Bad customer service and no-reply emails

[Harold Mansfield]

I hate no-reply emails. They may have a place such as just a simple confirmation that an account has been created, but for years I've seen companies using them for all communications. As if to say your feedback is not wanted. My biggest issue with no-reply emails is that if you do have an issue they generally don't give you any information about where you can reply to. So you have to search the website to find a way to directly contact the company, out of context from the email that you just received.

I see this used a lot with customer service responses. I'm OK with the default message that they've received your message and are working on it. But when they finally reply to your issue from a no-reply email that you cannot respond to, it's infuriating.

This also goes into my rant about companies sending you through a lot of hoops just to contact them. No email, no phone numbers, sometimes not even a form. They direct you to a quagmire of F.A.Q's that should just be normal anyway, but not in place of actual communication with people when they have a problem.

On some sites it can take minutes before you finally navigate through a series of clicks and trial and error before you actually find a way to reach out to them directly. IMO it's gotten our of control.

Now I see Small Businesses who claim to pride themselves on service, doing the same thing. Emulating large companies is fine when you are emulating people who are doing the right thing. Not emulating bad service with automation that removes you from actually talking to people.

I suppose there's a happy medium, but it's getting rarer and rarer to find companies who do it right.

I know I'm cranky and obsessive about customer service and simple, common sense professionalism, but am I alone here?

[Fulcrum]

Employees cost money.

Companies want more money.

Removing employees therefore saves the company more money.

And if you believe that the lowering of the bar when it comes to customer service is a good thing, I've got a bridge to sell on some Arizona ocean front property.

[SumpinSpecial]

I'm with you, Harold. I don't have any no-reply email addresses and welcome customers who reply to my order/shipping notifications. To be blunt, my perspective is that if you act like your customers are an inconvenience to be avoided, then you deserve to go out of business.

[Bobjob]

Testify! I believe their theory is - make it so frustrating to resolve your problem that you will eventually give up and live with it.

[nealrm]

To be honest, I understand the use of no reply emails within limitations. The limitation is that there needs to be included within the email, contact information for handling additional conversations.

The main reason to use no reply emails is to end a specific line of conversation. Too many people are lazy when writing emails. They will keep tacking on unrelated comments to the same email thread. Redirecting and following those emails is not a big deal when you are taking a dozen emails. When you start talking 100's, 1000's or 10,000's of emails talking about 2-10 different subjects each that don't match with the subject line, things get confusing. In addition, some add the new comments to the top, others to the bottom. Sometime the prior comments are included, sometimes they are not. Then, just to add to the heap, there are the auto-reply, each one needing to be checked to see if it contained something besides a generic "your email is important....." garbage. By controlling the conversation you can actually improve overall customer service.

[Harold Mansfield]

To be honest, I understand the use of no reply emails within limitations. The limitation is that there needs to be included within the email, contact information for handling additional conversations.

The main reason to use no reply emails is to end a specific line of conversation. Too many people are lazy when writing emails. They will keep tacking on unrelated comments to the same email thread. Redirecting and following those emails is not a big deal when you are taking a dozen emails. When you start talking 100's, 1000's or 10,000's of emails talking about 2-10 different subjects each that don't match with the subject line, things get confusing. In addition, some add the new comments to the top, others to the bottom. Sometime the prior comments are included, sometimes they are not. Then, just to add to the heap, there are the auto-reply, each one needing to be checked to see if it contained something besides a generic "your email is important....." garbage. By controlling the conversation you can actually improve overall customer service.


Sounds like it makes things easier for them. Not the customer. If the customer is still frustrated with the process, then it's not an improvement to anything. I've deleted accounts and stopped using products because of this issue alone.

[nealrm]

The best systems are those that are both easy for a customer to use, have prompt responses and are efficient to run. Unfortunately, general email is not going to meet those criteria for a medium to large customer base. With email, at best you can get 2 out of the three. The smallest sacrifice with the biggest gain happens to be use no reply emails. Yes, some customers will leave, but more will stay.


Phone and chat generally allow you to get all three. Customer forums are the worst, sometimes getting none of them.