Comments on: Auto-Responder Email replies: Ur doin it WRONG.

By: Do You Really Have A Four Hour Work Week? - Brass Flowers UX/UI, design, and marketing blog

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:28:20 +0000

[...] Shankman, general cool dude, wrote a great blog post about how people are doing email autoresponders all wrong. Out of his list of five email autoresponder sins, the fifth one has to do with people [...]

By: Ann

Ann — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 01:44:50 +0000

My out of office pet peeve is “I’m out to lunch” or “I’m gone for the day’” — You are out to lunch if you have to tell me that!

By: Jim Martell

Jim Martell — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:24:37 +0000

In addition to the ones you’ve noted, my pet peeve is the auto-response that assumes I’m reading it immediately, or that I know who it’s from, or anything else. E.g., “I’m out of the office, returning Monday.” Great. Very helpful. And warm. And professional. Oops — it’s actually none of those.

How about something warm, professional AND useful? Try: “Thanks for your email. Unfortunately, I have limited (or no) access to email or voicemail until Monday, January 2, 2012, at 9am ET. In an emergency, please call my assistant Nancy White @ (888) 555-1212 or email her @ nancywhite@fakemail.com. Else, I’ll respond as soon as possible upon my return. Thanks again! Happy New Year!

Jim Martell
Martell Security Consultants, LLC
(404) xxx-yyyy”

Short, sweet, informative. But not too much of any of the above.

By the way, if you electronically reveal that you’re out of town, on vacation, etc., you’re asking for trouble. Why would you volunteer that kind of information to strangers? Just say you don’t have access, or that your access is limited, until whenever it won’t be! The person trying to reach you does not need to know that your home and family are vulnerable as you are not in the same area code until such-and-such. Same goes for foursquare, trip-it, and similar apps on various online media.

By: Adrian Miller

Adrian Miller — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:56:46 +0000

I am friggin’ in love with this post. I just got the “I’m on vacation and you’re not you poor overworked schmuck” auto-responder and now I feel like a loser at this holiday time and quess what, I just don’t think that I need their marketing services after all! Sore loser. You betcha but hey, on my laptop, it’s all about me:)

By: Betsy Kent

Betsy Kent — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:12:17 +0000

Thanks for making me laugh. I hate them too!