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Stop Using noreply

ryanhoover.me

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Re: Stop Using noreply

#21

Post by notatoad »

This makes the rounds of the blogs every couple weeks, and yeah... If you use noreply@, you're going to negatively impact user engagement. But in reality, sometimes you just don't have time to talk to users. At least, not all of them.

I have time to provide good service to a limited number of my customers every day. Meaningless feel-good interactions reduce the number of meaningful interactions I can have. I check the no-reply inbox every couple days anyways, and in general the people who send email to that address instead of seeking out the support email on my homepage are the customers I'd rather lose. It's a good filter.

Re: Stop Using noreply

#22

Post by alttag »

notatoad wrote: post #21

This makes the rounds of the blogs every couple weeks, and yeah... If you use noreply@, you're going to negatively impact user engagement. But in reality, sometimes you just don't have time to talk to users. At least, not all of them. I have time to provide good service to a limited number of my customers every day. Meaningless feel-good interactions reduce the number of meaningful interactions I can have. I check th…

I once spent some time chatting with a guy who ran a handful of fire-and-forget IT side-businesses, including wifi/hotspot internet access.

His customer service philosophy was very simple: either you use and like the service, or he refunds the money. It wasn't altruism, it was self-interest. He didn't have time to do customer support, and was very blunt about it. Either customers corrected their own issues, or they were no longer customers. This was one of the ways he was able to have time for his several companies.

Re: Stop Using noreply

#23

Post by connortomas »

greenyoda wrote: post #4

"I replied and we shared a short conversation where I learned the meaning behind the name Quibb. Fun. :) And she does this for all new users. Bravo, Sandi! As Sandi has demonstrated, the Internet doesn’t have to be faceless. We need to stop communicating with robots." This idea doesn't scale very well. If you're a struggling little company that's trying to hold on to a handful of users (Quibb is currently "invite-onl…

I think it's possible to scale a personal approach to support.

Maybe, as Quibb grows, Sandi doesn't actually manually send each message. Maybe she sets up an autoresponder with a default welcome message. However, it's still possible to send automated messages in a personal way. Instead of the email coming from noreply@quibb.com, or even support@quibb.com (better), maybe Sandi continues to have the welcome emails sent from her personal company email. Maybe she continues to use a tone in that default message that suggests approachability. As you scale, there are always tricks you can use to make customers firmly believe you care.

Also worth considering: sure, Facebook don't personally interact with every new user, but you can be damn sure that they take a more personal approach when dealing with advertisers.

Re: Stop Using noreply

#24

Post by nagrom »

On a similar topic from a recent experience...I recently got into a conversation with KLM about delayed luggage. You fill in a web form that emails them with your complaint. They reply to your email address. If you reply to their email, you get an automated email back saying that they didn't receive your response and that all information must be communicated via a web form.

So now you must go into your sent box, copy the email and then go to the link on the klm.com website. You find your reference number, put it in and then paste the text of your email into the text box...and hopefully get a reply. (It's been 3 days.)

It really amazes me that companies are so bad at communication.

Re: Stop Using noreply

#25

Post by Roelven »

I don't agree with this. Having worked on the product side of several larger scale email infrastructures, it's impossible to scale this correctly. Yes, we all want to talk less with robots and appreciate getting a reply from a human, but if you're a web company looking to grow your product to be used by millions, you can't get this to work while keeping your co-workers happy (when I discussed something similar with our community support team they looked at me like they wanted to kill me).

There might be a way to scale it by filtering messages and sending certain replies on certain topics, but then again, your support team will ask you where the reply address will redirect to. Who will manage that inbox? Who needs to reply those emails? Do you want to increase the load on your support guys even more?

Re: Stop Using noreply

#26

Post by wolfhumble »

nhangen wrote: post #11
greenyoda wrote: post #4

"I replied and we shared a short conversation where I learned the meaning behind the name Quibb. Fun. :) And she does this for all new users. Bravo, Sandi! As Sandi has demonstrated, the Internet doesn’t have to be faceless. We need to stop communicating with robots." This idea doesn't scale very well. If you're a struggling little company that's trying to hold on to a handful of users (Quibb is currently "invite-onl…

I don't agree. I've personally emailed every single one of our IgnitionDeck customers, about 20% of which reply. It takes maybe 2-3 minutes extra per reply. Initially, I used TextExpander, and later, Intercom. These are paid customers though, so were I offering a free service I probably wouldn't have done so.

Care to share what software Intercom is? Don't seem to find it on typical Mac download sites or in the app store . . .

Re: Stop Using noreply

#27

Post by brandnewlow »

wolfhumble wrote: post #26
nhangen wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree. I've personally emailed every single one of our IgnitionDeck customers, about 20% of which reply. It takes maybe 2-3 minutes extra per reply. Initially, I used TextExpander, and later, Intercom. These are paid customers though, so were I offering a free service I probably wouldn't have done so.

Care to share what software Intercom is? Don't seem to find it on typical Mac download sites or in the app store . . .

http://intercom.io It's great.

Re: Stop Using noreply

#28

Post by IsTom »

I think this is a bad idea for the user in the long run, perhaps not only for the user. Think about how long does it take you now to recoginze and (not) read noreply@ e-mails? How long will this take when they are actually directed to you? There's enough distractions on the internet already and if more companies start doing this it will probably result in another arms race.

Re: Stop Using noreply

#29

Post by webjunkie »

I don't think noreply is about not wanting people to respond to your messages. It is rather a solution for all the garbage you get back when sending out email to thousands of people. You will get many many mailer deamon mails for people who typed their addresses wrong or whose mailbox is full (yes, there are still webhosts that have a 20 MB limit apparently). Filtering all this stuff takes lots of effort and seems like a bad thing to spent time on when you can just use noreply and include a "Have questions? Email us at service@example.com" line.

Re: Stop Using noreply

#30

Post by nhangen »

brandnewlow wrote: post #27
wolfhumble wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to share what software Intercom is? Don't seem to find it on typical Mac download sites or in the app store . . .

http://intercom.io It's great.

It really is. I think their pricing structure is a little off, but it's a service I gladly pay for and recommend. I met the guys at LessConf last year, and they're great people, so it's a win-win in my book.
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