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7 Simple Guidelines for Responding to Email Queries

E-commerce experts seem to agree that an immediate response is expected for all email inquiries - immediate being within the hour – and the final answer/resolution must be given within 2 business days. According to recent research by Jupiter Research (www.jmm.com) only one third of companies bother to immediately acknowledge they received a customer’s email by sending an automatic response. In Jupiter’s research, most companies did eventually respond, but only 52% did so within 24 hours and 32% took three days or longer, or did not respond at all.

It’s important for companies to meet customers’ expectations for email response; otherwise your customers may initiate communication via more expensive means – live operators, postal mail, etc. Or worse, your customers may defect to the competition and spread negative word-of-mouth advertising. Following are 7 simple guidelines for responding to email complaints in such a manner that maintains customer loyalty.

1. Check emails as frequently as you check the phones. You answer the phones every time they ring and emails should be treated the same way. It’s not acceptable to check customer emails one or two times daily or hourly. Email response must be a priority.

2. Send an initial reply immediately – certainly no later than 1 business day. The easiest and most economical means for an initial reply is to have an automatic reply setup through your complaint tracking system or other software package. Some software packages are sophisticated enough to read the customer’s email, pick up on key words and reply based on email content. Other, simpler, packages simply respond with content you input. Your initial response can be as simple as:

Thank you for contacting us. Your email is being reviewed by our Customer Care Department and we will contact you as quickly as possible with a response.

3. Reply via email. Customers contacting you by email are suggesting that email is their preferred method of communication. Unless absolutely necessary, avoid calling or sending a response via postal (snail) mail. (Obviously, refunds or token items would still be sent postal mail.)

4. Resolve problem within 1-2 business days. The sooner the better. Email customers do not have tolerance for a 5-day turnaround.

5. Activate the spell-check feature. Spelling counts. Always, always proof emails.

6. Capture and archive emails in your CRM system.  It’s critically important to log all email communications (both to and from the company) in your customer relationship management (CRM) system with dates and times. This helps you when emails are escalated, information is misinterpreted or there is an accusation of no response from the company.

7. Post a FAQ section on your company’s Contact Us page. Identify the top 10 reasons customers email your company and post responses to these queries on your website. Doing this can reduce the number of emails coming into your department or can better prepare your staff to respond. For example, At Thrifty Rent-A-Car System hundreds of customers contact Customer Care each month requesting a copy of a past rental agreement. The Customer Care Department has created a form on the website specifically for customers requesting a rental agreement. Amazon.com has forecasted dozens of FAQ customers are likely to encounter and listed them on their site.

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