Email productivity is important today
With our inboxes becoming ever more flooded, replying to every single email we receive can be a daunting task. I try to respond to every legitimate, non-spam, email I receive, simply because I find it the polite thing to do; but, I only have so much time in my day allotted to this.
While canned responses can certainly help shorten the response time, it does leave something to be desired. Now, there’s a browser extension that can help you create emails quickly, without that “canned email” feel.
Gorgias is a free extension for Chrome (with a pro version available), allowing you to create custom email templates. Templates can be used in any email app and can be personalized with your preset outgoing messages and the recipient’s name.
How Gorgias works
For example, if you want to reply to a customer’s question, you can create a template that reads, “Hello [Sender’s first name], thanks for contacting me. Someone from our team will be happy to answer your question within the next 24 hours.” When you want to access this template, you can do so with a simple keyboard shortcut.
If you’re like me, you already have enough to remember without learning a bunch of new keyboard shortcuts. Gorgias has provisions for people like us: simply insert the “shortcut” right from your email client. It will appear as a drop-down box.
Simply select the template, or search for the one you want with the built-in search box. Super easy. Current template variables include the sender’s name, email address, and subject; along with any other customized text you want to enter afterwards.
There’s even a team function
Gorgias is free for personal use, but the paid version offers more features to groups. Teams can share templates automatically, enabling uniform messaging every time, with every client. Great for sales teams and support departments who rely heavily on email, but do not want that “canned email” feel.
Gorgias is working to add more features, which will hopefully include variation for time and day automation, as well as, current location and such. As it is now, it’s definitely worth a try to see if you can reduce your email response time with their templates.
#Gorgias
