Ten E-Mail
Courtesy Tips For Businesses
This wild, wonderful web!
All of the opportunities at our fingertips! Customers
galore!” “They’ll be beating down the server and I’ll
have so many orders I won’t know what to do with
myself!” As a business owner, have you ever had those
thoughts? Think again. :) While it may be easy street
for a select few, for most, it’s not. So how can you
make sure your business is successful? Try a little
E-Mail Courtesy. Seriously! Many of the businesses who
have established themselves on the Internet haven’t the
faintest idea of how to address one of the most
important issues online: Customer Service. “Why should
customer service matter? My product’s right there, along
with my order form. It does matter. Shoppers on the net
are still wary. They may e-mail you first to see if they
receive a response and what the response is like. They
may ask questions to see if you express enough knowledge
about your own products/services and to gather your
enthusiasm about what you’re selling. Businesses come
and go on the web, and only those who show true interest
and enthusiasm about what they’re selling will survive.
If the shopper is another business, they might request
to exchange links -- and see how they are treated in
their request. Or they may request a free sample. And
all of this will most likely be done through e-mail. So
how can you and your online business show courtesy
through e-mail? Here are 10 tips to get you started:
1. Answer
your e-mail and answer it promptly. The Internet is FAST.
It gives people information in a much shorter amount of
time than having to go through a more traditional route of
finding what they want. Customers expect FAST replies. An
appropriate response time in my opinion should be 48
hours. No longer. If you wait a month to answer a request
from a customer - forget it. They are GONE.
2. In
addition to regular inquiries, answer your customer
*complaints* immediately. Within 24 hours. Nothing
irritates a consumer more than to order from you, receive
a product with a problem, then have to wait over a week
for your reply as to how they should handle the situation.
If you wait longer than one day to respond to a customer
with a complaint, you might as well kiss future sales to
that person goodbye. Even if you don’t know what the
customer and/or you can do to rectify the problem, at
least make contact with the customer. Assure them you are
working on it, and then DO IT. There aren’t too many
*easy* sales on the net - you have to work for them, and
this is one way you can accomplish your objective.
3. Address
letters to your customer or potential customer in a
business-like manner. Dear “Mr./Mrs. So & So” will
suffice. When addressing other businesses on the net and
you don’t know the name of a contact person, try something
like “ATTN: Director of Marketing”.
4. If you
offer something FREE for the client, whether it be
information or a sample product, be sure to send it. If it
is to be sent via e-mail, send it the SAME DAY. If you are
not able to send information daily as it is requested, use
an autoresponder. Don’t wait two weeks until the potential
customer forgets they’ve ever heard of you. If you are
sending a free sample, send it the SAME WEEK. Customers
would expect a snail-mail package or product to arrive
slower than e-mail, but no longer than a week.
5. When
sending an unsolicited marketing pitch to a potential
customer via e-mail, keep it short. I learned this the
hard way. :)) Now, my pitch goes something like this --
“If you’d like to consider a unique, personal, and
colorful advertisement for your company -- and at a
reasonable price compared to traditional online
advertisers -- please e-mail me or visit my web site for
more information.” That way if the prospect is interested,
the pitch isn’t forced on them before they’re ready. They
can look at their leisure. Which is what you want them to
do, so they’ll have the proper time to consider your
offer. And of course, it doesn’t hurt to comment
positively on their web site and give your impressions. :)
It also will help if you buy one of the company’s products
while you are visiting.
6. If
someone mails you a pitch and you’re not interested in the
product or service, don’t blast them will a slew of
obscenities. If you’re not interested, don’t answer. Or
maybe consider replying in this fashion: “Dear Mr. So &
So, Thank you for making me aware of your fine service. I
am not currently in a position to employ such services,
but will definitely keep you in mind if and when I decide
to do so. And since you visited my site, I’d like to offer
you a free copy of___________ (or free sample of our most
popular herb) (or 10% discount on our gold watches, good
for this week only).” What does this do? It turns the
selling party into a potential buying party. For one, they
will appreciate the fact you took time for a personal
reply. And they might just buy your discounted product!
7. If
someone gives you an award, recognition, or other form of
positive communication, THANK THEM. And do so promptly.
That person giving that award or special mention of your
company name didn’t *have* to take the time to do it. You
can assure great future relations if you immediately zip
them off an e-mail expressing your thanks. After all, how
long does it take? Three seconds to type “thank you” and
hit “send”.
8. Follow
through. If you are corresponding with a customer via
e-mail on a situation, be sure to keep the contact going
until the situation is resolved. The customer will
appreciate your attentiveness to both them and whatever
the situation might be.
9. Never,
ever, ever address the customer by the *wrong name*.
Always look at their letter, observe the spelling of their
name, and get it right. A person’s name is an individual
trait, specific to them. When addressed by the wrong name,
or misspelled name, people tend to feel they don’t mean
much to you, or you are showing lack of attention to
detail -- not a good trait for an online vendor to
display.
10. Always
remember...the way in which you deal with people online -
either within e-mail, on mailing lists or newsgroups --
will reflect back to you. If you make negative comments
about another online vendor, the customer could lose
respect for you as a business person. After all, who’s to
say the next negative remark won’t be made about *that
customer*?
You’ve heard “The
customer is always right” and “The customer always comes
first”. Both of those statements should be adhered to
online, just as they would be if you were face to face
with them in your off-line place of business. Because
for every business online, new ones are popping up daily
to provide competition. And who will be the winners?
Those who are courteous and respectful of everyone
online.
