How to annoy a potential customer

Just over two years ago I opened an account with Regfly.com to enable a transfer of a domain name to our business.

Once the transfer was completed I moved the domain name to our registry.

After this transfer I received no further emails from Regfly.com then this last two months I received two emails from them saying how they appreciated my business.

Thinking I might have left a domain on their service by mistake I checked but found none. I thought I should close the account so that I didn't get any further emails.

However this proved impossible and I was told by their tech support that this couldn't be done.

So what lessons does this hold for how you treat your customers:

• If you haven't had contact with customers (or previous customers) on your database don't assume they will want to hear from you.
• Ensure you provide a means to opt out of your system and if they ask to be removed from your system simply do it. 
• In every email communication offer a simple means to be removed from your system. It should be a one click system ideally
• The longer the gap in communication the more likely the person won't remember dealing with you.
• Of course this rule applies not only to emails but phone, fax and postal communications.

Have you any experiences like this to share? Feel free to comment below.

Google Webmaster Tools

If you have a website or a blog then you should sign up for Google Webmaster tools.

This service is provided free of charge by google and will show you how details about your website, google indexing of it, keywords been used to find your website on google and more - it also shows a lot more information and can help you tidy up descriptions and titles.

Google also runs a blog - Google Webmaster Central Blog - this gives you information on new products.

Of course if you don't have time that is when you can employ an SEO expert to do this for you.

Ideally if you do employ an SEO company for you they will set google webmaster tools and analytics for you plust much more.

Don't Panic - SNAFU - Emails

The words "Don't Panic" are printed in large friendly letters on the cover of the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

From Wikipedia:

Arthur C. Clarke said Douglas Adams' use of "don't panic" was perhaps the best advice that could be given to humanity.

So what does this have to do with SNAFU - "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up" and what does this have to do with Emails.

Emails are a great bit tool but sometimes they can cause a lot of communication problems and result in a SNAFU.

When tensions increase in the email STOP sending emails. Ideally give the person a call or if you are in the same office go and talk to them face to face!

Some recent examples of emails which have caused problems:

Example one: SNAFU = Loss of business referral.

A request for a small credit. 

The response was that the amount was so small that they wouldn't credit. The writer then went on to explain in great detail why the charge should stand. This resulted in a further exchange of emails between ourselves and the other company. In the end we stopped emailing them as it was clear they missed the concerns we had and the amount of time wasted on the emails over 10+ was not worth our effort.

End result - we removed our weblinks and recommendations for this company.

How we could have achieved a better outcome - phone them and discuss the issue when it became clear they had misunderstood our concerns. How they could have handled it better. Not insulted us with our request is a waste of time response as their first comment then spent the rest of the time actively defensively.

Example two: Almost a SNAFU

A tourist requested a booking which was confirmed. They then emailed about other dates. We confirmed all options and then after the dates were finalised confirmed back to them what was booked. 

End result  - SNAFU avoided as potentially with so many dates the customer could have ended up thinking we had booked different dates.

However we could have done it better. We should have called the client earlier to confirm what they actually wanted and what options they were looking for - i.e. if we had been a bit more proactive we could have gathered all the information in one phone call rather than 10+ emails.