Why my company doesn't send automated email from a 'noreply' address

Seth Godin has recommended this approach for years, and it's the only one that makes sense to me. If you get more responses than you can handle, then either (a) something is really broken and you need to fix that, or (b) you have huge demand and need to figure out how to get the resources you need to manage it. That might be as simple as sending them all to a tracking system, or it might be as complicated as getting a real support staff. Either way, the status quo will lose users, especially if your competition starts listening.<p>Come to think of it, this is really just an application of the principles in the Cluetrain Manifesto.

My company sends transactional email from a real address as well, but there are some problems with this approach. As the post mentions, we get a ton of email intended for other people (like if we send "John Doe assigned you a task" and the person responds to us thinking John Doe will get it) and sometimes there's very sensitive or embarrassing information in the replies. I'm never quite sure how to deal with this because if I forward it on to the intended recipient, then they know I just read their personal email.<p>This is mostly just a problem of perception. I know that it's not my fault that I read an email which was sent to me, and I know that I can be trusted with the sensitive information. The problem is that my customers might not trust me as much as I trust myself, so by forwarding this mail on, I raise unjustified concerns about our security and trustworthiness.<p>On the other hand, one out of every hundred replies actually are meant for us, and our customers love the fact that it's so easy to reach us. That's why we don't use no-reply addresses, but it's not as easy of a decision as some people seem to think.

This cost Netflix my business today.<p>-I have ZERO desire to know what my friends are watching.<p>-I unsubscribed from receiving promotional emails.<p>-I received said promotional email.<p>-I clicked the link to unsubscribe.<p>-Said link was broken.<p>-I sent a response to the address that emailed me.<p>-They sent back an automated response.<p>-I cancelled my service.<p>While I enjoy Netflix, they're shoddy email policy was more than I felt like dealing with today. Another company that is on the verge of losing my business is Porter airlines up here in Canada.<p>All of this to say; thank you for forwarding responses to your support email.<p>EDIT: In addition to the fact that they manage to NOT send me emails regarding billing me. Is that too much to ask? Yet they pester me if for some reason the transaction doesn't go through. So long Netflix!

This article is spot on advice for most startups. At an early stage, you really want as much feedback as possible, and if you're fortunate enough to become overwhelmed with responses, you can start automating how you handle them or splitting the responses into classes that you treat differently.

At Minefold a lot of users are kids and so they often reply to our emails from team@minefold.com with something like "Thanks!" If we get time, sometimes we'll reply with a "you're welcome". It's the little things that help build relationships with your customers.

its just SO EASY to set up a redirect that puts questions to the right responder. there's no excuse for "donotreply" address; just change the name and forward it to your VA/exec ass't, let them route it.<p>its such an easy win, i'm surprised its not more widespread

I don't see why you wouldn't still call the address "noreply@" and then forward it to support. That way you're making it clear that this isn't really the standard route of communication while taking care of the customers who miss the clue.

My university lets users choose up to two email aliases. I have "donotreply@vt.edu" and occasionally get (sometimes quite funny) email that I try to forward to the rightful recipient.

We have a donotreply address. We use it on automated emails to our own staff, as a reminder that it's not going to go anywhere.

This company clearly doesn't operate at scale if it's feasible for their Support team to hand filter email replies.