Can Emails Improve Your Customer Service And Relationships? Business Articles | May 24 Alex Goligoski Youth Jersey , 2008 Good email service becomes more important when the economy takes a dip. Many businesses lament the fact that people tighten their belts and buy less when the economy contracts. Yes, that's true. But they still buy. The real difference is that they probably buy less and from a more select group of suppliers. In times like this, you need to set yourself apart from the pack - why not do it by way of more personal email service?
How do most of your customers enter your business? Through the front door? By phone? Via the web? By email? Chances are some of your business comes to you by email. Or If it doesn't initially, you will probably have email contact with many of your customers during their relationship with you.
Is your email service as good as your face-to-face or phone service? For example, do you have some standard policies and protocols that all employees must follow? Are you taking the marketing opportunities provided by email contact?
1. Make sure your email message is as good as your face-to-face message
I recently visited a provedore store in Lyon Oliver Ekman-Larsson Youth Jersey , France where we were met at the front door by a sales person. He asked whether we would like to look by ourselves or could he assist. We took his assistance and he proceeded to show and explain some of the items we were interested in. Once we had selected our items, he escorted us to the cash register. As we went to exit the front door, he was there to show us out, thank us for our business and wish us well. Our visit lasted no more than 15 minutes. Yet it was one of the nicest retail shopping experiences I have ever had.
Buying should be an experience, not merely a purchase.
Every email exchange with a customer should be as good as your face to face service.
2. Make sure your email message is clear and based on reason and logic Derek Stepan Youth Jersey , not emotion
Emails lack the non-verbal cues we use in our face to face discussions. As a result, often the intended message is miss-perceived. Emails are also like no other form of written word. They are not books, newspapers or such where a great deal of thought has gone into the written word (and which is often accompanied by a picture or image). Nor are they read that way, but keep in mind, that they can be re-read by the receiver many times over!
To illustrate how the written word can be misinterpreted Christian Dvorak Youth Jersey , read the following statement:
"I did not say she stole the money"
What is the meaning of this statement? What did you interpret from this written statement?
You see, whenever we put words on paper (or in this case in emails) they can be interpreted in many different ways - and often are! In fact the legal profession (with apologies to anyone of a legal nature reading this) have built an entire industry on the interpretation of the written word. Signed any contracts lately? Notice that they almost never have punctuations and even when they do, they can still be interpreted by two independent people, quite differently.
3. Use the phone and face-to-face contact to supplement emails
Many of you can probably remember the time before emails and it wasn't that long ago. A very far sighted colleague could see both the advantages and potential pitfalls of emails when they were introduced. At the time, he instituted his own email rule which he told everyone about - "I will only respond to your emails every Friday".
Could that rule still be valid today? Well Anthony Duclair Youth Jersey , for him, it is. He is an extremely popular and successful consultant, so much so, that he has so much work he has to regularly pass on work to colleagues. So, how do people contact him? Guess what Tobias Rieder Youth Jersey , they phone. And he's not overloaded with phone calls either. You might ask, "What's happening here?" What he's done is to train us, his colleagues, customers and others, to really think about "Why?" we want to contact him and "What?" our message will entail.
4. Save valuable time - have an email free day!
Now Niklas Hjalmarsson Youth Jersey , it maybe a bit late for you and I to start a similar rule with our key people (unless you're just starting out in business of course). However, there is a small but growing number of organisations around the world who have realised the loss of productivity caused by the over emphasis on emails. For example, to help overcome the problem, Scott A. Dockter, CEO of PBD Worldwide Fulfilment Services Luke Schenn Youth Jersey , has instituted a "No email Fridays" policy. He is reported to have told his employees to use the phone on Fridays for all their communication (internal and external) and to reduce email use the rest of the time. Not only has this reduced the reliance on emails and improved interpersonal communication, but in less than four months it also resulted in quicker problem solving, better teamwork and happier customers.
If you are in a small business, then you have one great advantage over large businesses - speed of execution. Because you are small, you can move quicker. Why not take advantage of this and get on the phone to some of your key clients (and suppliers) or better still [url=http://www
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