It's happened again. An artist gave me her postcard and asked to be put on my mailing list. Then she emails me because she's not getting my emails. I respond a few times, but each one bounces back to me. I'm stuck. Stuck because . . .
ALL I have for her is a website and email address. No phone #. No snail mail address. Only one way to get a hold of her.
IF you can't get someone's email, emailing them and hoping you can get their response probably isn't the best way to tackle the issue.
Always, always, always have more than one way for people to contact you. Email is extremely unreliable. (Note the Blackberry pickle people found themselves in on Tuesday.)
I'm openly hoping that she's reading my blog and will call me. I have no time to call around and find her number. And your customers don't have the time either. When they want to get a hold of you, they want to get a hold of you right then. Make it easy for them.
6 thoughts on “Always provide a back-up way for people to contact you”
great point! and when I recently had my website looked at by an expert he suggested I make sure my phone number was visible on every page–that most clients would want to pick up the phone rather than email–so make it easy! In the last two weeks alone I’ve had several customers call me while looking at my website and place their rather nice orders while looking at various parts of my site. Until I changed where I put my phone number I never had people call me while they were looking–an occasional email request maybe, but the phone call is much easier–even in the world of computers….
Alyson – What a good reminder. When I first started my website http://www.dianeclancy.com years ago, I had to think hard and long about a street address or not. I decided not to. Then someone ordered from me and sent me a check through the mail … with just my name and town as I had it on the website – no street adress. It came back to her – even though I live in a small town. So. she emailed me and asked for the full address, but she was not happy that her check had come back. I didn’t want to get a PO Box. I then decided that it made sense for me to put the street address on the site. I realized that really anyone can find you with the tools online anyway, and I better make it convenient for clients! Thsnks for the reminder. I am still working out these kind of details with my blog http://www.dianeclancy.com/blog. ~ Diane Clancy
Interesting timing on this post Alyson. My web hosting company decided to upgrade their server last night – I haven’t had access to my email for 12 hours. They swear no email will be lost during this conversion but they also said it would take 7 hours in the middle of the night and we’d have access to email during the conversion. Guess they weren’t quit right.
Pingback: Gift certificate wording — Art Biz Blog
Pingback: Art Marketing Action: Double check your publicity text — Art Biz Blog
Pingback: Double Check Your Publicity Text - Art Biz Success