This was viewed with great amusement by everyone–until the gentleman missed out on a great opportunity (a free trip to Europe to speak) because he was away. Ha!

Alfora:
* Every idea in your “better solution” I completely agree with, and you’ll find a dozen ideas like those in the 26-page Guide to NOT Checking Email (it explains the exact steps to setting up those rules in Gmail/Outlook, etc) that comes with the product. Those are hugely important and I’m totally in favor of them. They just solve a different problem.
* when you go on vacation there might be an emergency that you would want to know about–someone can’t find a password for the payroll system and it’s time to pay people (happened to me), a major newspaper is looking to quote you in an article they’re running (happened to me), or even a friend who wanted to meet you in the far off place you’re in (happened to me). When you’re traveling you may not have a cellphone (or you have a different number), or you’d rather check in on JUST the time sensitive stuff but not the office minutiae. Also, I would argue that many if not most emergencies don’t require documentation. And if they do, it’s often pretty easy to get ahold of in this often-electronic/online world we’re in. I’m not saying this “solves the problem” but when I was abroad much of this summer it got me out of a jam a number of times. Most of our users find this additional method of communication to be filling a neat gap between email and telephone, especially in places where neither are practical.

Hope that helps to explain. And hope that your house doesn’t burn down…but if it does, you’ll find out about it sooner than later .

Cheers and happy holidays!

While I am on vacation I DON’T WANT to check e-mails.

Besides, what exactly should I do in “an emergency” while I am away from home? Without the documents the “emergency” is referring to? And if my house burns, I can’t do anything against it when I am more than one hour driving time away from home, can I?

Much better solution IMHO:
* use e-mail rules to assign categories to incoming e-mails
* use rules to sort messages into appropriate folders (great for newsletters, order confirmations of online shops)
* forget about “auto response” messages. They just confirm your e-mail address for spammers.
* if you go on vacation, GO ON VACATION

The email message should read:

A is A

As a long fan of your site, you just made my day by writing about AwayFind. Thank you! And happy Thanksgiving!

Pete, as the found of AwayFind, I thought that might be the case, but in a year of testing it, we haven’t seen that happen. Fewer than 2% of messages ever turn into “AwayFind emergencies”–the secret sauce is just making it clear why you’re using AwayFind. So most users get at most 3 messages in a week, assuming they say something to the effect of “I check my email a couple times per day, but if you need me fast, click here” or whatever. And fortunately, getting a text message from someone you don’t want to hear from yet is still a easier to ignore than a phone call (if you end up picking up!).

Anyhow, thanks again, Erin, for writing about this. I’m thrilled that you took the time, and hope it keeps working for you!

Cheers!
Jared Goralnick / Founder, AwayFind

“You have received a message via AwayFind from Bill Lumbergh: How are those TPS reports coming along?”