Okay… so we have come to the day where I may have a little rant. It happens once in a while so bear with me.

I have experienced something over the past few months that continues to annoy me. My mom always taught me if you cannot say anything nice don’t say anything at all, so I thought I would write it down – maybe my opinion is not the majority and if that is the case – you all can tell me so and I will stop being annoyed and accept it.

Auto Email Replies…

I am not referring to email marketing but those auto replies some business owners setup that come back as a reply for every single email they receive. Or maybe not every one, but for the ones where they are contacted via their website contact page.

You know the type I mean :

XXX thanks you for your message. This email is checked at least twice a day at 8am and 8pm, we will reply to your email as soon as possible.
Sincerely,

OR how about:

Your email has been sent to my account. I will respond to it as soon as possible, but please do not hesitate to call me at XXX if you don’t hear from me soon.

Even better:

Thank you for your email, I will respond to it as soon as possible, in the meantime you can Like us on Facebook.

This one tells a life story:

I am leaving Thursday morning for my annual Conference in Chicago. I won’t be available on 4/13/12 and 4/14/12 as I’m using this time to focus on my business. I will be back in my office on Monday 4/17/12. If you need something done before I leave on 4/13/12, please get back to me prior to the end of the day on Monday, 4/10/12.

Even this seemingly simple one is also on my list:

Thanks for your email, your message is important to me and will be answered shortly.

Now…maybe it is me but I find these annoying and amusing at the same time.

My reasons for this are very mixed as well, but primarily come in about what I feel these emails are telling me about the business owner who set them up and to whom I have sent an email.

1. You are in business, and are telling me you only check your email every 12 hours!!!
2. I know my email was sent, I emailed it and guess what, if I did email it – it is because I don’t want to call you. Besides …what does ‘soon’ mean?
3. Like you on Facebook? I have emailed for a reason and that most certainly is not it.
4. Don’t even get me going on this one… I need a calculator to figure it out.
5. If my message is so important to you, then answer it for real, is all I keep thinking.

Truly what I feel happens with these auto reply messages is that the real message that goes back out is: I am very busy, too busy to directly reply so in the meantime I will have this auto response go out so you know I am busy and that my reply is coming. The added fun comes in how they are all worded.

 
It is like the thank you card for the gift, that gets acknowledged with a thank you card, prompting another thank you card – it can turn into a neve ending loop.  Imagine what would happen if one email gets sent and gets an auto reply, to which someone has now set-up an auto reply. Yikes, the two emails could shut down entire systems sending the notes back and forth.

 
Overall I think people understand these days that immediate responses do not happen with email. The world is filled with people who are more than overwhlemed with email and many are getting help to manage it or setting time aside each day to deal with it in order to stay productive. Few people in this day and age will expect an immediate response - if they do, you can expect to get a phone call, skype message or a text not an email.

 
We all get there are email issues in everyone’s inbox – and boundaries are a reality now.

 
If you plan to use a tool like these auto replies, really think about what message your are sending – it may turn out to be very different than your intended goal of the auto reply. You may find that by the time you do check your email at 8pm, the person who sent it was so annoyed at your auto reply they have moved on and emailed someone else.

 
My opinion??? STOP IT!

 
You can keep them coming because I enjoy them and they also can inspire some of my blog posts… but you will not see me setting one up and depending on why I sent you an email – you may also never hear back from me after sending an auto reply. 

Sooo… what’s your opinion? Love ‘em, Hate ‘em… Don’t Care? What say you?

Technorati Tags: email management, small business marketing, using email auto responders