Had an interesting conversation with a client last week about how the effect of having no email for a 24 hour period effected this business. I should add that this was just 1 email address, the info@ address the business uses.
I should paint a picture a little clearer, this is a small rural business in the west of Ireland, 3 people, 1 in the office and 2 out on site working with clients in a service industry.
Whilst some work was been carried out on their website/hosting by ourselves we had some downtime. (I have to put my hand up and say that it was from our part that they emails were being queued on the server, meaning they were not being pushed through to their office pc, but waiting to be pushed towards them)
So we started work on this hosting/email facility for this one email address at about 3 in the afternoon and we had hoped it was sorted by about 6pm that evening but alas now we know that it was still not functioning the next morning and that afternoon too. Once we twigged what it was we were able to rectify it and they got the emails, minus the spam etc etc.
What did we learn?
1, that we now have a new procedure in place to make sure the email set up is signed off
2, that a business not having email, even for 1 day, with 1 email address, can be considered closed down!
Yes, we got a call from the client stating that people will think they are closed down and that in a recession not to have your emails responded to is very serious to a business. I agreed and we have resolved the matter now and all is well, but I really was able to see if from a customers point of view too.
Are you answering your emails?
Do you only answer your email at 9am, 13:00 and then again at 17:00?
The recession has meant that we all assume that if we dont hear back from a business that they have gone out of business.
Conclusion: Answer your emails and do it sooner than your competitor will.
(I’m learning too here folks, I’m not the fastest when relying to people either!)
