4 ms·
Automate your way to productivity
- lsc 16y agooutside of a few very well defined cases where you always need a certain piece of information to move further or where you need to notify someone that some particular action was taken (for example, when someone signs up with me, and I want to confirm that I got the signup and ask for a public key) are canned responses better than no response? right now, my system sends an auto-response when you email the support@prgmr.com address. I'm not sure at all that this is the right thing to do... it clutters up the requesters mailbox and really conveys no info other than "the ticket system got your email" which, I think, can be assumed.
- stsmytherie 16y agoBased on my experience, there are a few cases where automated responses are the right thing to do. But it really depends a lot on your specific situation. Out-of-office messages are, of course, a type of canned response that can be used well in scenarios where people you don't interact with on a daily basis may contact you and need to know when to expect a response or who else to contact. I worked for a magazine where we accepted article pitches from readers via email. We had a response to acknowledge receipt, link to guidelines, and tell them what to expect (we'll take a look and get back to you later). Acknowledgement goes a long ways toward building good will with customers/partners/audience in a lot of situations. Easy to overlook, but "I hear you. Thanks." makes people feel good, even if it's a canned response. I'll admit that these kinds of throw-away emails can contribute to the firehose of information and inbox overflow, but I'll deal with it. A lot of times a simple "Thanks, got it" email from a colleague lets me know I don't have to follow up later and can move on to the next fire drill.