Don’t Overlook Your Autoreply
Email Marketing - Justin Premick - July 26th, 2007 - PermalinkLike many people, you probably receive far more email than you can process in real-time.
Some emails just have to wait. But what if the people emailing you need help now?
The autoreply function built into most email programs enables you to send an email acknowledging that you’ve received their message. Used well, this simple tool can help nurture your relationship with prospects before you even read their emails.
But it’s no good if, like too many small businesses, you don’t use it well — or at all.
Bad Example #1: The Nonexistent Autoreply
You can’t answer every single email right away, but your potential customers still have questions and problems that need answers. The longer you delay in helping them get those, the more likely they are to write you off and head to your competitors.
So why do so many businesses have no autoreply at all for their support or general inquiry addresses?
I just don’t get this. Businesses spend so much time on their website, blog, newsletter and other marketing elements, and yet overlook this key part of the customer experience.
Your autoreply isn’t part of a newsletter or an autoresponder sequence, but it’s still an opportunity to help customers and market your business in an email message. And it deserves the same attention you put into the messages that make up your email campaign.
If You Don’t Know What To Say, At Least Say This
Even a simple autoreply:
tells people you received their email, and when they can expect to hear from you. Not perfect, but it’s a start.
Something Is Better Than Nothing… But What’s Better Than Something?
There are too many bad types of autoreply to cover in one post. Let’s take them one by one.
In the meantime, think about your own autoreply and what it says to your potential customers. If you don’t have one yet… copy/paste the one above to get started 
What do you say in your autoreply?
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 8:07 am and is filed under Email Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment response, trackback from your own site, or permalink.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:43 am
thanks, i have rec’d your message
July 26th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Hi, thanks for emailing me! I’ll respond to your message as soon as possible (usually this is within 24 hours).
July 26th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Hi, thanks for emailing me! I’ll respond to your message as soon as possible (usually this is within 24 hours).
July 26th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I didn’t have one, but I will now. Thanks for the article!
July 26th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
We all want to serve our customers to the best of our ability, but I am not sure sending an autoreply to every message is the way to go.
In theory it sounds like a good way to let your customers know they have reached you, but doing so could present a problem that I would rather not face.
Sending autoreplies to every email I get would probably result in even more junk email than I receive now. Many of those autoreplies would be sent to non-existant email addresses being used by spammers. The result would be a rash of MAILER-DAEMONS showing up in my inbox along with the other junk.
Not only that, but oft times responding to junk/spam email alerts the sender to the fact that your email address is live. Armed with that fact you may see even more spam heading your way.
Just my two cents worth.
July 26th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Thanks for the email information. I had no idea such a thing existed. I will add that to my email. Thanks again for the article.!
July 26th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
HI,THANKS FOR THE EMAIL WILL REPLY ASP,(USALLY IN24HRS OR LESS)
July 26th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Hi,
The most interesting and alarming comment is from Ron Burns …
"Sending autoreplies to every email I get would probably result in even more junk email than I receive now. Many of those autoreplies would be sent to non-existant email addresses being used by spammers. The result would be a rash of MAILER-DAEMONS showing up in my inbox along with the other junk."
Can aWeber staff comment on what Ron has said because if this is correct it’s a really bad idea to put an auto responder in your customer emails.
July 27th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Hi Ron,
Thanks for bringing those points up!
If you are receiving spam at an address where you have an autoreply set up, yes, you’ll inevitably reply to spam messages sent to you. And yes, that may mean that you receive some delivery failures back from those.
There are a number of ways you could address that. The one that makes the most sense to me is to filter them to a specific folder on your mail program based on subject line (many web and software based email programs can do this). From there you can periodically review them to make sure that it is your autoreply generating them.
As for your comment that replying to spam tells the spammer that your email address is live… yes, this is a possibility. However, a spammer sophisticated enough to use that sort of tactic is also sophisticated enough to know that if spam sent to your address doesn’t bounce (which will be the case whether you reply or not), your address is likely valid. So I don’t know that you’re really losing much control over your inbox by using an autoreply.
Above all, while keeping spam out of our own inboxes is important, I think the benefit in using an autoreply (better serving current and potential customers and helping build the trust that ultimately leads to them doing business with us) outweighs the cost.
July 27th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
I use a macro to reply manually.
1) I see the message
2) I hit reply
3) I use a macro program like shortkeys to insert this message:
Hi, thanks for emailing us! We’ll respond to your message as soon as possible (usually this is right away or during the next business day).
BJ Nash
Super Soundproofing Senior Technical Advisor
Ph: (760) 752-3030 FAX: (760) 752-3040
E-mail: bjnash@soundproofing.org
Anytime (888) 942-7723
Visit us at: http://www.soundproofing.org
********************************
I may respond myself or forward it to someone else after more review.
July 27th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Instead of listing emails on our website, we have a submission form. The autoreply (thanks, we will respond in 24 hrs, etc.) only goes out to emails sent via that submission form.
See the form under Contact Us on http://www.thewealthspa.com
July 28th, 2007 at 3:26 am
Hi.
Thanks for emailing me!i’ll respond to your message ASAP ( with in 24 hours).
July 28th, 2007 at 7:48 am
I set up the filter program to recognise submissions through the contact form. They go to a separate folder. I check these folders first and reply. I thought about using the autoreply route but was concerned about me consistency and dealing with an email twice.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Justin -
Always appreciate your tips and know there is so much I can learn.
But, I sort of have to agree with Ron. If you’re autoreplying to everyone, doesn’t that open up the possibility of more people pushing the button to say "this is spam"? Some of the emails that get sent are using valid email addresses that have been harvested.
Unfortunately, I was using Elizabeth’s suggestion of using a submission form instead of email on my website. Then I started getting spam submissions. Then because of that, the autoreply going out started resulting in complaint reports.
Even after I took the form completely down off my web site, I still get several spam submissions (and therefore complaint reports) for a submission url that doesn’t even exist anymore.
So while I love tools like the autoreply, I’m very cautious. Those evil spammers have just made it so much more difficult.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
tHi, thanks for emailing me! I’ll respond to your message as soon as possible (usually his is within 24 hours).
July 28th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Kevin,
I have been using submission forms on our web site for quite some time. So far (knock on wood) I have not had many spam submissions through the use of these forms. Submission forms offer some protection against email harvesting, but they are not foolproof.
What I have done, rather than an using an autoreply, is set up a redirect that immediately takes the customer to a special "Thank You For Contacting Us" web page I created for this purpose. They are taken to this page immediately after depressing the "Submit" button.
Not quite as personal perhaps, but it seems to work well for us. Not only does it virtually eliminate the risk of those complaint reports you mentioned, but it also lessons our risk for additional junk mail.
July 29th, 2007 at 2:45 am
That was something which i never knew and have incorporated, should work great as i get almost 40 mails a day
Thanks
July 29th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
One way to eliminate completely "innocent" names being added and spammed with a confirmation email via our forms is for Aweber to add an optional "captcha" function into the form building process. (for those that don’t know, "captcha" is when you have to type in a series of masked letters to confirm you are a human and not a spam robot - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha).
This may not be a solution for everyone, but having the option would be great - especially for "customer support" types of opt-in boxes where the customer doesn’t mind the extra small step to get what they need.
July 30th, 2007 at 7:36 am
Thank you for all the excellent tips and advices.
I have use this specific one for several months. The initial autoreply sends a "Thank you for your inquiry. We will reply shortly, usually in 1 or 2 business days".
This gives me time to check the sender, block or reply.
5 days later a follow up message goes out with this:
"We strive to answer inquiries in 24 hours, though it may take up to 2-3 business days. This is a follow up on your your inquiry we received (date) from (email).
Did we send you a satisfactory answer?
Or, do you need further assistance? If so please send me an email, just hit reply or use our help desk. I am pleased to help you any time."
After this I post some sales talk that fits for the time.
I use this support responder to broadcast new product info and special offers. Funnily enough, the unsub frequency is almost nil, much lower than from my newsletter and catalogs. I find this a good list building strategy.
Thanks.
July 30th, 2007 at 9:47 am
One thing I now make sure to do, which seems obvious in retrospect, is to make sure I have at least two email addresses that make it to my email box: one with an auto-reply, and one without.
People who are corresponding with me on a regular basis are just annoyed when they get "thanked for their message" every time.
The other thing that’s easy to have slip your mind is remembering to change the autoreply when, for example, you’ll be on vacation and not necessarily able to "respond within 24 hours".
July 30th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
My autoresponse is based on what the email address is for. I’ve got a personal address (which is usually also my catch all address), and then I set up autoresponders with information (for example, if its a guideline request, I just have it set to email out. If its the address FOR submissions, again, I have a confirmation, and once a week, we review our acceptance/contact times.
If its a standard business address, I mark it as an autoresponse message:
*this is an autoresponse to your email*
Thank you for contacting us - we endeavor to reply within 24 hours during the week, and before or on Monday if you contact us at the weekend. If you have not recieved a response by then, or your matter is urgent, please contact me at (professional catch all (non autoresponder) address.
I’ve never had a complaint, and, as far as I know, no spam reports on any of them, but it is something I watch for.
We also have a captcha on our contact forms, that’s designed around answering simple maths, which cut down on spam quite a bit.
July 31st, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Thanks very much. I’m new to this technology, however I can see how these simple tips can help me as to losing customers.
August 3rd, 2007 at 12:50 am
I tend to think that autoreplies are a bit of a nuisance, especially in this day and age where our inboxes are already so full.
If we are talking about your customer support and you are relying solely on emails to do it, then you should really be re-thinking your whole customer support process.
Customer support is the most important part of your business - get this wrong and you may as well shut up shop now. I see it all the time, businesses who just list their email address and ask you to email them if you require support. What if you never get their email? How bad is that going to look. Not very professional.
Any business serious about looking after their customers should, at the very least, have a contact form on their website that the customer can simply fill in if they require support. This way you can send the customer to a thankyou page once they have submitted their question, explaining that you have received their question and will respond shortly. Another great thing about this is that on this thankyou page you could list answers to the most common questions or even a promotion for another product.
Another thing we are forgetting here is prevention. As we know prevention is far more successful than a cure. Making sure you have extensive FAQ pages that list answers to all the most common problems will help rid yourself of alot of the nuisance support emails. Another thing I like to do is write a very easy to follow instruction guide for any product I am selling, and I make sure that this is sent to all customers in their first few welcome emails. Tell them to download it and look their first should they have any problems.
I find the best solution is to make customers visit your FAQ pages first and only once they have been there are they able to click on a link to contact you for further support. Chances are the problem they are having has already been solved for them on your faq page.
Time is money. Any time you can save yourself will definitely pay off in the long run.
August 3rd, 2007 at 1:01 am
Oops…
Further to my last message, obviously a contact form is the bare minimum you should be using for your customer support. A much better alternative is one of the many help desk softwares available these days.
These are a much better solution as they help you log, track, and respond to all your enquiries in a professional manner. Further more, customers are able to login and check the status of their support ticket - which is great if they never got your reply email. Keeping records of all support tickets is good practice to.
One of the things I like about using these type of help desk solutions, is that customers need to create an account before they can login and submit a support ticket. What this means is that you will cut out all the questions from those who are just being lazy and asking you rather than going and reading the FAQ pages first.
A great help desk software I currently use is:
http://www.perldesk.com/
Check it out. It’s a bargain for what it does…
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
does anyone knows if there is any other information about this subject in other languages?