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E-mail is not mail minus the paper and postage
People use e-mail because it is fast, convenient,
and saves them time. They will expect the same attributes from e-mail
communications with companies they purchase goods from. In
particular, speed is of the essence, especially for two-way
communication. While it may be perfectly acceptable to answer a
written (paper) inquiry within 2-3 days, e-mail requires an answer within
the day or, at a minimum, a personal acknowledgement that the message has
been received and is being attended to (not simply an impersonal,
computer-generated response indicating that the message was successfully
received by the call center). This may require a costly change in
business processes, but there is no way around it.
Likewise, e-mail must be convenient and save time for the
customer. Irrelevant information should be avoided at all costs,
especially if it takes the form of large attachments
(e.g. brochures). As a rule of thumb, attachments should
only be sent if they are small or if you know for a fact that the customer
wishes to receive them. But how many customers will, if asked, agree
to be sent a potentially huge brochure by e-mail? A simple yet effective
solution to this quandary is to include a link to the brochure in your
e-mail response. You can, in fact, include as many links as you want,
as long as you clearly describe each linked document. A personal
comment such as "See in particular page 5" will almost guarantee that the
customer downloads and reads the document - but make sure that page 5 is
indeed relevant!
I recently placed an order for $500,000 in
miscellaneous computer equipment. Although the sale was closed during
a telephone conversation, the winning move was an e-mail message with an
enclosed Excel spreadsheet showing the details of my order. I could
quickly compare the costs of various options (including options the
salesman had not mentioned) by changing quantities from 1 to 0 and
back. The company that won the bid was also very responsive by
e-mail. The other companies either did not answer e-mail promptly, or
rang me the instant I e-mailed them something. They littered my desk
with facsimiles and generally tried to fit e-mail within an existing,
familiar framework.
Successful one-way communication
The challenge with one-way communication (announcements,
newsletters, special offers, etc.) is that the customer is going to
apply the same standards of convenience and effectiveness as with
personal, two-way communication. Here speed is less important,
although it is still appreciated and helps identify you as a company that
"understands e-mail."
We have seen that, in order to be convenient
and effective, e-mail communication must be relevant. The customer
will unilaterally apply his own standards of relevance and, because of
"spam," will tend to err on the side of non-relevance, which can trigger
hostile actions ranging from angry e-mail responses to boycott. All
this without regard for the difficulty of creating content that is
relevant to a large and diverse customer base!
It is important to
understand that content which is deemed relevant enough when delivered by
postal mail will be subject to much stricter standards when e-mail is
used. Sending existing, traditional content via e-mail simply to save
on printing and postage costs almost invariably ends in bitter
disappointment.
The key to surmounting the e-mail challenge with
one-way communication is to target and
personalize. This is typically achieved with the help of
demographics information from the customer database. Recipients are
targeted in essentially the same manner as with traditional (postal)
direct marketing. Combined with the timeliness of the medium,
personalization opens up a range of new possibilities - for instance,
birthday greetings with a time-limited discount or credit for online
purchases. Although few companies go beyond the "Dear Mary"
stage today, every major player has a genuine personalization project in
the works.
E-mailed content must also deliver value to the
customer. This can take the form of information that the customer
finds valuable enough to read the rest of the message, or a good
old-fashioned discount or special offer. The message must be easy to
navigate through, with a popular format being a series of short abstracts,
each followed by a link to a web page where the full article or product
description can be found.
The ping-pong game
E-mail and the web are complementary rather than antagonistic
media. The web site should advertise the existence of the newsletters
and other one-way e-mail activities, encouraging people to subscribe to
them for future rewards. The newsletter in turn should make every
attempt to direct the customer back to the web site, where he can view ad
banners, make online purchases and so forth. The URLs should be
personalized to include a customer number or equivalent, so that activity
and response can be tracked.
This natural synergy between the web
and e-mail will not only increase the number of page views and (hopefully)
purchases, but will also appeal to a broader range of
visitors. People who do not like surfing, for instance because they
have a slow Internet connection, may find the newsletter format more
appealing. The top complaint about web site is usually download
times, which can be difficult to optimize while keeping the site visually
appealing, and the newsletter will help alleviate this.
Let customers do the work for you
Another trick of the trade
is to delegate part of your CRM work to your customers. While this
may sound nonsensical and at the very least dangerous, it can actually
work wonders if done correctly. The idea is to create a forum,
usually in the form of an e-mail discussion list, where customers can
communicate with each other (openly or, if you want to play it safe,
through a moderator - but make sure the moderator approves messages
promptly!) You direct the general direction of this exchange by setting a
topic for the discussion, and politely but firmly steering participants so
that they remain on track. If you have multiple and diverse topics
for discussion, it is best to create multiple fora. You should also
have a clear charter outlining how participants are expected to behave (no
personal attacks, etc.) so that you can justify the moderator's
decisions.
You will find that a small number of customers become
very enthusiastic and openly voice their appreciation for your company or
its products. Some will take a "father figure" role and educate
newcomers, offer advice or tips, and generally try to assist other
customers in using your products or working with your company. The
silent majority will see these messages and develop a positive impression
of your company through the repeated, tacit endorsements on the mailing
list. It is important not to censor gripes as long as they do not
degenerate into name-calling or otherwise get out of control. In most
cases, other participants will come to your defense and save you the
embarrassment of having to sound defensive on your own forum.
These discussion lists will give you something that no CRM
initiative can deliver - peer endorsement, the most powerful form
of advertisement. They can also prove very useful as a recruiting
tool for customer support people or even CRM project managers - simply
monitor the discussions and contact the most helpful and knowledgeable
candidates. You will be hiring from a pool of highly motivated
individuals who, even when not interested in a career change, will usually
be flattered and become even more loyal to your company.
Making it all work
Once you have planned all
the ingredients (two-way employee-customer communication, one-way
communication, discussion fora), you need to find the right
proportions. While you should definitely get advice from CRM experts
(but make sure that they have a good, intuitive understanding of e-mail
and its proper use in a CRM context), your best advisors are actually your
customers. The traditional heavy-handed approach ("We know
what you need") is prone to failure when CRM and e-mail are combined,
simply because the people who know the customers well are usually not
familiar with the technology and vice-versa.
My advice is to
solicit customer feedback, listen carefully, and then listen one more time
just to be sure. Sometimes the results can be surprising and may
conflict with the advice you received. Remember that this is a new
field and that best practices are still being refined. If in doubt,
err on the side of caution and send too little rather than too much
information.
Converting leads to gold
When properly deployed, e-mail is a highly effective channel for applying the
results of CRM analysis and converting theoretical findings to concrete
purchases. Organizations will need to accept change in their attitude
towards and behavior with e-mail. This change may hurt a little, but
the results will be well worth it.
Eric Thomas is the founder and CEO of L-Soft, premier provider of e-mail list
communication solutions for the management of personalized direct e-mail
marketing, e-mail newsletters and discussion groups. You can reach him at
info@lsoft.com
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