I get a lot of email, and I’m zealous about staying at Inbox Zero using the Getting Things Done productivity techniques.
One of my favorite ways to handle email fast is by using templates, or as GMail calls them, Canned Responses. Email programs like Outlook let you set up multiple signatures, and I use those to respond fast to common types of emails. When I get a job posting from a recruiter, I just click Insert Signature, Recruiters, and in pops this:
My Canned Response for Recruiters
Thanks for the email! If you can forward on the full job description and salary range, I’ll be happy to check it out and pass it along to my network.
After being repeatedly burned (hey, buddy, check out this job – oh, sorry, I didn’t know it only paid $X for Y years of experience) I have a policy against forwarding jobs without a salary range & a job description. (I hate to say this, but “depends on experience” isn’t a range, either.)
Thanks, and have a great day!
Brent
About That Recruiter Template
The recruiter is completely clear on what they need to do next, and there’s no hard feelings. Most of the time, believe it or not, the recruiter really does reply back with a rate. It’s not usually a good rate – think $30/hour for 10 years of experience – but sometimes it actually does make sense, and I pass it on to people who I know that are looking.
Sometimes the job description includes several different jobs, and I give constructive feedback about why they’re having a tough time finding the right candidate. Recruiters often thank me and pass that feedback along to their clients to help reset their expectations.
Another kind of email I get a lot is the Technical Support Question. I really wish I could answer every question I get from strangers every day, but I get dozens per day, and I want to help people find better solutions faster. Here’s how I respond to those:
My Canned Response for Questions
Hi! Rather than give you a fish, I’d rather teach you how to fish. There’s a ton of great places to get your questions answered online for free, and you won’t have to wait for one specific person to get freed up.
For small, non-urgent questions with only one possible answer – post on http://DBA.StackExchange.com or http://SQLServerCentral.com. Try to include as much specifics as you can so that a stranger can try to reproduce the problem you’re facing. If you haven’t gotten a clear answer within two days, email us the link to the question, and we’ll help out.
For “just curious” questions, try to figure out how to run an experiment yourself to get the answer. You’ll learn an amazing amount of stuff by getting your hands dirty and trying it yourself. Then, if you don’t get the results you expect, you’ll be able to use your sample code when you post a question on those sites above.
For urgent, down-right-now problems in production environments – call Microsoft at 1-800-642-7676 to open a support case. It’s $500, and they work the problem with you until it’s done. You can’t find a better consulting deal than that.
For bigger-picture questions that require a discussion about your environment – that’s where consulting comes in. While we do wish we could give custom one-on-one advice about your production environment for free, we have to put food on our tables. If you’d like to talk about what a consulting engagement looks like, let us know and we’d be glad to set up a free 30-minute call about our services.
I know it’s not the fast answer you wanted – and like you can probably guess, this is an email template – but I want to make sure you get the fastest answers possible, that cost as little money as possible.
Hope that helps!
Brent
About that Question Template
Yeah, every now and then I get angry replies back saying I’m a stuck-up jerk who won’t take time to help a stranger. I understand where they’re coming from – I’ve just long since surpassed the email volume where I can handle every free question, and I’ve had to come to peace with that. It’s the blessing and curse that comes with running a blog.
Most people don’t reply, though, and sometimes I go into Stack Exchange and look for the question they asked. I get so excited when I see they posted the question and got the help they needed within minutes or hours for free.
That’s so awesome – I love the satisfaction of knowing that somewhere, this person has a whole new world of fast, free help open to them, and I helped make it happen.
13 Comments. Leave new
Hi Brent. Being polite and helpful while retaining your integrity when dismissing email in the face of “question onslaught” must be tough. I think that maintaining honesty is important, though, and I would worry that a canned response which included “this is a really interesting question…” in it, renders all of your responses suspect.
If I sent you a don’t-know-how-to-google-it-for-myself question, I think I would prefer to get this response: “I wish I had the time to dedicate to give you an answer for this question, but not being able to, I want to make sure you get the best help possible from as many people as possible.” This passes the smell test and still provides all of your links etc.
I like the email templates… seems like an excellent way to handle it.
Anne – that’s a really interesting comment.
HAHAHA, just kidding. Yeah, I often tailor these just a little before I hit send. If it’s truly an RTFM question, I’ll take that part out.
Good post, and I ditto Anne’s comments.
You may already know this but if you right click on the signature already in an email you get a list of the available signatures and can change between them easily. I have my standard business signature (name, phone etc) set up as a default for all emails, then if I need a different one I can right click and move on. It’s a bit faster for me than going to the correct ribbon and hitting insert signature.
Thanks Ken!
Just used your email template to a recruiter. I like it!
Nice reading! Instant email templates are cool often!
I must use this (or a variant) on some forums where one frequently gets a ‘Can someone write me some code to do x’ = typically when thesis’s are due and typically from geography Y ( if I mention a geography I will be labelled racist)
“Hi! Rather than give you a fish, I’d rather teach you how to fish. There’s a ton of great places to get your questions answered online for free, and you won’t have to wait for one specific person to get freed up.”
Canned Response for Recruiters – just used
And her response came in, still asking for my expectations regarding salary 🙂
Just a side note, the people on SQL Server Central tend to be friendlier than the ones on Stack Exchange.
Brent, what is your response rate to your reply?
Robert – the people might be friendlier, but try Googling for an answer and getting SSC to show up. Damn near impossible due to the registration wall.
The response rate for recruiters is around 50-75%, I think. The response rate for the questions one is near zero – but that’s the point. It’s so awesome to see an email come in, send the template, and then see the same question pop up on Stack in minutes or hours, and get answered. It feels really good to teach people to fish.
Maybe we should set up a stack exchange for salaries.
I should have read this when it first came out.
Excuse me while I go create some signatures 🙂
Thanks Erik 😉