One article stated that “…poor email handling often affects more than just the customer directly involved; in this era of rapid-fire electronic communication and the blog, perturbed customers have made a sport of sharing with the world their negative service experiences.” Unfortunately, the 51% of companies not responding to customer service inquiries that we noted here, is on a steady decline. A follow-up study, again by Hornstein Associates, reported that in 2009, just 45% of companies responded to customer service inquiries within 24 hours.

Bold Software customers effectively utilizing Email Management are able to simply and effectively route emails into the correct workflow. This post illustrates two typical customers who use Email Management in their daily operations.

SendThisFile.com is a large file transfer service that allows its customers to send and receive files that are too large for email in just a few simple steps. The company has over a million users with over 36 million files sent. With an email volume that often reaches 500 incoming messages per day, SendThisFile had difficulty managing the volume of inbound emails.

Using Bold Software’s Email Management tool, agents can quickly and efficiently respond to messages thanks to canned messages and automatic message threading. Says SendThisFile’s CFO, Michael Freeman, “[Automated threading] is a godsend.”

For inquiries that require more support, agents assign them accordingly and the support team at SendThisFile is able to quickly take ownership of the requests. Emails sent to SendThisFile are responded to within the same business day. “Customers tell us they’re surprised how quickly they hear back from us,” says Freeman.

SalesNexus is a web-based contact management software solution designed for sales people, sales management, and marketing professionals. The company is built on the premise that businesses win when their sales staffs implement best practices through efficient contact management.

Support inquiries at SalesNexus used to be forwarded to five different agents. Without clear ownership of each message, agents were never sure if an email had already been replied to, often translating to multiple replies or, even worse, no reply at all.

SalesNexus now relies on Bold Software’s Email Management tool to manage inbound emails to their support team. “The fact that we can track an email chain is huge for us,” says Bill Treat, SalesNexus’s Support Manager. “In the past, I would end up forwarding emails to another tech. With Bold Software, they can see the whole email chain and it’s so easy to use.”

Bold Software’s reporting capabilities have also played a key role at SalesNexus. “We report on our agents and when they’re logged into the system. We need to make sure they’re there when we tell our customers they will be. We also look at email activity – how many emails did I respond to today versus the other people in my team?”

But the biggest improvement SalesNexus has seen since implementing Bold Software is the lack of missed emails. “Now we know for a fact when something has been responded to. Our response time has gone up, but the biggest improvement is we no longer miss emails.”

Learn more about Bold Software’s Email Management product.

The second reason came from macro-market forces which continue to redefine how businesses interact with their customers.  The dialogue generally revolves around convergence, integration, and single contact resolution (for both sales and support).  We thought, therefore, that a new name – one that embraced this holistic view of customer interaction – was needed.  BoldCCM was born.

CCM stands for:

Customer
Communication
Management

Two product offerings bear this name which means they both offer users the ability to interact with website visitors in multiple ways.  You can learn more about these products and the benefits of integrated website communication management by following the link.

Meanwhile, IT departments are looking for “best practices” that will “increase efficiency” while executive teams are encouraging “paradigm shifting organizational changes.”

Though it may be counterintuitive, we think that enterprise-sized e-tailers can save money by thinking inside the box. Here’s what we mean:

Consolidate Communications: We know from our own proprietary research that a website visitor’s communication technology preference is dependent upon where they are in the buying process. In a given moment then, there are people on your site who want to chat with you, initiate a click to call with you, email you, be actively assisted, or have no communication with you at all. Putting each of these communication methods into its own box and under its own management is wasteful. Enterprises should consolidate all of these methods under one umbrella with the same interface and staff. We recently launched an integrated suite to accomplish just that. Learn more about BoldCCM.

Get in the Driver’s Seat: Taking control over your own live chat, click-to-call and email management solution is valuable to an enterprise for two reasons. First, it saves money in the short-run because it avoids costly fees associated with ongoing professional services engagements. Secondly, it enables companies to build intellectual capital around an increasingly important competency. We recommend, at least, that firms develop a working knowledge of live chat reporting metrics and proactive invitation logic.

One Chat Resolution: Many enterprises who utilize live chat for support should consider an active co-browsing or full remote control capability. If your product line is complicated or if you sell computer-related items, the ability to actively view and interact with a target customer’s PC could allow you to resolve their buying or support issue in one session. This not only provides a positive experience for the customer, but avoids costly escalations.

In fact, you might be better than most. A study of small and medium-sized North American companies revealed that 51% of businesses never responded to emails with high-value purchase intent. A more recent study by Hornstein Associates shows a steady decline in customer service response rates since 2002. In 2007, only 33% of companies responded to emails sent to customer service within 24 hours, down almost half from a high of 63% in 2002.

Thanks to BoldMail, a rich email management feature inside of our SMB and Enterprise product offerings, I am able to say that:

• In April, our average response time to sales inquiries was under 6 hours, and
• For the same time period, our average resolution time for support issues was ~21 hours.

Another BoldChat customer, SalesNexus, did even better. They post continuously updated results of their response times on their website. They get this data directly from the BoldChat system within seconds.

There are so many reasons why email programs like Outlook are perfect for managing individual email accounts. There are even more reasons why a solution tailored for individuals is a bad fit for sales and support teams.

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With that in mind, here are 5 technologies that may be helpful for your business in a tight economy:

5. Pitchengine:  Pitchengine is a great way to publish your own press releases, for free, and have them indexed by search engines quickly. PR is valuable, but can be expensive and Pitchengine provides an inexpensive option for self-managed PR.  If you have to make cuts to your PR budget, Pitchengine can help you keep PR alive during the downturn.

4. GoToMeeting: GoToMeeting is a low-cost alternative to Webex, and is a no-brainer for any firm looking to reduce expenses.  Does EVERY meeting need to be face-to-face?  Is it really the best option to leave tomorrow for a same-day trip?  If you can, schedule meetings via web/teleconference using GotoMeeting.  It’s near impossible to find a flight for $49- GotoMeeting’s per month rate for 1 license.

3. LinkedIn: LinkedIn helps keep you connected until the next conference or tradeshow.  Get involved in groups, build your own group, request introductions through existing contacts.  Linkedin offers a free version with huge value to sales/marketing teams looking for ways to grow their network and find prospects.  Most importantly, it keeps you connected with contacts you’ve already made in between those face-to-face encounters. Get further involved for more top-of-mind awareness. Being more active and involved on LinkedIn will generate results.

2. Email management software: Ignore the obvious bias; adding this technology will improve your business- I guarantee it.  You will improve the response time on emails for sales and support, you will have better accountability and reporting and it’s simply more efficient than any other method we’ve seen.  BoldMail solves a real business problem and in a tight economy provides the big three – low cost, high efficiency, increased productivity.

1. Live Chat: Here’s the obvious point – you can have many quality chat interactions at one time and only one call.  No matter how you slice it, chat is inexpensive and helps you connect with more potential sales with less resources.  In this type of economic environment, if you want to capture more sales online, there is no faster way to do it than to add live chat to your website. Live chat improves conversion rates, helps reduce shopping cart abandonment, and will positively impact customer satisfaction.  Name 1 other technology that you can implement in minutes that will do all of that.

Your email situation in this metaphor is the house, and Microsoft Outlook is the hammer, and solving the problem is tough because there is no standard name for products like BoldMail that help you manage email in a team environment far more effectively.

Two Problems

Problem number 1: Despite the fact that poor email response impacts customer service negatively, many companies have accepted the problem and live with it – some even try designing complicated manual workarounds to help report on email activity. Microsoft Outlook just isn’t suited for managing email in a team environment, and it certainly wasn’t designed to help teams improve email performance.

So why do so many companies insist on building the house with the hammer?
Most just don’t realize they have other options. There are a small number of solutions for the small/medium business, and at the enterprise level there is the perception that it’s a time-consuming and expensive process.

Problem number 2: The “John Doe” solution. Email management software, email management solutions, group email tools, team based email, groupmail? How do you do a Google search for a problem with no name? How do service providers deliver information and optimize webpages to help you find the right email management software/solution/tool?

This is the trickier problem to solve. What would you call this problem?

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