Proper Business E-mail Etiquette Tips

“This wild, wonderful web! All of the opportunities at our fingertips! Customers galore!” “They'll be beating down the server and I'll have so many orders I won't know what to do with myself!” As a business owner, have you ever had those thoughts? Think again. :) While it may be easy street for a select few, for most, it's not. So how can you make sure your business is successful? Try a little E-Mail Courtesy. Seriously! Many of the businesses who have established themselves on the Internet haven't the faintest idea of how to address one of the most important issues online: Customer Service. “Why should customer service matter? My product's right there, along with my order form.” It does matter. Shoppers on the net are still wary. They may e-mail you first to see if they receive a response and what the response is like. They may ask questions to see if you express enough knowledge about your own products/services and to gather your enthusiasm about what you're selling. Businesses come and go on the web, and only those who show true interest and enthusiasm about what they're selling will survive. If the shopper is another business, they might request to exchange links -- and see how they are treated in their request. Or they may request a free sample. And all of this will most likely be done through e-mail. So how can you and your online business show courtesy through e-mail? Here are 10 tips to get you started:

1. Answer your e-mail and answer it promptly. The Internet is FAST. It gives people information in a much shorter amount of time than having to go through a more traditional route of finding what they want. Customers expect FAST replies. An appropriate response time in my opinion should be 48 hours. No longer. If you wait a month to answer a request from a customer - forget it. They are GONE.

2. In addition to regular inquiries, answer your customer *complaints* immediately. Within 24 hours. Nothing irritates a consumer more than to order from you, receive a product with a problem, then have to wait over a week for your reply as to how they should handle the situation. If you wait longer than one day to respond to a customer with a complaint, you might as well kiss future sales to that person goodbye. Even if you don't know what the customer and/or you can do to rectify the problem, at least make contact with the customer. Assure them you are working on it, and then DO IT. There aren't too many *easy* sales on the net - you have to work for them, and this is one way you can accomplish your objective.

3. Address letters to your customer or potential customer in a business-like manner. Dear “Mr./Mrs. So & So” will suffice. When addressing other businesses on the net and you don't know the name of a contact person, try something like “ATTN: Director of Marketing”.

4. If you offer something FREE for the client, whether it be information or a sample product, be sure to send it. If it is to be sent via e-mail, send it the SAME DAY. If you are not able to send information daily as it is requested, use an autoresponder. Don't wait two weeks until the potential customer forgets they've ever heard of you. If you are sending a free sample, send it the SAME WEEK. Customers would expect a snail-mail package or product to arrive slower than e-mail, but no longer than a week.

5. When sending an unsolicited marketing pitch to a potential customer via e-mail, keep it short. I learned this the hard way. :)) Now, my pitch goes something like this -- “If you'd like to consider a unique, personal, and colorful advertisement for your company -- and at a reasonable price compared to traditional online advertisers -- please e-mail me or visit my web site for more information.” That way if the prospect is interested, the pitch isn't forced on them before they're ready. They can look at their leisure. Which is what you want them to do, so they'll have the proper time to consider your offer. And of course, it doesn't hurt to comment positively on their web site and give your impressions. :) It also will help if you buy one of the company's products while you are visiting.

6. If someone mails you a pitch and you're not interested in the product or service, don't blast them will a slew of obscenities. If you're not interested, don't answer. Or maybe consider replying in this fashion: “Dear Mr. So & So, Thank you for making me aware of your fine service. I am not currently in a position to employ such services, but will definitely keep you in mind if and when I decide to do so. And since you visited my site, I'd like to offer you a free copy of___________ (or free sample of our most popular herb) (or 10% discount on our gold watches, good for this week only).” What does this do? It turns the selling party into a potential buying party. For one, they will appreciate the fact you took time for a personal reply. And they might just buy your discounted product!

7. If someone gives you an award, recognition, or other form of positive communication, THANK THEM. And do so promptly. That person giving that award or special mention of your company name didn't *have* to take the time to do it. You can assure great future relations if you immediately zip them off an e-mail expressing your thanks. After all, how long does it take? Three seconds to type “thank you” and hit “send”.

8. Follow through. If you are corresponding with a customer via e-mail on a situation, be sure to keep the contact going until the situation is resolved. The customer will appreciate your attentiveness to both them and whatever the situation might be.

9. Never, ever, ever address the customer by the *wrong name*. Always look at their letter, observe the spelling of their name, and get it right. A person's name is an individual trait, specific to them. When addressed by the wrong name, or misspelled name, people tend to feel they don't mean much to you, or you are showing lack of attention to detail -- not a good trait for an online vendor to display.

10. Always remember...the way in which you deal with people online - either within e-mail, on mailing lists or newsgroups -- will reflect back to you. If you make negative comments about another online vendor, the customer could lose respect for you as a business person. After all, who's to say the next negative remark won't be made about *that customer*?

You've heard “The customer is always right” and “The customer always comes first”. Both of those statements should be adhered to online, just as they would be if you were face to face with them in your off-line place of business. Because for every business online, new ones are popping up daily to provide competition. And who will be the winners? Those who are courteous and respectful of everyone online.

Predict Your Future. Don't use a crystal ball to create forecasts of your business. By carefully assessing the historic trends of
your business enterprise, as shown on your records for the previous five years, you can predict for the year ahead. Your listing
of earnings, your experience with the markets where you market, and your overall knowledge of the market ought to allow you to
forecast a sales figure for the next year.

When you have a Sales forecast figure, make up a budget showing your prices as a percentage of the figure. Within the following
year, you can compare real P&L amounts to your budgeted figures. Thus, your budget is an important tool for determining the health
of your business.

Make Timely Decisions. Without actions, predictions and conclusions about the future are not worth the paper they are written on.
A decision that doesn't lead to action is a poor one. The pace of business demands timely as well as informed decision making. In
case the owner-manager is to remain ahead of competition, you have to move to control your destiny.

Effective Decision making in the small business requires a number of things. The owner-manager must possess as much accurate
information as possible. With these details, you should establish the effects of all possible courses of action and the time
requirements. When you've created the decision, you've set up your business so the decisions you make could be transmitted into
actions.

Control Your Business. To work, the owner-manager must have the ability to motivate key people to acquire the results intended for
within the cost and time constraints allowed. In working to achieve outcomes, the small business owner-manager has an edge over
large business. You can be flexible and fast while many big firms must await committee action before a decision is made. You do
not have to get consent to behave. And equally important, bottlenecks to implementing new practices can receive your own personal
attention.

One of those Secrets is in deciding what items to restrain. Even in a small business, the owner-manager shouldn't try and be all
things to everybody. You ought to keep close control on individuals, products, money, and any other resources that you consider
significant to maintaining your performance geared toward profit.

Manage Your Folks. Most companies realize that their biggest expense is labor. Yet because of the close contact with employees, a
few owner-manager of small businesses don't pay sufficient attention to direct and indirect labour costs. They have a tendency to
consider those costs in terms of individuals as opposed to relate them to gain with respect to dollars and cents.

Here are a few Suggestions concerning personnel management:

Periodically Review every position in your company. Have a glimpse at the job. Is work being duplicated? Can it be organized so
that it motivates the employee to become involved? Can the tasks be given to another employee or employees and a position removed?
Can a part-time individual fill the job.

Perform A modest private mental game. Imagine that you must eliminate one employee, If you had to let one person go, who'd it be?
How would you realign the jobs to make out? You may get a true solution to the fanciful difficulty is potential to your financial
advantage.

Usage Compensation as a tool instead of viewing it as a necessary evil. Reward Superior work. Investigate the potential for using
raises and bonuses as incentives for greater productivity. By way of instance, can you schedule bonuses like morale boosters
during seasonal slacks or alternative dull periods?

Remember There are new means of controlling absenteeism through incentive reimbursement plans. By way of instance, the
owner-manager of a little business eliminated vacations and sick leave. Rather, this owner-manager gave every employee thirty days
annual leave to use as the employee saw fit. In the end of the year, the employees were paid at regular rates for the leave they
did not use. To qualify for the year-end pay, the employee had to prove that sick leave was shot only for that purpose. Non-sick
leave had to be applied for in advance. As a result, unscheduled absences and overtime pay have been decreased significantly.
Additionally, workers were happier and more productive than they had been under the older system.

Control Your Inventory. Do not tie up all of your cash in inventory. Utilize a perpetual inventory system as a cost control as
opposed to a system just for tax purposes. Establish use patterns or buy patterns on the materials or items you must stock to
maintain the minimum number needed to provide your customers to preserve production. Excessive stock, while it's finished
merchandise or raw materials, ties up funds which could be used to better advantage, for example, to open a new sales territory or
to purchase new machines.

Centralize your Buys and avoid duplications. Be a comparative shopper. Confirm orders in writing. Get the price and amount
straight right away.

Assess what you Receive for condition and quality. Check bills from suppliers against quotes. You don't wish to be the victim of
the error.

You should, However, keep one fact in mind when you set up your inventory control system. Do not spend more on the management
system than it will return in savings.

Control Your Products. From charge of stock to control of merchandise is but a step. Ensure your sales people understand the value
of promoting the products which are the most lucrative. Align your service coverages with your markup in mind. Arrange your goods
so that low markup items need the cheapest handling.

Control Your Cash. It's good policy to handle checks and cash as though they were perishable commodities. They are. Cash on your
protected earns no return; and it Can be stolen. Bank promptly.

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