asked questions

Will the acknowledgement come from my own domain or from Zapier?

From your mailbox. Zapier signs in to Outlook and sends as the account you connected, so the prospect sees your address and your signature settings. Nothing in the header names formformform, though Outlook keeps the sent copy like any other message.

Can I send a different acknowledgement per enquiry type?

Yes. Add a Zapier path on Type of Inquiry and give each branch its own Outlook Send Email step. A partnership enquiry can promise a call, a supplier enquiry can point at your procurement page, and both still come from the same mailbox.

If the prospect replies, does the reply show up in the form?

No. The connection runs one way: a submission triggers the Outlook action and stops there. Replies live in your mailbox and the submission stays as it was recorded. Treat the responses table as the record of what was asked, and Outlook as the conversation.

## Related automations

-   [Add every event signup to your Outlook contacts](https://www.formformform.com/automations/microsoft-outlook-add-signups-to-contacts)
    
    Everyone who registers is written into your Outlook address book with their phone, employer and job title already filled in.
    
-   [Confirm every registration by email](https://www.formformform.com/automations/microsoft-outlook-confirm-event-registrations)
    
    Registrants get an instant confirmation from your event mailbox showing their ticket type, and the organiser keeps a BCC copy.
    
-   [Email each demo request to your sales inbox](https://www.formformform.com/automations/microsoft-outlook-alert-the-sales-inbox)
    
    Each demo request arrives in your shared Outlook inbox as a scannable email, so a rep can qualify it without opening another tool.
    
-   [Prepare a draft reply for every support ticket](https://www.formformform.com/automations/microsoft-outlook-draft-support-replies)
    
    Each support ticket produces a pre-filled Outlook draft addressed to the customer, ready for an agent to edit and send.
    
-   [Put each booking request on your Outlook calendar](https://www.formformform.com/automations/microsoft-outlook-add-bookings-to-calendar)
    
    A requested slot becomes a real Outlook calendar event, with the client's reason for the appointment sitting in the notes.
    
-   [Confirm every RSVP with the joining details](https://www.formformform.com/automations/gmail-confirm-event-rsvps)
    
    Registrants get a confirmation carrying the joining details, and the organiser mailbox is BCC'd on every one.
    

-   [All Microsoft Outlook integration details →](https://www.formformform.com/integrations/microsoft-outlook)
-   [Start from the Business Inquiry Form →](https://www.formformform.com/templates/business-inquiry-form)
-   [Browse every automation →](https://www.formformform.com/automations)

## Build the form first

The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow.

[Start free](https://app.formformform.com/register?utm_source=landing&utm_medium=bottom&utm_campaign=automations&utm_content=microsoft-outlook-auto-reply-new-enquiries)