The End of Auto-Reply

Your message is [Not] very important to me

As an elected official you likely spend a lot of time and energy finding ways to engage your community. And yet, busy elected officials and their staff often miss the chance to meaningfully engage with those who actually take the time to reach out to you.

Your stance on a given issue is often less important than the manner by which you communicate it. When constituents reach out they want a timely and personal response like they receive at their favorite stores.

But more often than not, they get a reply that is:

1. Personal but Untimely- A detailed, personal response sent weeks or even months later. (We’ve moved on already!)

2. Timely but Impersonal- A cold and impersonal auto-reply sent immediately. (We don’t feel loved by the robots!)

In some cases, constituents receive the dreaded untimely and impersonal response.

We’ve all received auto-responses like the one below and let’s be honest, they make us sad.

A constituent sees “auto-reply” in the subject line, a generic greeting, and absolutely no reference to the content of their original message. Their first thought: “No one actually cares about my concerns.”

A New Way Forward

More and more elected officials are ditching auto-reply in favor of Constituent Relations Management (CRM) platforms that help them respond to constituents in a timely and meaningful way. With this technology, there’s no reason to send a generic auto-reply ever again.

CRMs allow offices to process and triage high volumes of incoming messages and reply with dynamic responses that:

• Are personalized and addressed to the constituent by name (They know who I am!)
• Are visually presented like official correspondence (Wow so fancy!)
• Are directly addressing the constituent’s concern (Someone actually listened!)

But auto-reply is so easy. How will your team keep up?

In many cases an auto-reply is just a way to buy time while your team slogs through all the messages in line ahead of it. If you streamline the systems around email, you’ll no longer need that buffer.

CRMs make it easy to batch similar messages and triage their priority. Then all you need to do is work down the queue, selecting a pre-approved response template for each item or group of items. Now instead of sending one of those frustrating auto replies followed by a more useful message weeks later, you can make your first response both timely and personal.

As a bonus, constituent data stored in the CRM help your staff add a personal flourish like acknowledging a veteran for their service or including a tailored message to a local business owner.

Don't Put Democracy on Hold

It’s high time we step up our email game. Make sure that every constituent who reaches out receives a response that is both personal and timely… because they’re worth it!

Is your office sending auto-replies to keep up with incoming messages? We would love to show you how elected officials and their staff are using CRM technology to make their constituents feel heard.