We just killed no-reply, and we have no regrets
in New Features, Editorial by Evan Hamilton
A few months ago a great article was passed around the UserVoice chat room about why no-reply email addresses are terrible. We all thoroughly agreed. And then we realized that we were using no-reply addresses.
Previously, when you updated the status of an idea on UserVoice Feedback, it sent an email out to all voters telling them what the status change was. Hooray! ...with a no-reply email address. Ew.
We’ve long argued that getting customer feedback isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. These are people who want to help you succeed. That’s a special thing, and you need to reward them by listening to and acting on their feedback. UserVoice is designed to help you do exactly that. But getting in the way of those customers responding to your status updates isn’t following that mindset. So we’re done with it.
When updating a status, you’ll now be able to choose the reply-to address for the status email. And if you have UserVoice Full Service, you’ll be able to choose from any email address in your Helpdesk system. No-reply is gone. Good riddance!
So far we haven’t seen any problems, but the first thing people ask is “what if I get a bunch of bounce notifications or ‘out-of-office” autoreplies. The good news? It’s actually pretty easy to set up a rule to prevent those from cluttering your inbox.
You certainly COULD set the address to [email protected] But we urge you to embrace this additional opportunity to connect with your customers.
Death to no-reply!
-Evan Hamilton
Community Manager, UserVoice
"No" photo courtesy of fotogail.
