Time to Cleanup Your Contact/Mail System?

by Skip Cohen

For the last two Fridays, I've shared easy to do ideas to help you build a stronger and more efficient business. Nothing is rocket science, but it does take time and a little attention to detail.

Here's the challenge so many of you have: You simply don't respond fast enough to people who contact you! 
​

• Template website email forms: They're great to have, but accomplish nothing if you don't respond. Repeatedly I've used them to contact photographers and rarely do I get a response that I'd consider timely. Potential clients who are considering hiring you and need more information won't wait very long for a call back.
• Stop hiding your phone number! There's no such thing as too much contact information, especially your phone number. I understand not sharing your address if you work out of your home, but everything else should be on your website.
• Respond in 24 hours or less!  The quote below is from SuperOffice.com, along with the data below. To read the complete article, "7 Ways to Reduce Customer Service Response Times" click here.​​

"Responding quickly to your customers will grow your business. A study of more than 500,000 interactions found that customers are willing to spend more with a business that responds quickly to their enquiry. Simply put, a fast response generates higher revenue."

Here's the bottom line: The faster you respond to customer inquiries, the greater your ability to exceed expectations and in turn, grow your business. The first step is to build the infrastructure for responding. Then, build a system so all emails and calls always get the fastest possible response time.

If you need to, bring in a backup person. It can be as simple as a family member or an associate who tracks incoming email and voicemails. The point is getting back to people quickly with a personal response, not an auto-reply. 

Nothing is rocket science, but it does take discipline - it's all about building strong relationships, and it starts with a fast response time.