5 Vacation Auto-responders Everybody Hates To Receive

HOME / AutoResponder Resources / 5 Vacation Auto-responders Everybody Hates To Receive

Welcome guest. Table of Contents

Have a nice day!


Autoresponders can be life saviors for several people who are sending those to people. However, the people receiving it might hate it. But worry no more because we have found the 5-vacation auto-responders that people HATE to receive.

  1. Emails Stating You are Out of Office

While it is an important thing to tell your customers that you’ll be unavailable, these emails are hated by most readers. Like most people, you have also received such an email at least once in your life and just wanted to shout at it. Here’s what goes wrong when creating such an auto-responder.

The main mistake is the word usage that simply implies that you are going to be super busy enjoying a vacation and cannot reply to emails. While that is okay and people know that, it comes off sounding like a humblebrag.

As an example, if an email says, "I'll be away on a busy family trip and will have limited access to the internet. Henceforth, I'll be unable to reply to your messages." We all know that unless you're actually in a very remote location, the internet connection can be fixed, and this can annoy your audience.

  1. Unsure and Confused Directions

The next type of hated auto-responders is the ones with confusing directions. Let's face it, readers have limited time to spend on emails, and yours is most probably one of them. However, if they do choose to know more about your business, or wish to resolve some issue, it should be precise and quick.

This is where bad directions come in. These are some of the easiest ways to put off your reader and, in the worst case, even lose them for good. Suppose there is a customer who wishes to contact you for wither more information or for the sake of resolving an issue.

The ideal response would be to provide the necessary instructions in minimum words possible. However, a bad message may provide multiple ways of communication, including a phone number and an email address only to confuse the reader on which one to choose.

As noted by The Intelligencer, if your auto-responder offers more than two ways to reach you in an emergency, it might not be the best strategy. When it reaches a complexity like, "For urgent matters, connect via rapidreach.com/janedoe, then text '98765' to my special number, and finally, drop an email to [email protected]," it can easily lead to frustration and abandonment.

  1. Any Email that Commands the Reader to do Something

As they say that the line between persistence and annoyance is paper-thin, the same goes for instructing and commanding a customer. You have to be careful with the word usage. It shouldn’t sound like you are giving them orders.

When people usually want some information, they would like you to be honest and sincere in your answer. Suppose you have an important question and wish to communicate with a busy person. The reply you receive says something like, "I am not available at the moment; however, if your business is urgent and cannot wait, resend your query on this address."

Let’s see the problems in this statement. While it does tell you what to do in case of an emergency, it comes off like the person does not care and that your problem is most probably not an important one. This is not a friendly email to send to a customer. Instead, choose to relieve their worries by either giving them an appointment or redirecting them to an assistant.

  1. Use of Obvious Lies

Another type of vacation auto-responder making on to the readers-hate-it list is the lying email. Just like the name says, it is precisely that. Despite that, many times, people use auto-responders telling their readers things like obvious lies.

One of these is telling them that the response might be slow and that they will do your best to read the emails. Let’s face it, we all know nowadays, everyone receives a push notification when they get an email. The only reason one would not respond is that if they choose to ignore, they have that email muted or decide to swipe off the notification.

As outlined in an article on the Intelligencer platform, is there a statement less accurate than "I will occasionally check my email"? This assertion appears implausible, given the prevalence of real-time notifications. When one's mobile device is within reach, incoming emails are promptly visible. Conversely, if a situation involves being away for activities like mountain climbing or engaging in aquatic pursuits, email accessibility is essentially absent. In the contemporary landscape, there exists no middle ground to this matter.

When vacation season is here, you can tell your readers that the response will be delayed, it is expected. However, do not say something that is obviously not true.

Instead, either choose to skip this auto-responder or provide your readers with an available alternative.

  1. Telling them Who is Boss Emails

Another not-to-send email is the bossy type. Theses emails can infuriate your readers and for a good cause. For example, some auto-responders tell the senders to resend their queries to an assistant or retry later if they want a response.

The end line also only shows off your seniority and the authority you hold over the business. While that may be true, there is no need to rub it in. To avoid annoying the audience, always make sure that the tone used in the auto-responder is friendly and professional.

If it sounds all bossy, you will be losing that subscriber list quickly. The customers know it when you are in charge, and they do not need to be reminded again and again. An example of such an auto-responder is: "For urgent assistance, please contact my assistant," followed by two or three different email addresses.

Bonus Tips Submitted By Viewers

  1. Stating your unavailability

Vacation autoresponders are meant to inform your clients that things are slower than normal. Still, they are your clients and you’ll need them after the holidays.

Hence, you must craft a responsive vacation autoresponder devoid of show-offs. You don’t have to brag about your being too unavailable to even note an incoming mail.

Inside Higher Ed, a distinguished media company and online publication, advises against flaunting tropical trips or detailing personal medical or family crises, which clearly signal total unavailability. The core reasons for being out of reach are private. What's paramount is making your unavailability known. Most individuals are mainly concerned with knowing if they should expect a reply and, if so, the probable timeline.

If you do this, you risk portraying a bad perception. Some of your subscribers could urgently need your assistance.

In this case, you should be seen to provide attention to their important emails. You can only do this by periodically sieving through your mail.

You may craft an erroneous autoresponder that seems to state that you are virtually out of contact. You could add that your subscriber should resend all their emails when you return to the office.

This autoresponder is insensitive to some clients and they will take note.

In this situation, they may find a more accommodating vendor elsewhere. As such, you may not have the money to schedule your next holiday.

  1. The work vacationing autoresponder.

Vacation autoresponders take note of certain holidays. There are general holidays known to most people. Hence you can’t set autoresponders for such days.

New Year, Christmas, and Labor Day holidays are well known. Hence you shouldn’t use vacation autoresponders to imply that you are busy working and can’t see emails.

Since most of your email list team are also enjoying their holidays, there is no need to make fun of yourself pretending to hint to them that you are busier than thou.

Just be frank and mention that you are unavailable due to the holiday season and would be back after a few days or a couple of weeks, after which you’ll attend to their various challenges.

You can provide the contact of a relieved staff in your absence, or redirect emails to such contacts so that your subscribers are aware of your absence.

This is better than telling them you are on a working vacation or traveling to work, yet it’s a holiday.

In a nutshell, nobody wants any kind of hindrances or distractions that can prohibit people from having fun. We hope reflecting on the five vacation auto-responders mentioned can help you decide which one to send to your customers.

Hope you enjoy reading "5 Vacation Auto-responders Everybody Hates To Receive" :)


FAQ - How Do I Build An Email Marketing Lists As Quickly As Possible

While working on an email marketing campaign; it is paramount to build and maintain the most current, active and effective email lists. In the present environment with high competition, speed, accuracy, and reliability also matter a lot in the field of marketing.

The message first reaching to potential customers will obviously have a greater impact than another message reaching after that. Therefore, building email marketing lists is principally an issue of prime importance.

In how less time the email lists are built and managed; really speaks of the professionalism and expertise of an email marketer. To build email lists in lesser time, it is very essential to know about the audience; the clients.

It is recommended to create a marketing persona; this will really extend great help in form of an already made-up individual ready to display your ideas before the audience; especially to those who are more likely to be the ideal customers.

After completing these parameters; a marketer’s next step is to know the audience in deep. Establishing a criterion that what kind of persons needs to be added into a new email list; is another important factor to be considered.

Knowing the subscribers’ basic information, interests, genders and their potential place of gathering can help you further determining how and when to engage them. Try to guide people politely to visit the landing page instead of dragging them there.

Never try to use the purchased email lists as those are mostly fake and outdated ultimately not responding to your emails; thus bringing your response rate significantly low.

Now the lists are ready to be started with; your list must focus on the reasons for what you are offering, building, establishing or telling your audience to respond to your message in a certain desired way. Finalizing the lists needs a focused approach and professional acumen; therefore, it needs to be done very carefully.

1 Tip That Can Significantly Improve Your Online Marketing

Rely on keywords in Search Engine Optimization

This is different from search engine marketing where you pay companies such as Google to show your advert in search results. In this model, you won’t have to pay a third party for clicks and traffic but rather earn a spot for free in the results searched by ensuring your content is most relevant. You need to identify a keyword for your business to appear when a certain keyword is entered into the search engine. However, you need to carry out all-inclusive research as part of your keyword strategy. First, you have to find a keyword for your business that potential customers will possibly use when looking for certain products and services. However, you need to remain relevant as this will influence the ranking of your business in your search engine. A specific keyword to your product or service will go a long way when it comes to search engine optimization.

One Email Split Test Idea to Accelerate And Boost Conversions

Complimenting the recipient for participating in the call-to-action

Assume you have added a call-to-action to an email, to which the recipient responses positively, and participates in the action, as you intend. To boost your extent of engagement with the recipient, you can send an email to compliment for such participation. This will surely make the recipient feel nice about you, as such his/her effort to participate in your call, gets noticed and appreciated. This way, you can expect that the recipient to become more loyal towards you, and for businesses, this a simple yet effective means to consolidate the relationship with their customers.

To make such emails for complementing the clients, you can either add, the free resources to it, or you may take the chances of cross-selling or upselling. For instance, the follow-up email to appreciate the participation in call-to-action may include some special offer coupons or, similar items that add more value to the email.

1 E-commerce Email Marketing Message That Boost Sales

What's New Email

Good companies keep on evolving. Use this chance to market yourself as the same things get boring with time. Customers keep losing interest when your company does not have anything new to offer. These emails target on promoting the new look of your store or your company. Subscribers should know about the change. Now, the change can be anything from a new front end design of your store or launching a new feature.

You can send these emails to users explaining how you have changed and what do they think of it. Engage them and record their responses. Thank them and if possible, offer them a little discount as it always works. You can also change the template and design of the emails you send. For example, if you have launched an application for your online store, reward them a coupon for registering and reviewing it. This makes your app promotion easier and cheaper.

1 Way To Sharpen Your Writing Skills And Copywriting Techniques

Using the active voice of the verb:

Using the active voice of the verb is all about clarity in your writing. The sentences written using active voice are said to be more striking as compared to passive voice sentences. It is a great tool that helps you to connect to your reader by portraying a clear picture. In short, it adds soul to your writing and let it speak to the reader.

On the flip side, using passive voice can get your reader bored. It’s also not very helpful with writings clarity. That's why we avoid using passive voice to write efficiently.

Therefore, a key tip for you to succeed in writing is that you use the active voice of the verb. Because active voice is the tool that can get your reader hooked to your writing. And who doesn't want their reader to stick to their writing?