The 'Holy Grail' of the Internet and e-commerce is the ability to communicate with customers and potential customers, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, cost-effectively and on a one-to-one basis.
However, many companies fail to answer customers' e-mails within a working day, if at all. Frustrated customers sometimes wait weeks for a response to a simple query that could have been answered in a matter of seconds.
"Not responding to customers' e-mails is the same as not answering your phone," says Mike Wright, CEO of The E-mail Corporation in Johannesburg. "Companies need to develop a good online strategy to deal with the volumes of mails they receive on a daily basis."
An effective online strategy involves addressing how incoming e-mail is sorted and categorised, how e-mail gets routed, how recipients access the correct information for fast responses and how the company tracks replies.
"Companies need to implement a sophisticated management tool for e-mail communication," says Monique Venter, Strategic Business Manager of The E-mail Corporation. "You need to quickly and accurately respond to your customer inquiries and avoid those e-mails that seem to slip between the cracks."
Products, such as The E-mail Corporation's ResponseMail, are available to assist with e-mail management. Incoming messages are assigned to a Customer Response Queue based on the incoming e-mail address and content. Customer Response Agents are assigned the messages on an equal basis or alternatively the messages are assigned to a manager who distributes the queries to the appropriate person. ResponseMail intelligently manages the redistribution of messages to new agents as they become available.
Once a message has been assigned, management needs to ensure that staff answer the queries received in the quickest and most efficient manner possible. Wright maintains that queries not answered within a set time limit should be made available to other staff members before being escalated to more senior users and ultimately senior management. This will ensure that all mails are answered within a 24-hour window.
A good online strategy should see an increase in the amount of communication with customers, and the businesses that have got it right have developed fanatical customer loyalty without face-to-face interactions.
"What customers really want is for you to make it easier for them to do business with you. Funny as it seems, that's the hardest thing to do. However, if you get it right, you can expect untold benefits."
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