E-mail and your business
E-mail is quite often the first connection you will have with potential clients and/or customers for your small business. It is, in effect, your resume for soliciting good will and repeat business.
In my feedback at eBay, the feedback reads like:
How do you get people to notice? The first thing I do is consider the first e-mail to be my handshake. I do not want it to feel like a cold uncaring shake where it feels to the recipient like I have better things I would rather be doing with my time than dealing with them. I also don't want for them to get a feeling that they need to wash the sticky sweetness of my kid's jam sandwich off their hands.
Like any business correspondence, an e-mail should be polite and to the point. It also needs to take into account how busy the other person may be. You want to refresh their memory of why you are writing to them in the first paragraph, then explain the details for why you have sent the e-mail and provide any needed information. Close the e-mail with a polite thanks in advance for their time and, if applicable, consideration of the matter, and any pertinent contact information they may need for you.
Make certain that you proof read your e-mails. There are a lot of mistakes that are not seen by spell check, such as: properly spelled but improperly used words (two = too), typos that leave a letter off a word but still form a proper word (now=know), typos where the wrong letter is hit creating a proper word that does not belong in the e-mail (work = word), words left out of a sentence, and many other reasons why your spell checker may see it as a proper e-mail but your reader would be left confused. When I write, whether it is an e-mail or a blog post or any other kind of writing, I write it without spell check and proof read as I go along. Then I send it through spell check and double check suggested changes, then I reread to be sure it makes sense the way I want it to.
Look at all e-mail as a reflection of your company and the way it does business. You want your customers to leave feeling as though you have greeted them warmly and seen to their needs in a professional manner, honestly caring about them as individuals without trying to make them like you through idle chatter, amusing anecdotes, or unnecessary flashiness.
Before you hit send, you should reread your e-mail at least one more time and pretend that you are the recipient. Does it convey the right information, could the tone be misinterpreted if the recipient has been having a bad day? Is there any chance that the SPAM filters might toss your e-mail into the junk mail box? The subject line is an important place to watch for that problem. Try to be sure that the headline is a brief recap of why you sent the e-mail. Such as "Re: Purchase #535767 - Sony Walkman" not something vague like, "hey" or "re: purchase".
I'm sure there is a lot more to be said about e-mail communications, but this will hopefully get you started on thinking about the impression your e-mails make on your customers and developing a style that will leave your customers feeling that they have been greeted warmly, made feel welcome, and would be treated fairly and kindly by your business.
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In my feedback at eBay, the feedback reads like:
Great email and .....Note that I have removed the payment comments, since this is just about the correspondence. The point in the above is, when you write a friendly and concise e-mail that is business-like and polite, people notice.
A++++ Buyer. Very Very Nice & .....
......Friendly in emails,......
Excellent Communication, ...............
NICE Lady!! Great correspondence! ..........
........and Great Communication AAA+++
How do you get people to notice? The first thing I do is consider the first e-mail to be my handshake. I do not want it to feel like a cold uncaring shake where it feels to the recipient like I have better things I would rather be doing with my time than dealing with them. I also don't want for them to get a feeling that they need to wash the sticky sweetness of my kid's jam sandwich off their hands.
Like any business correspondence, an e-mail should be polite and to the point. It also needs to take into account how busy the other person may be. You want to refresh their memory of why you are writing to them in the first paragraph, then explain the details for why you have sent the e-mail and provide any needed information. Close the e-mail with a polite thanks in advance for their time and, if applicable, consideration of the matter, and any pertinent contact information they may need for you.
Make certain that you proof read your e-mails. There are a lot of mistakes that are not seen by spell check, such as: properly spelled but improperly used words (two = too), typos that leave a letter off a word but still form a proper word (now=know), typos where the wrong letter is hit creating a proper word that does not belong in the e-mail (work = word), words left out of a sentence, and many other reasons why your spell checker may see it as a proper e-mail but your reader would be left confused. When I write, whether it is an e-mail or a blog post or any other kind of writing, I write it without spell check and proof read as I go along. Then I send it through spell check and double check suggested changes, then I reread to be sure it makes sense the way I want it to.
Look at all e-mail as a reflection of your company and the way it does business. You want your customers to leave feeling as though you have greeted them warmly and seen to their needs in a professional manner, honestly caring about them as individuals without trying to make them like you through idle chatter, amusing anecdotes, or unnecessary flashiness.
Before you hit send, you should reread your e-mail at least one more time and pretend that you are the recipient. Does it convey the right information, could the tone be misinterpreted if the recipient has been having a bad day? Is there any chance that the SPAM filters might toss your e-mail into the junk mail box? The subject line is an important place to watch for that problem. Try to be sure that the headline is a brief recap of why you sent the e-mail. Such as "Re: Purchase #535767 - Sony Walkman" not something vague like, "hey" or "re: purchase".
I'm sure there is a lot more to be said about e-mail communications, but this will hopefully get you started on thinking about the impression your e-mails make on your customers and developing a style that will leave your customers feeling that they have been greeted warmly, made feel welcome, and would be treated fairly and kindly by your business.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Article © December, 2006 by Sandra Fikes
Reprint authorized only with link back to this
blog or to http://www.phantascene.com
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Reprint authorized only with link back to this
blog or to http://www.phantascene.com
This footer must be included in reprint.
posted by Sandra at 6:42 PM
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