Use a human voice in your autoresponders

Autoresponders are handled by computers but your message does not need to sound like a disk drive writing to a defective floppy disk. One time, I received this email as a reply for my job application. I omitted the company name for my own protection

You have reached the COMPANY’s e-mail address for external applicants. We will review your application along with others that we received. You will be notified only if you are shortlisted for further consideration.

Please do not reply to this computer-generated message. It is also not necessary for you to telephone, fax, or e-mail us about your application status.

We thank you for your interest in the COMPANY.

Human Resources Division
COMPANY

The funny thing about this email is it does not even have a subject. If you are replying to an email, you would include the subject, wouldn’t you?

The email message sounds like the person who wrote it is not happy receiving tons of email. With some thought, you can have an autoresponder message that has human voice. How about writing it this way:

Greetings!

Thank you for your interest in our company. This is an automated response - just to confirm that I have received your message so please do not reply. We are receiving tons of email right now and it may take time before I could answer you personally.

Regards,

Greg Moreno
HRD Staff

Even better is you give a commitment when you will respond. It gives an impression that the company is serious in handling email inquiries.