Customer Service...Online Experiences

[Mike Merz]

[Kevin Robb]

Hi Lynn, Mike, James.....

I am glad this topic has raised some good feedback because it is an issue that I believe can and does affect most of us.

Now I am only a small fish in a big pond but like the rest of you I get a bucketload of emails every day, I believe strongly in providing first class customer service so I endeavour to respond to all within 24 hours if I can.

Given that employing someone to answer my emails was not an option for practical reasons I decided to employ a techie part time.

Andrew has recently completed his IT training at the local university and he works for me after hours or in the weekends doing things that he knows best, ie: designing and building websites etc, items that he is very experienced in.

This has enabled me to concentrate on the core parts of my operation and be responsive to my clients all this whilst holding down a full time job as well.

It certainly works for me, it's just a matter of taking a good look at your operation and deciding on how you can best delegate some of your tasks economically.

Just another view for you to consider.

Cheers

Kevin Robb

[Lynn Terry]

[Jennifer Hadorn]

[lata]

Hi everyone,

Glad to jump in. I face the same problem as Lynn. In spite of all what I can do, I am constantly falling back in replying to mails. Even if I have some event or a contest at my site, people expect me to send them a confirmation that I received their entry for it. I refrained from using autoresponders, but I think I will have to use them now. All the 'personal touch' will be gone.

But apart from such events, even the regular mail is too much! I receive article contributions from members, faq's, directory listing submissions, help requests, error reports, general mails etc.

How do I mke time to reply each of them??!!

Lata

[James Mann]

Hi all you great people.

I use autoresponders where I makes sense to use them. If the info can
be sent using an autoresponder then I will use it. But...

...I will also leave an email address that can be used if the autoresponder
does not answer all the questions.

I think it has to have balance so it does not appear to be too automated.

Using folders and filters is a must if you want to maintain sanity.