How long do you take to reply to an email says a lot about your focus on customers and prospects. Many customers often send email to a company expecting a speedy reply. Entrepreneurs rise up to the challenge and reply to every email when they can, but what happens if you can’t?
When you wake up every morning, you have a fresh new steaming pile of it waiting for you. Yep, it’s e-mail and it’s filled with plenty of customer questions and aching needs. I’m not trying say that email is painful, but I’m going to be honest that it’s a daily ritual that we participate in to communicate together.
And it sucks if you don’t reply quick enough. (We all know that.)
It’s a hot topic (and likely, proven) that most customers expect a reply in one day or less. This is challenging for most entrepreneurs because they often become so tied up in other tasks, they lose priority on their email.
Email says a lot about you. Beyond the message itself, the response and the behavior that you demonstrate often casts a light into your business — that is, your responsiveness, customer focus, time management and quality of service, as examples.
At the same time, no one wants cookie-cutter form letters from email. In fact, I think those suck because you just wasted the time of the person reading them and tells them that the reader doesn’t warrant your time when they just invested time into communicating with you. On the counterpoint, I don’t see much sense in writing the same message over and over to recipients.
The solution is to set expectations on your Website (or wherever people find your email address) that you’ll respond in X days and empower your users to discover your most-answered questions that you are often tasked with replying. Ideally, you should implement changes in your product and service to avert future questions from arising and actually improving service so it aims to please.
With Infusionsoft, you can easily do this while allowing for the spontaneous and inviting customer contact. It’s actually even nicer with the Outlook Integration because you can associate emails with a person’s Contact Record and be yourself in your emails. Additionally, it couldn’t hurt to answer common questions in the form of a follow-up sequence thanking your client for purchasing your products and services and include details on shipping, and tips on getting the most of your product. It takes a no more than a few minutes to put together a great sequence like this.
The bottom line is that it’s your job to uphold the quality of service and be accessible (and responsive) to customers for your company. This can seem challenging, but just sit in the shoes of your customer and anticipate their questions, concerns and be proactive. As a result of your hard work, you’ll have more satisfied and loyal customers who feel rewarded for their experience. At least, you’ll have less email to do, which will help you focus on delivering killer products to your customers.
Great post Joe,
There’s a couple of points I found particularly interesting. First is how you respond says a lot about your company. You’re darn right and the really hard part with this is achieving company standards when you’re not the only one responding to emails. You as the business owner and entrepreneur might be great at responding but others in the company might not be nearly as proficient and that reflects badly on your company.
Second, as a suggestion for doing FAQ’s a little bit differently. Think about making a few short videos that answer many common questions and additionally offer up few tips for getting the most out of your product. Then put those videos on your FAQ page of your website.Not only can this avoid common emails but it can also provide customers with the answers they were looking for plus ideas for optimal use. Good topic Joe.
ElliottM
I agree that it can be challenging for entrepreneurs to find people who are as qualified, committed and eager to help customers as the owner, but they’re out there. I imagine it’s all a matter of expectation setting and reminder that other employees aren’t like an assembly line (drones), but that they are empowered to take control of the customer experience and make it great.
I think it’s a good idea to make videos and post them too, and include those in email. That way, people can have a stronger connection with you as a person instead of just another email address. Thanks Elliot for your thoughtful comments.
~Joseph
This is a great post! Getting back to people in a timely manner is REQUIRED for good customer support these days. With so much competition readily available, any lapse in support can drive customers away.
Video is definitely the way to go for FAQs and tutorials. We’ve found that a good easy to use knowledge base helps us save time on our end and get back to our customers quicker. Now whenever someone has a question we’ve already answered, we can point them in that direction immediately. Our customers love it!
Thanks for the comments, Paul. I think the interest in video is sometimes a bit exaggerated, but given the right content, the right chops and the genuine interest from subscribers — video is the way to go.
That said, responding to email is a must and no entrepreneur can waste their moment to support and impress their customers.
Thanks again for your comments. I appreciate it.
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Your blog has some great information for small businesses. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge!