Over-ambitious design, hard to read text,
slow-loading graphics and confusing navigation are often blamed for the poor performance of most web sites.But, as a web user, I feel there's an even more serious reason for the failure of most businesses to take
full advantage of the potential their web sites offer.
Web site failure often is due to poor e-mail follow-up!
There's nothing more frustrating than locating a web site with the product or service you want
to purchase, e-mailing a simple question and then waiting days, weeks or months for a response.
Yet, that's what all too frequently happens.
Case study 1
Last
month, for example, I was searching for a certain color 1994 Jaguar. (This, you may remember, is the last "old style," i.e. pre-Ford model.) I love its styling and performance. They're getting hard to find.
After many hours of searching the web, I located a automobile dealer in another state that had one in stock. It had low mileage and the asking price was fair. Coincidentally, I was going to be in the area the next week,
and wanted to check on a few details.
I sent the dealer an e-mail, asked a few questions and sat back, waiting for a response. I Waited and waited.
After three weeks, I finally called the dealer. "What
happened," I asked?
"Oh," the dealer explained, "we're about three months behind in answering our e-mail." Instantly, the sale was lost. Life's too short. After all, why should I want
to buy a car from a dealership so disorganized it can't respond to an e-mail from a serious buyer.
Case study 2
In another case, being a glutton for punishment, I located a dealer in a neighboring state that
had just the model I wanted. I visited the dealer, but the car was not yet prepped (i.e. ready to be shown).
It was a dealer who knew me as a serious prospect who wanted that particular model. I gave the dealer
business card and asked to be e-mailed when the car was ready. I also sent an e-mail confirming my interest in the car.
Two weeks goes by, and I revisit the dealer. The car was on the lot, waiting to be sold,
accumulating financing charges, but the dealer "hadn't gotten around to" e-mailing me that the car was available.
Case study 3
Last week, I visited the web sites of several national camera stores
that do high-volume mail order buying and selling of second-hand cameras. These are big-time operations. They run large "bricks-and-mortar" superstores and run multi-page, full-color ads each month in all of
the photography enthusiastic magazines. All have huge, database-driven web sites.
In my e-mail, I explained exactly what I wanted and exactly what I wanted to trade. All I wanted in exchange was a simple ballpark
estimate of the value of my equipment.
Several days later, even though these sites actively solicit e-mail business, I have only received responses from fewer than half of the e-mails I sent out!
Lessons learned
Clearly, there is a management disconnect at work here. At firms large and small, there is a failure to integrate e-mail follow-up with the firm's day-to-day sales
and marketing activities.
E-mail seems to be something that gets done if nothing more pressing occurs. Firms evidently have not delegated responsibility to individuals for following-up e-mail responses. Or, if e-mail
follow-up responsibility has been delegated, they have not provided the individuals involved with the resources (primarily time) to respond to e-mail requests.
The attitude seems to be: "First do your work, then
do the e-mail!" And, as a result, the e-mail in-boxes get crammed with more and more unanswered queries--each one representing a lost sales opportunity.
Solution
The solution is
simple. Management and marketing must sit down and recognize that web site success demands more than Flash, Java and XML. Web site success requires close integration with e-mail. E-mail follow-up must be recognized as
an important element of corporate branding. The image that web site visitors form of a corporation is as much determined by the speed and personalization of e-mail follow-up as from color, type and layout--the classic
triumvirate of corporate branding.
Visitors to your web site take it for granted that it takes less than a minute for their e-mail to arrive at your firm. Your competitors are developing systems for rapid follow-up.
It's imperative that you closely monitor your firm's e-mail performance so that "easy sales" coming from pre-sold customers aren't lost because you either have not delegated e-mail responsibility to a
responsible staff member or haven't given them the time they need to perform their duties.
Self-examination
Ask yourself these questions as you evaluate your firm's e-mail
policies:
- Who is in charge of responding to e-mail queries?
- Do they have other sales or management responsibilities?
- Do they have the knowledge to respond to queries?
- Is there an incentive for them to respond to e-mail queries?
- How much time do they spend responding to e-mail each day?
- How often do they check incoming e-mail each day?
- What is your goal turn-around time for responding to e-mail queries?
- Does your firm's e-mail in-box typically contain unread messages at the end of the day?
Share a story and win a book!
Do you have any e-mail horror-stories you'd like to share with fellow NewEntrepreneur.com readers? If you do, send them to me. Feel free to
disguise the name of the firm, if you like, but let's get a dialog going.
Am I the only person who has not purchased products I was ready, willing and able to buy because of a poor e-mail experience?
Send your e-mail horror stories to me at
