“Automatic reply”... 🥁 4/10
One of the finest treasure troves on the internet is the YOU HAD ONE JOB meme.
(I’ve got plenty more where that came from if you’re in need of a pickmeup!)
The principle of doing one job applies to most things under the sun. Road markings. Teapots. Insurance policies. And indeed, emails.
Good pieces of communication only do one job on each side of the equation. One job for you, one job for your audience.
It’s a rule you see flouted in emails of all shapes and sizes, but there’s a genre of email that suffers more than average because it gets spliced and expanded as things change over time, like a Frankenstein’s monster on acid, and that’s customer service autoresponders.
A prime example revealed itself a few days ago...
The backstory:
Lovely people sometimes send me emails they’ve received that made their mouths pucker up in horror. Thank you, lovely people!
I wouldn’t normally do a teardown for those emails. One driver behind the Email Teardown Club is that it’s a guerrilla research channel for me. A place where I sharpen my fingernails on real live comms I’ve been sent as a customer. Not a place for drawing conclusions where I’m not a customer. (Sure, that can be a useful exercise too, but you can never say with certainty whether the message worked or not.)
In this case though I’m making an exception since I’m in the same bucket as the bloke in question.
List member Jamie and I are both knee-deep in the joys of property conveyancing at the moment. We also happen to be peas in a pod as far as personality and mindset go. We’re both very very impatient. We’re both thrifty to a fault. We’re both fascinated by the world of finance (he’s a pro, I’m more of a weekend hobbyist).
So I couldn’t not do a teardown when he showed me the creation you are about to see before you.
Are you ready to feast your eyes? Read on.
If you enjoy this teardown, please consider flicking it on to someone else who’d get a lot out of it ✌ (and if someone fabulous forwarded it to you, you can subscribe here, it’s free!).
Sender anonymised to Xxxx out of courtesy. Have a hunch? Guess away…
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Subject line: “Automatic reply: External: Re:...”
“Thank you for your email. Given the recent Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) changes by HM Revenue and Customs, and the ongoing effect of the Coronavirus pandemic, we are experiencing a very high level of calls, emails and client enquiries.
As always, we will work as quickly as we can to the highest level of quality.
We are working to progress your case. We will proactively contact you when it is appropriate and where your responses are required.
You can help us progress your transaction smoothly by only contacting us where it is essential to do so.
If you require an update on your case, please log into your case on the Xxxx Portal 24/7. And also review our Guides on the Portal which explain the steps in the process.”
There’s no point analysing that email line by line. You’re probably already reaching for the paracetamol.
Instead, I’ll do a bare bones rewrite (leaving the tone alone...ish) so the email does one job for the company (to reduce the influx of enquiries) and one job for the customer (to inform them about what they can and can’t get a human to help with).
Here we go:
Thank you for your email. Given the recent Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) changes by HM Revenue and Customs, and the ongoing effect of the Coronavirus pandemic, we are experiencing a very high level of calls, emails and client enquiries.
This means that unless answering your enquiry is essential for us to be able to progress your transaction, you might not get a response.
Please bear in mind:
If we need any information from you, we will proactively contact you.
You can get an update on your case 24/7 by logging into the Xxxx Portal.
You can find out more about each step in the process by reviewing our Guides on the Xxxx Portal.
---------- End ----------
Conclusion:
Email Teardown Club score = 4/10
This email has its heart in the right place. It’s obviously been through the ringer (curse ye, covid). It tries to explain the situation, be helpful, and manage expectations. All it needed was a fresh pair of eyes to bring it back to order.
Have you spotted any renegade autoresponders lately? What would you do to fix them?
Cheerio,
Corissa
P.S. Need a hand with your emails? Or know anyone who’s looking for help? I’ve got some availability at the mo and would love to chat! You can always reach me at this email address.
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These teardowns are my gut reactions as a customer, mashed together with my copywriter background, to investigate how messaging really lands outside the sender's ivory tower. I’m only a sample size of one. Agree or disagree with my take? Reply and tell me! I love exploring other perspectives.