What do you do when you get too many great emails? These are people who have taken the time to write but, to put it simply, I don’t have the time to respond individually. I know from personal experience that many just choose to not respond at all. I hate that. Instead, I have fashioned a response. My question, is this better than just not responding at all? Either way, I expect some grief.
Here is my current response:
Thank you for your email. I appreciate that you have taken the time to send your question, comment or feedback. As you might imagine, I receive a great deal of email and though I would like to answer each one individually that is simply not possible with my schedule. I know from personal experience that it is disappointing to send an email to someone who does not respond at all. Instead, I have fashioned this reply to let you know that I have personally read your email, but unfortunately, am not able to individually reply.
Thank you again for contacting me,
Michael W. Geoghegan
Willnick Productions, Inc.
Michael@willnick.com
V: 800.507.3651 ext. 707
F: 949.861.9025
I figure that with the phone number, if they are upset enough, they will call me personally.
If you are truly reading each of their emails then it really takes very little time to send a one or two sentence response that means the world to the sender. When I was editing two web sites I was responding to more than one hundred emails each day.
If you are not reading their emails then I think it is worse to send a note that implies you are than to not reply at all.
As for your conclusion that if they are upset enough they will call you – some will. But for many businesses it is the people who leave without giving you any feedback that are the greatest losses. Someone who has taken time to write to you has given you some feedback (or wants something from you).
On a personal note, I have recently suffered a personal tragedy. I have heard from many friends – but I have also heard from people who I encountered only in passing. People whose only contact with me was a one or two sentence response to an email they sent me. That matters a lot to people.
From my brief experience with you, you ARE very generous with your time and you DO care about people – this can’t be an easy question for you to be asking and answering.
Best,
D
I can only speak about my experience with Adam Curry. I’m always, ALWAYS amazed when I get a reply back from him. Same goes for a few other personalities in the blogosphere. I say even if it’s automated, it’s better than nothing at all. And Adam’s responses always seemed to be related to the thing most interesting to him at that VERY moment. So I say, reserve a non-automated response for those ultra timely, ultra pertinent mails that come in at a good time. If all these stars cross, then fire off a reasonable missive, and let it go at that. You did your job, and people will know that you don’t ALWAYS send out automated replies, and you reserve the right of being jazzed up, and ultra interested in particular emails when it’s a particularly convenient time of day to reply. I think that’s fair.
I think your draft response is too long and too apologetic, and the phrase, “as you might imagine” came across to me as a tad arrogant, as in “I’m sure you can understand that someone as important as I am is deluged with e-mails like yours..” I’d agree with Daniel that wherever possible, some sort of quick response is best, even a “thanks for your message” that lets the correspondent know you read what he or she sent.
I struggle with this very same issue. On average I receive no less than 25 legit emails per day directly related to our podcast. Add in personal emails, that number can go much higher. I do not have an answer to the problem, but I try to do a number of things.
If applicaple, I request the sender post their comment on out site, so others may respond (as well as me).
I keep maintain about 50 template/boilerplate message. I keep these at my disposal to cover most issues. I have written these in such a way that they are not personalized in any way. They do not need modification. However, the CASUAL reader will feel they are getting a personalized response.
For example:
“Thanks for the email. With all the SPAM I get every day, it’s nice to discover an email that I actually want to read. In terms of your question, I strongly feel you should post this on my site. I have a feeling that others may be interested in your question, and more importantly, maybe have better input than me (duh!).”
I have my boilerplates organized in such a way that I can respond very quickly.
Jay