I recently contacted a professional via a business directory online and then forgot about it a few days later. I was looking for some professional support and had since contacted others before settling on who I was going to work with.

One day I get an email from the person I contacted (I’d forgotten their name) and it simply said it was from him with a Word attachment. No actual email message, no signature block, nothing – just the subject saying it was from him and the Word document.

I immediately responded saying ‘.. and who is…?’ and explaining I don’t open documents that could contain viruses without knowing what it is and who the person is who sent it.

I got a quick reply saying it was the information I’d asked for via the business directory the other day.

If this is how this person responds to business enquiries they’re not going to get much business.  Or perhaps their lack of quick response and lack of information contained in the response is an indication that they don’ t need the extra business. What do you think?

I don’t know about you, but if I email someone with a request for advice, a quote, or something else, I kind of expect a response acknowledging they’ve received my email.

I don’t mean an autoresponder and I’m not into using the read receipt option (a whole other story there) but a response email that just lets me know it has been received and read, and they’ll get back to me with an answer later.

Whether we like it or not, society has become one that requires quick answers and quick fixes and email has helped produce that expectation.

While I’m not expecting service or product providers to drop everything at my beck and call, I certainly don’t expect to wait 4, 5 or more days for a response – usually if I’ve enquired about something it means I’m looking for that thing now and would like to know if it’s available, doable, achievable, deliverable.

If I don’t hear back from the person I emailed within 2 or 3 days I email them again and then if I still don’t get a response I ring them up.  Result is they think I’m nagging them or something.  Huh?  Am I in the wrong?  I don’t think so.

I know if a prospective client contacts me for some work to be done they don’t wait around very long for an answer.  They go off to the very next VA business they can find to get the answer they’re looking for.  So even if I don’t have an answer on the spot (I need to research for some information for example), I will at least email them a reply letting them know I’ve seen their email and will get back to them very soon with an answer. What do you do?

Put it this way. If the phone was ringing would you let it just ring out, thinking you’ll answer it tomorrow?

Email is another form of communication but unlike the phone can’t make the urgent sound that demands you answer it immediately.  So it amazes me how many business people (including banks and large corporations) don’t actually reply to emails, even ones that are relatively urgent) till days or weeks later.  Why is that?

I believe it’s because they don’t have staff regularly monitoring their email and that’s a poor thing.  It’s a legitimate form of communication and people will use it because it’s convenient.  Why is it convenient? Well, let me count the ways:

1. They don’t have to wait for someone to answer the phone
2. They don’t have to call during business hours but rather send a message at a time that suits the sender
3. Written email will often help clarify the problem or request and additional information can be sent such as images, copies of text, etc
4. They don’t have to sit on hold for a long time as is often the case when making phone calls
5. Written responses mean that the receiver can read over it again and again to check on the response rather than having to depend on their memory whether they heard right.

I’m sure there are others but this was just off the top of my head.

So, will you be checking your email regularly now rather than just thinking about it occasionally?  It’s worth thinking about.

This is a laugh!

Just got this email with an attachment which no doubt has some script installed in it.  What makes it so funny?  Well, apart from the obvious things like not addressing it personally to me (I don’t even have a NAB account), spelling errors, etc, it talks about paying me in Euro – from an Australian bank?  Doh!

I have notified the real NAB of the new phishing/spam email doing the rounds.  To date I’ve received 3 copies in less than half an hour.

Subject: Reward 20 Euro (31 AUD) ,take our survey jurney

Dear NAB Credit/Debit card Holder,

For better cooperation between NAB and his clients, NAB Survey Team has
initiated a new poll on the functionality of our banking services. By
completing the attached survey form emailed, you will receive an amount of
20 Euro. This amount will be debited to your credit card account in 2 days
after verifications. To participate, download form attached to email !

Let me set the scene for you:

I manage several database lists for myself and for clients.  And as those lists grow, the numbers are well into the tens of thousands.  So, it’s only to be expected that you’ll get several requests for people to be removed off lists or for their details to be updated.

Today I received an email addressed to one of my clients advising that one of her readers may have received an email addressed to this address or that address and could I please update it to ….?  I spent some time trying to find the various addresses she’d given without success. In the end I emailed her back advising that the very next email she receives from my client simply requires her to click on the Update link at the bottom so she can update her email address.

Now, I get a few requests like this and I’m beginning to wonder what is so hard about clicking on a link at the bottom of the email they’ve received that says ‘cancel’ or ‘update’ and for them to update or cancel accordingly.  I use systems that allow for owners of email addresses to easily manage their subscriptions – it’s also designed to try and ease the load for us too.

I mean, I do that when I no longer want to be on a list or change an email and I don’t expect the owner of lists to maintain my addresses for me. So should I be expected to do the same?

And whilst I’m on the subject of maintaining my own email addresses on lists, I particularly dislike being made to login (therefore having to create a username and password) simply to get off someone’s list. Why should I have to register to unsubscribe? The reality is that often these people have just put me on their lists and if I click on an unsubscribe link find I have to prove I am the owner of that address and fill out information I don’t want to have to fill out.  Or am I just being pedantic?

What are your thoughts about who should manage the ownership of subscriptions?

mailing lists, email subscriptions, managing lists, email addresses

I sometimes wonder what goes on in the minds of other people when participating in chat forums.

I belong to a lot of email based business network forums, mainly through yahoogroups.  It seems to me there are 3 types of people who participate in these forums.

1.  The person who replies and leaves all of the previous email(s) and so we get a trail of messages repeated over and over again, especially if others add to it.  The poor people on daily digest, or on dialup – having to pay for the download of repeated messages.  These people either don’t really understand what it’s all about, or perhaps they are just plain lazy – maybe they don’t even think.

2.  The opposite (extreme) – deleting everything, even what they are responding to, and thereby leaving others guessing what it was they were responding to. The subject heading doesn’t always give a clue, particularly if it’s gone off topic.  These people are too pedantic – not everyone is on your wave length.

3.  The person who does trim the email, leaving enough so that others can see what is being responded or added to – this is the preferred option and keeps things running smoothly.

Actually, there are others.

4. The lurker – those who read everything, devour what info they can and possibly apply it, but give nothing of themselves and don’t contribute back to the group.  These are the takers.

5,  The responder – to everything. They have to have a word about everything that is taking place, even responding with just ‘thank you’.  Some of these replies just aren’t needed, at least via the forum – you can always email the person direct.  We all get enough email as it is, don’t you think?

As many of you know I’m a member of LinkedIn.com, along with several other forums. Lately there seems to be a trend for people, particularly from LinkedIn, to start sending their entire connection list their newsletter. I do not believe this to be a good practice, apart from it not being in line with their user agreement.

Imagine you have a connection count in excess of 1,000 people and every single one of them added you to their newsletter list. What would happen to the number of emails you receive every day?

I know that people think it’s ‘only once a month’ but when you times that by 1,000, 2,000 or more each month, it gets beyond a joke.

When people agree to connect with you via a networking forum I believe they should still be asked, or given the opportunity to subscribe of their own accord.

I did email my connections list and let them know about various things I was doing at the beginning of this year but it was a once-off email – even then I got people asking to unsubscribe even though I explained they weren’t on any list in the email.

We all get inundated with more email than we ask for so be fair and kind to your networking connections and don’t add them to lists they didn’t ask to be on. Connecting via a networking forum was specifically for networking purposes. If you participate in discussions and give people the opportunity to get to know you, then over time they may well subscribe to your lists and even do business with you. Developing a good signature block for participation in these forums will go a long way towards attracting interested people to your lists.

I believe the building of relationships is an important part of networking and putting people on lists before they even know you is not a good practice and will put people off for the most part, rather than endear them to you.

newsletter list, LinkedIn, networking,

The ‘paperless’ office is pretty much a joke these days. Email seems to generate much more of it, but even if we don’t print it off, we still have lots to read and catch up on – if we want to keep up to date with the world. The world has grown ‘smaller’ but with it the amount of stuff we want to know and read has increased considerably. This leads us to being on lots and lots of lists and it’s easy to lose control of what we’ve subscribed to and where those things are on the web.

I started subscribing to lists back in 1997 or perhaps even earlier, definitely before spam became a problem and so every man and his dog seemed to end up with my address as it got passed or sold from one person to another. Of course spam legislations and other rulings now make that a ‘no no’ but it doesn’t change what has taken place in the past. The end result is that people tend to get an email address that they use for subscriptions only and then change it if the spam gets too much. And that’s where a new challenge comes – to the owners of the lists you want to stay on.

I frequently get emails from people asking me to change their details on my, or my clients’ broadcast lists. Or autoresponders that say ‘Johnnie doesn’t use this address anymore, please update your file to xxxx’. I guess that seems fair enough to the owner of that address but what about the list owner when they get this multiple times? Suddenly they’re faced with having to set aside time to update addresses on their lists.  Not to mention all the old addresses that need culling.

Many lists I belong to (and those I use) allow you to click on a link and update the listing yourself and I encourage you to do so.  Or if you want to get off a list, use the Cancel link rather than emailing the people who own the list to ask them to remove you – much less time and keystrokes involved for all.  And it’s easier.

And if you’re sick of changing addresses constantly, consider using a good spam filter online and then add the addresses of the lists you want to stay on, to the safe list so they can get through.  I use spamarrest and this has worked well for me for several years now.  KMT

In business we’re all keen to grow our lists and have a larger audience to promote to and demonstrate our abilities to, but I feel there is some etiquette involved in developing these lists and I find people time and again, not taking what I consider to be an appropriate approach.

I am on lots and lots and lots of lists – many are not of my choosing. I’ve had my email address for a long time, long before spam became a problem, and long before many businesses were on the web, so I’m reluctant to change my email address or domain and have put filters in place, which at least keeps the majority of spammers at bay.

But it’s those who want to genuinely promote a business service or product that tend to annoy me at times and I’ll tell you why. Over the past couple of days I’ve had Australian businesses send me emails that indicate I’ve been put on a list. No introduction, no ‘are you interested’, just straight out emails sent to their lists. I’ve emailed one of them twice now making it quite clear that I am not interested and that they are contravening the spam legislation – as yet I’ve had no response. The other one emailed me back quickly to say that she thought I’d be interested in what she had to offer and that a mutual acquaintance gave her my details.

Now, I get lots of people giving me other people’s cotntact details but I don’t add them to my list – although they might be added to my database so I can contact them if I want to find out more about what they do. What I do though, is make an initial contact, often via email, and introduce myself, explain how I came to know of them and then let them know why I’m contacting them, i.e. “Joe Smith told me you’d be interested in my services so I’d like to know if that is the case, and how may I help you?” Something of that nature. If they don’t respond I don’t chase and if they do respond but say they’re not intersted, I don’t pursue it. I do get back to the mutual contact and advise the outcome of that contact attempt so they’re kept in the loop.

Perhaps this has something to do with the training I’ve had over the years in various networking organisations, but I feel there is an etiquette involved, and especially with the spam legislation in place, I don’t feel it appropriate to just add people to a list if I have not met them personally in the first place or if they haven’t personally self-subscribed to my online list. How do others feel about this? KMT

professionalism, email etiquette, email subscription, email lists, subscription lists, spam legislation