How to Automate Customer Email Responses Without Sounding Like a Robot

Do you spend too much time answering emails? Do you have dreams that AI could just magic that all away? In the past, automating customer email responses usually meant scanning for keywords and serving up a matching template to answer their questions. But now, with AI, there’s a better way.

Is AI email automation right for your business?

But before we go too far, I have to warn you. AI automation isn’t going to be the best choice for every business. It’s really going to come down to two main factors.

1. What’s your time worth?

What is the opportunity cost of answering these emails yourself? Would answering emails each week take up considerable time that you spend on more strategic initiatives, or do you only get a few emails each week that you can knock out quickly? And what is at stake with each email? Is this for a big ticket sales item, where a customer-facing automation could potentially sour a $25k deal?

2. How repetitive are your emails?

Is each customer interaction unique, or can the lion’s share be grouped into several major themes? To set up robo-you for success, it helps if emails can be categorized into a finite number of topics. This isn’t to say that you can’t use AI if every interaction is different. But your deflection rate, the percent of customer emails that will be handled autonomously, will be higher if you have a smaller number of potential questions.

In short, if you have extra time to reply to every email, and the emails aren’t repetitive, this probably shouldn’t be your next project.

Why not just use template emails?

Template emails have a time and a place, but when misused can make customers feel unheard. I recently experienced the latter when dealing with Riot’s customer service. I completed a match of Valorant that, per their own UI, should have granted me progress but didn’t. I opened a ticket filled with details of the game mode and my issue. After several days, I received a boilerplate reply that not all game modes provide progress. My ticket was answered, but my question was not.

This is the core problem with one-size-fits-many templates. You can improve this by using them as a starting point, and tailoring them for the specific interaction, but then you’re just a stone’s throw away from writing all your emails again.

So, how do we get automation without sounding generic?

3 ways to make sure your replies don’t sound like a robot

1. Use AI not just to write it, but also to read it!

After the first draft is done, have your agent (AI assistant) read the question and answer to evaluate whether or not the question was answered properly. Then have the agent do a second pass at rewriting to better meet the customer’s needs. Doing this would have prevented the shallow reply I received from Riot support.

2. Use your own tone and style.

Have you ever seen a LinkedIn post littered with em dashes (—), using “genuinely” a few too many times, and letting you know “That’s the smoking gun”? Don’t let your emails read like AI slop, because people can tell. If you see a friend do this, please, send them this article, for all our sakes.

Unless you started your business 5 minutes ago, you’re sitting on a mound of gold even larger than Smaug’s, your beautifully written past emails. Take a bunch of samples of your own real human writing, paste them all into your email agent, and ask it to describe your tone, style, and prose. Tell it to describe patterns only, not to quote you. Et voila! Now you have the perfect instructions to give to your agent to make your emails sound like you.

3. Reply like an FBI hostage negotiator.

Like Chris Voss preaches in his book Never Split the Difference, practice tactical empathy. Label the customer’s frustration back at them by describing it in their own words. Fortunately, AI is exceptional at summarizing text. Only once you’ve demonstrated that “you” understand the issue, can you proceed to provide an answer.

Ready to automate your customer emails?

Automation should save time without damaging the customer experience. If done exceptionally well, it can even strengthen the relationship with your brand. AI gives you speed, consistency, and it will never forget to follow up. Make the customer feel heard and understood, and they won’t question where the email came from.

Frequently asked questions

Are canned responses bad?

Not inherently. In fact, one of the best ways to know you’re ready for automation is when you feel like your own responses are beginning to feel canned.

Can AI answer customer emails on its own?

The majority of customer emails can be grouped into several categories and subcategories that your AI assistant can handle for you. However, certain emails should always be reviewed or written by humans.

Which customer emails should never be automated?

Emails that have the potential to be high risk should at least be reviewed by human eyes before going out. These are things like high-value deals, angry customers, or potential cancellations.