Today’s guest blog post comes to us from Bruce Golub of Phosphor Media, a Miva Merchant Developer Partner.
We use email everyday. Yet many of us don’t stop to think about how our email use speaks to our customers, potential customers and business partners. When you use email as part of your business, it becomes the “voice” of your business. Here are 10 simple things you should be doing to put your “best voice forward.”
Note: I am not addressing Email Etiquette, that’s been covered numerous times. (Here’s a rather comprehensive list) Rather, I want to address how to “USE” email effectively for your business. (Although, I will stress one important rule: Proof your email, spell check, and then proof again.)
For example, something@ mybusiness.com. While it may be convenient or comfortable to use your personal Gmail account, it tells your recipients, “this is not from a real business.” (You can still use this account to forward emails to you, but make sure that: A) you send and respond to emails through a domain based account and B) the email account does not add content such as “Sent By Yahoo.com Email.”)
Not only does this make your business look legitimate, it also makes it easier to manage your email. For example, configure your email client to put emails from orders@ mybusiness.com in an Order folder, emails from info@ mybusiness.com in a folder called Info or Respond, etc. (And while we are on the subject of managing emails, consider using a Customer Relationship Management application such as SalesForce or Commerce CRM.)
You should have at least a separate email account for orders, customer service and general sales questions as well as one in your name. I also recommend creating standard email account names that customers may guess at or assume to be available such as info@, support@, sales@, customerservice@, etc. While this may increase the amount of SPAM reviewed, it makes it easier for customers to contact you.
Which leads us to. . .
Don’t hassle your customers to deal with your SPAM issues. Get a good SPAM filter, forward through Gmail for example, which has a very good SPAM filter system, but don’t use a “verification” service that requires your customers and partners to verify that they are a human.
Nothing increases a customers anxiety like hitting the “send” button and then wondering when they might hear back. Use auto responders on all inbound accounts (such as orders, support and general information requests) to set your customers expectations. Tell them how long they will have to wait to hear a response and then stick to that promise, even if it’s just a “We are investigating your request” type of message. (And make sure you tell them your normal business hours and where you are located).
You can also use auto responders to elicit information your need to assist them. For example, if it’s a request to orders@ remind them that you’ll need: their order number, what was ordered, and the email name used for the order. List any shipping, return, and FAQ resources you may have on your web site. (And if you don’t have these resources; create them.) If support, ask them the most frequent questions you always seem to ask customers when they email for support.
Don’t just use your personal signature for all emails. For fulfillment emails, perhaps:
Rachael
My Business Fulfillment Team
mybusiness.com
Or For Support:
Bob
My Business Support Team
Mybusiness.com
Customers are not impressed when they get an order email or information query response from Bob Roberts, CEO MyBusiness.com. (However, when their third email response comes from the “CEO” they might be.)
Don’t put things like “anything in this email is property of…” into a signature or footer. It’s meaningless, confusing, and sets the wrong tone.
Whenever possible, use on online email form. Email contact forms lets you organize and characterize incoming emails, elicit required information up front, and helps you keep track of emails. For example, if email contact is about order status, the form can title the email ‘Order Status’. Now you can setup your email client/system to forward any email from the web site with Order Status in the title to a specific email account or person within your company.
Some of your emails will come from disgruntled customers. Remember that dissatisfaction almost always comes from un-met expectations…whether real or imagined.
First, do you want this person as a customer? If the request is entirely out of line, you may simply want to employ a tactic of “defuse and disengage:” acknowledge their angry and frustration but don’t feed it by pointing out where they are wrong. Just offer to compensate and then leave it at that.
If you want to retain the customer, again acknowledge and empathize with their frustration (but only apologize if it’s really the fault of your organization). Remember to look at the reasons their expectations where not met and focus your response on that…not whether they where right or wrong.
Don’t “top-post.” Insert responses to specific points in the email where they are relevant. Or, word your response to include the emailer’s question…don’t just hit “reply” and type your response at the top of the email. After the third or forth response, no one will know what anyone is referring too.
If a customer sends critical information via email (i.e., credit card, ss#) REMOVE IT BEFORE RESPONDING.
Lastly, if you are upset, harried, or frustrated…DON’T HIT SEND. Since you’ve taken our advice to use an auto-responder that set a proper expectation, you have 24 hours to ‘cool’ down.