Mario Sanchez-Carrion of Shoestring Branding has posted an excellent story on his blog on How to Handle Customer Email.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mario’s post. It’s not only well-written, but entertaining. In essence, it details Mario’s experience in contacting, via email, four car dealerships with a simple request. He asked each of them whether they: 1. Had the base (no options) car model of his choice in a specific color in stock, and 2. If so, what was their asking price.
One dealership never replied. Another emailed with hype and spam and never said whether they had a car meeting the specs on their lot or not. The third emailed him with a quote that included options and a dealership fee. Mario responded to them asking – again – for a base price without a dealership fee, but in the process, they made a big mistake. They took two days to get back to him. During that time, he was already well into the buying process with the only dealership that promptly and accurately answered his email.
I once had a client tell me she didn’t want to communicate with her web site visitors by email. She was used to doing business by phone and that’s what she was comfortable with. I told her she needed to learn to effectively communicate by email or she would lose business. She was so set in her way of doing things, however, that she ultimately decided a web site was not for her.
Another client insisted on providing only his phone number as a contact method on his web site. Interestingly, he was out of business within a year. Whether his failure to provide an alternative to a phone number as a contact method contributed to that, I don’t know. But it does make you wonder.
Many web site visitors prefer the convenience and anonymity of email over the telephone. The problem is, just as many online companies don’t want to be bogged down with answering emails. Neither do they want to invest the time and money in training staff to do the job. As a result, they neglect emails or do a poor job of answering them and their sales suffer.
What these businesses seem to miss is that the Internet is accessible to almost everyone, and people are no longer limited in who they can buy from. To top it off, it’s easier than ever for folks to shop around and compare prices. However, it’s not always the lowest price that wins the sale, but often, the business that responds timely, accurately, and respectfully to any inquiries the customer makes.
There’s a sense of peace that comes with knowing that someone who cares (or at least appears to) is on the other side of the web site. And, truth be told, some customers are willing to pay more for that assurance. Some won’t buy without it.
Remember – it’s always about the customer.
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Excellent post Viki. I’m one of those that prefers email myself
Anita
I would also like to commend you on writing such an excellent post, Viki. I too prefer to communicate via email and one of the major reasons is that you have a record of what has been said, should you need to refer back (and in many cases I have had to do just that). I totally agree with everything you commented on in this post and I will often make decisions about who I wish to do business with and whom I will avoid, based on how they respond via my email inquiries. I always tell people that if they are thinking of signing up with a new web host they should ask them a few technical questions first via email and if they don’t get a quick and detailed response, then ‘keep on looking!’ It may be a sweeping generalization, but I feel that if someone is lax in responding to email, they would be just as slack in tending to your business via telephone, mail, in-person, etc.
Well written and thought provoking Viki. I also prefer email, although, having been in tech support myself with IBM years ago, I don’t hold people to the “respond in 24 hours” rule because I know how full “in-baskets” can become. On the other hand, I’m always [b]unfavorably[/b] influenced when I get no reply at all. Unfortunately, as you have noted elsewhere, customer service does seem to be going the way of the dinosaurs.
Sandy,
I, like you, prefer email for the very reason you stated – “that you have a record of what has been said, should you need to refer back.” Also, your suggestion of emailing a web host prior to signing up to see how well they respond can be applied to almost any situation where you are going to make a purchase on the Internet. I highly encourage it! Thanks for taking the time to post your insightful comments.
Nightshadow,
Promptly answering emails can go a long ways towards establishing credibility and a solid foundation for a successful business. But like you stated, the sheer volume of emails and other urgent business can make it very challenging to answer emails promptly. Time management and prioritizing often need to come into play to make it manageable, especially for the small business and sole proprietors. Thank you for bringing up that very important point!