To: Irish businesspeople/professionals
Subject: Email basics
Date: April 5, 2008
Got a business? Good for you.
Got an email address? Of course you do: gotta keep up with the times. People need to be able to reach you. E-commerce, connectivity, customer relationship management, and all that blah.
But do you know how to use it?
I’m not asking if you know how to click the Send/Receive or Reply buttons. It’s deeper than that. Because there really seems to be a genuine lack of understanding, in many Irish businesses, of the nature and value of email.
Do you ever, for example, receive an email like this:
“Hi, I’m interested in your nickel-effect solar-powered 3.5G urinal in extra large, with built-in xylophone. How much would it cost to deliver to Rockall?”
And reply like this [sic]:
“Thank 4 you’re quiry. Pls ring a sales reprosensitive on 0871234567 for detales.”
Here’s the thing. If you advertise your business with a phone number and an email, and someone chooses the latter to make contact with you, that’s because – and this is important – they want to correspond via email.
Look, if they have your email address, they certainly have your phone number too, or can easily get it. So if they wanted to talk to a reprosensitive, they would have picked up the damn phone.
Maybe they’re too busy to ring. Maybe they work in a place where they can’t make calls during your opening hours. Maybe they just feel bad for the poor schmucks standing in line in your premises, patiently queuing for help only to be rudely pre-empted when, just as they get to the head of the line, the reprosensitive snatches up the suddenly bleating headset, goes “Uh-huh” three times, and disappears into the stock room for an hour. Hell, we’ve all been there.
Maybe they like the reassurance that comes with email. It may not form a legal contract, but still, it gives some kind of documentation to fall back on when challenging the shysters who’ll typically try to cut every corner (“Oh, you wanted a dog with a TAIL? We didn’t discuss that...”)
Maybe they might forget some of what you tell them on the phone, and would like something to refer back to (“Did he say Kilbeggan or Killybegs?”). Maybe they find it convenient that, by sending an email, they automatically create a record of when the query was made (No more “How late is my order? I dunno, three or four weeks…”). Maybe their question is complex and they know from bitter experience that people in busy offices or call centres don’t always listen properly; they might, however, understand the issue if it’s spelled out carefully in virtual black and white.
There are a multitude of good reasons for choosing email. Bear in mind also, mister businessman-man, that these same advantages can work for you, too.
So if you have a business email address, then use it properly, and to your full advantage. But if you can’t or won’t do that, please take it off your promotional gunk.