Follow-ups: Where
Over what medium a follow-up is conducted is important. It can make or break a follow-up. The general rule of thumb is: follow-up using the same medium. So if they contacted you over phone, call them. If they contacted you over e-mail, send them an e-mail.
The advantages and disadvantages of each medium:
- Phone. Most personal and quickest method for customer (as far as total time until issue resolved), but some people don’t like to talk on the phone, it’s the most expensive, and requires someone to make the call and sit there during the entire call (i. e. you can’t do 30 an hour).
- Email. Quickest and cheapest, but longest time until the issue is totally resolved. It’s harder to get additional information and to ask questions on the fly. A lot of people like email, but others hate it. The use of email really boils down to how “virtual” your business is and how techno your customers are.
- (Snail) Mail. In most cases, snail mail is traditionally very impersonal, but it’s very effective. It makes your company seem much more brick and mortar, but if you send a survey over the mail, chances are it’ll be thrown out. If your follow-ups are more “Thanks for calling us – let us know if you have any problems”, snail mail may be an effective solution.
Regardless of the medium, all of your follow-ups should mention ways to further get in touch. Follow-ups over these mediums need to have this information:
- Phone. The representative has to say if you need any more help, feel free to give us a call back, send us an email, visit our support web site, etc. and tell the customer how to do all of those things. It’s important to ensure that he or she understands as well.
- Email. Have a line near the end stating “If you need any further assistance, please feel free to call us at 1-800-555-555.”
- Mail. Have a phone number, email address, and web site address clearly mentioned on the letterhead and a phone number at the end (similar format as above).
Keep these in mind and your follow-ups should be more effective and none of your customers will get mad.