The waitress puts her earmuffs on.
She walks to the table, slams the food down, spins and runs away.
Sounds like an annoying customer experience, right?
No business would actually do this...right?
Well, in the digital world companies do this all the time.
They do it by blasting emails to their customers from noreply@ email addresses.
The Golden Rule of Email
A PSA for all businesses and startups. You could call it the Golden Rule of Email.
Email others only if they can email you.
Never send emails from a noreply@ or donotreply@ email address.
If you can't handle the replies, don't send the email!
Let's make email human again!
At the very least, have an AI inbox
If your business doesn't have the staff to read and reply to emails, you can at least write automatic programs that can do something for the customer.
No Exceptions
My claim is that noreply@ email addresses are always sub-optimal.
It is never the right design decision. There is always a better way.
Do you think you have an exception? You are wrong! (But let me hear it in the comments)
What do you think of this post? Email me at breck7@gmail.com.
Appendix 1: Reader Responses
Here are some reader examples with my responses:
My bank (Bank of Ireland) sends automated bi-monthly statements using noreply@boi.com
Bank of Ireland could end each email with a question such as "Anything we can do better? Let us know!". The responses could be aggregated and inform product development.
I follow many profiles on LinkedIn which sends me an occasional email on activities and updates that I might have missed using notifications-noreply@linkedin.com
LinkedIn could send these from a replyToUnsubscribe@linkedin.com. Replies will stop that kind of notifications.
GitHub sends me occasional emails about 3rd-party apps that have been granted access to my account using noreply@github.com
Github could send from replyToDeauthorize@github.com.
Google Maps sends monthly updates on my car journeys via noreply-maps-timeline@google.com
Could be a replyToStopTracking@google.com
Monthly newsletters to which I am subscribed via LinkedIn come in via newsletters-noreply@linkedin.com
Replies could get feedback to the newsletter author.
e-Books available from a monthly subscription are available on noreply@thewordbooks.com
Replies could be replyWithYourReview@thewordbooks.com.
Appendix 2: My one-man protest against no-reply email addresses
My automated campaign against no reply email addresses. Anytime a company sends a message from a noreply address they get this as a response. I am aware of the irony.
Join the campaign against noreply email addresses!
My Gmail filter
Below is my Gmail filter. Paste it into noReplyFilter.xml then go to Settings > Filters > Import filters. Join the campaign to make email more human human again!
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:apps='http://schemas.google.com/apps/2006'>
<title>Mail Filters</title>
<id>tag:mail.google.com,2008:filters:z0000001687903548068*6834178925122906716</id>
<updated>2023-06-27T22:06:11Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Breck Yunits</name>
<email>breck7@gmail.com</email>
</author>
<entry>
<category term='filter'></category>
<title>Mail Filter</title>
<id>tag:mail.google.com,2008:filter:z0000001687903548068*6834178925122906716</id>
<updated>2023-06-27T22:06:11Z</updated>
<content></content>
<apps:property name='from' value='noreply@* | no-reply@* | donotreply@*'/>
<apps:property name='label' value='NoReplySpam'/>
<apps:property name='shouldArchive' value='true'/>
<apps:property name='cannedResponse' value='tag:mail.google.com,2009:cannedResponse:188fee33e5d0226e'/>
<apps:property name='sizeOperator' value='s_sl'/>
<apps:property name='sizeUnit' value='s_smb'/>
</entry>
<entry>
<category term='cannedResponse'></category>
<title>No no-reply email addresses</title>
<id>tag:mail.google.com,2009:cannedResponse:188fee33e5d0226e</id>
<updated>2023-06-27T22:06:11Z</updated>
<content type='text'>Hi! Did you know instead of a "no reply" email address there are ways to provide a better customer experience?
Learn more: https://breckyunits.com/replies-always-welcome.html
</content>
</entry>
</feed>