How do you reply to your replies then?

Thanks to Gretchen Scheiman from Ogilvy in New York who made a great comment on our last post (it’s below – why NOT to use a ‘noreply’ email address in your email marketing), and so inspired this one…

Gretchen said something like  “that’s all very well for a big company with a big team of CSR’s but what about the rest ?”

I remember investing in a ‘letterbox drop’ promotion in one of my first businesses that produced vastly more leads (phone calls) than we expected. It was pandemonium that week as we juggled phones, staff and demand, but what I learned is that if you pick up the call, the money is way more likely to come in than if you let it ring.  I think using ‘noreply’ is a lot like letting the phone ring out. There are different ways we suggest managing replies, based on a number of key factors.

The most important one is probably ‘Is this reply likely to make you money?’, as the ROI is a key factor for all businesses – well it should be anyway!.  If responding to the client is likely to improve the chance that they will buy something from you – including affecting brand, loyalty, word of mouth as well as direct sale – then it should be easier to get buy in from your team that you need to put a good response process in place.

I would suggest some steps to consider are:

1. Know how many emails you expect to get back after each deployment.
Test this.  You might send 100,000 emails and get back just 40 responses, if so what’s the big deal? Your admin staff can manage that!
If the volume is high then there will be delays in your response, so can you use auto-responders?  Note that these can be clever, engaging and helpful not just dull automaton type missives. They can buy you some time til your team can respond in person, or they can offer steps to get satisfaction… offer a range of FAQ answers and direct to your website, live chat, or even ask them to call you if they are not feeling the love – the point is, you haven’t shouted ‘do not reply’.  You can use a lovely polite tone and manner, thank them for their contact and be helpful.


2. Split each communication type or category: transactional, brand, offer, and so on.
Ask what types of replies are we getting, and who is best to manage each?  You can decide who is best to manage responses and set up redirects of the emails to those teams/humans.
For example we have a number of clients who make their Client Account Managers manage replies, simply by using dynamic reply addresses that change out for each customer based on the data fields that show which is their AM.  This is great for B2B especially as any opportunity is noticed and captured.

Love to hear your ideas and learnings too.


Posted by roanne parker | January 25, 2011
Email Best Practice and Deliverability,Email Marketing Resources,Email Newsletters,GetSMART,Welcomes and Email Automation          , , , , ,          Comments (1)