

Automate your way to productivity - stsmytherie
http://gigaom.com/collaboration/automate-your-way-to-productivity/

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lsc
outside of a few very well defined cases where you always need a certain piece
of information to move further or where you need to notify someone that some
particular action was taken (for example, when someone signs up with me, and I
want to confirm that I got the signup and ask for a public key) are canned
responses better than no response?

right now, my system sends an auto-response when you email the
support@prgmr.com address. I'm not sure at all that this is the right thing to
do... it clutters up the requesters mailbox and really conveys no info other
than "the ticket system got your email" which, I think, can be assumed.

~~~
stsmytherie
Based on my experience, there are a few cases where automated responses are
the right thing to do. But it really depends a lot on your specific situation.

Out-of-office messages are, of course, a type of canned response that can be
used well in scenarios where people you don't interact with on a daily basis
may contact you and need to know when to expect a response or who else to
contact.

I worked for a magazine where we accepted article pitches from readers via
email. We had a response to acknowledge receipt, link to guidelines, and tell
them what to expect (we'll take a look and get back to you later).

Acknowledgement goes a long ways toward building good will with
customers/partners/audience in a lot of situations. Easy to overlook, but "I
hear you. Thanks." makes people feel good, even if it's a canned response.

I'll admit that these kinds of throw-away emails can contribute to the
firehose of information and inbox overflow, but I'll deal with it. A lot of
times a simple "Thanks, got it" email from a colleague lets me know I don't
have to follow up later and can move on to the next fire drill.

