Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Fast Email Responses = Happy Customers!

In the world of instant gratification, keeping a happy customer really isn’t that difficult. Businesses need just respond to their email inquiries and they’ll feel important enough to stay loyal and keep buying. Surprisingly enough, this doesn’t always happen.

Can you imagine all of the income they are missing out on just because they can’t get to the barrage of emails they are receiving? Poor email management can be very damaging to any business that depends on getting and keeping Happy Customers.

So how do you manage bulk incoming email? Get organized. Make a plan, implement processes and rules so that emails are responded to within 24-48 hours, and get a good, easy-to-use email response management system.

Get Rid of the Junk
Get a grasp on all the Junk. In our office, we created a Junk folder in ReplyManager to receive and dispense with all the Spam. We use SpamAssassin as the Spam filter.

Sort Related Email
Create Folders and use Rules to automatically sort related email together. This will make it easier to answer multiple emails at once and to assign the right staff.

Assign Actions and Keep Notes
Create Categories, set Priory Levels and enter References that refer to specific actions if emails can’t be answered immediately. And if multiple steps need to be taken to address the email, keep accurate notes in the email ticketing system so that the next person knows where you left off.

Create Standard Replies
Keep track of frequently asked questions and create a database of Standard Replies. This will increase response rates and unify your company message.