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The situation:

I'm emailing new customers with some general info they need to set up their account. Usually, this information is more than enough. But, there's a possibility that they might have some questions left. So, I want to be polite and at the end of the letter, I suggest they email me if they have any questions.

The question:

Is it ok to say, the following:

For any questions, please consult our Help Desk – or email me at email@example.

Considering, that the email I give in the sentence above is the same I send my letter from.

Or is it better to say:

For any questions, please consult our Help Desk – or reply to this email.

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  • 2
    If you use HTML mail bodies, you might also put a mailto:email@exmple hyperlink on the phrase "reply to this email".
    – Bergi
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 11:16
  • 5
    @Bergi Clicking on the link, though, is not the same as replying to the mail -- it opens a new mail thread. I think this time we really want the user to click "reply".
    – Federico Poloni
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 11:32
  • Plus, plenty of people use webmail that may or may not handle mailto: links correctly.
    – SomeoneSomewhereSupportsMonica
    Commented Oct 10, 2017 at 5:41
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    For any questions, please consult our Help Desk – or reply to this email.
    – I am the Most Stupid Person
    Commented Oct 10, 2017 at 11:44
  • 1
    Just in case: don't send from a [email protected] address - this is horrible UI and breaks expected email behaviour -> reply :-)
    – Fabian Blechschmidt
    Commented Oct 11, 2017 at 8:40

5 Answers 5

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50

Both seem perfectly fine to me but as far as preference goes, I'd say go with the second option.

For any questions, please consult our Help Desk – or reply to this email.

The reason being that it eradicates confusion. If you write the email address, a lot of people would think it is different from the one you sent and would write a new email to reply. This is because most email clients don't directly show the email address (they rather show the alias) and most users won't go through the process of checking whether the one you mentioned is the same or not

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    Good answer. I'd add that "email me at" seems very informal, so depending on the audience may not be suitable, e.g. it likely wouldn't be an appropriate phrase for business users.
    – Steve Jones
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 9:44
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    "Email me at..." or equivalent would be really useful in the case of "Please don't reply to this email, instead email me at..." In this case telling the recipient they're free to reply askign for help is not just good UX but good customer servcie (+1)
    – Chris H
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 10:50
  • 5
    Email me at - a future way to circumvent the help desk system - you may find yourself inundated with help requests aimed directly at you.
    – Mauro
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 11:24
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    Oh, if only there existed a reply-to e-mail header exactly for this purpose... Oh wait...
    – Federico Poloni
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 14:33
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I agree with Shreyas, the easiest option for users is to directly reply.

However, in some cases these options don't need to be mutually exclusive. What if the user has no issues with their account, but something after logging in?

(Email contents)

Regards,

-Website

Need help regarding this topic? Reply directly to this email.

Need something else? Open a new issue by emailing [email protected].

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4
  • You probably misunderstood the question. The main reasons I'm struggling between the two options I suggested is because this email - [email protected] and the one I'm writing from are one and the same address. And why would you add a semicolon after Help Desk? It's not like "[email protected]" is a link to the Help Desk.
    – Oksi
    Commented Oct 10, 2017 at 12:44
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    @Oksi I don't think I've misunderstood, however I tailored my answer to fit your formatting which may have been confusing. My minor argument is that listing the email out tells the user it's an option for contact, although replying is likely the easiest method.
    – Alan
    Commented Oct 10, 2017 at 13:01
  • As a user, I do not like choice. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice. Now I have to both reply directly to the email and open a new issue by emailing [email protected]. Unless there is a meaningful distinction (reply to this email or call 999-999-9999) I only want one choice.
    – emory
    Commented Oct 10, 2017 at 18:41
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    You don't have to do both, or either. Reply to this message if you have a question, or if you have an new (unrelated) issue in the future send an email. Two common user-support tasks with two actions.
    – Alan
    Commented Oct 10, 2017 at 18:44
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I think both are acceptable statements. It all depends on how you want/need the response... one creates a new email while the other is a reply to the current email, which can give you a little history in the customers current issue/problem.

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1

Email me at” or “reply to this email” both are fine for me but when you are using it in email - I would recommend the second option, reply to this email. This is more appropriate for the email, and match with your sentence.

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0

Include your e-mail in plain text form, somehow. Often I get forwarded e-mails in which the addresses in the header have been obscured by the person's display name, and their actual address is not to be found anywhere. So if you do opt for the second method ("reply to this email") then at least spell out your address in a signature block, or somewhere.

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