Do Business Well

Every organization, large or small, can use email to establish a dialogue and build loyalty among its prospects, members, and customers. And every organization, regardless of size, needs to follow the guidelines and principles. But size does matter when it comes to the investment a company can make in infrastructure and the number of people it can commit to developing and operating a program. Don’t worry, though. Even small businesses with limited resources have plenty of ways to use email to communicate with their customers.

If your company has only a small number of customers or clients, you may still be able to use your regular email software to send out messages, announcements, and newsletters. This type of program ends up looking a lot like the regular email dialogue you would have with your customers or clients. Continue Reading »

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When an electronic products company started its email marketing program, it quickly discovered that it had a lingering problem with dissatisfied customers. The company had promised a free giveaway as an incentive to get customers to register their product. But due to a problem with the fulfillment house, the gifts were not sent out on a regular basis. A number of customers who were annoyed that they hadn’t received their free gift began taking advantage of email to talk back to the company. The company had had no previous direct contact with these—or any other—customers and didn’t even know that the problem existed. Needless to say, the company now pays careful attention to its inbound email and also runs frequent surveys as ways to listen and learn from its customers. Continue Reading »

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The Internet ties all information systems together regardless of their physical location. In effect, it has enabled a company’s internal computer network, its local area network (LAN), to extend its reach on a global scale. Organizations are therefore no longer constrained by the information systems they can build or buy and install on their own physical premises. Every computer is connected to every other computer on the Internet. This simple truth changes everything. What used to be “internal computing resources” at a company have now become external resources that the engaged organization makes available to all its constituents. The reality of the Internet is that everybody is connected to you and you are connected to everyone else: your customers, your vendors, your suppliers—even your competitors. It doesn’t matter where a particular network function is physically located or who operates it, just as long as it’s secure and reliable and provides the right functionality to solve a particular problem. Continue Reading »

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