E-mail: Why You Can't Live Without It
It seems everyone nowadays has an e-mail address - your son or daughter in college, your parts supplier in Des Moines, the local NBC affiliate, your favorite radio station, even your favorite customer.
E-mail, which stands for "electronic mail," has become a business necessity. Just as six or seven years ago it became obvious that your business needed a fax machine, customers and suppliers alike have now come to expect that you will have an e-mail address. What's it all about and why should you have an e-mail address?
E-mail messages, which are usually straight text, are sent from one person to another via computer. E-mail can refer to the system that your office has internally that lets you send a message to someone down the hall, or it can refer to messages that you send to colleagues halfway around the world, usually over the Internet. This article focuses on Internet e-mail, which lets you send and receive messages to anyone who has access to the Internet and can send and receive e-mail.
How Do You Get An E-mail Address?
The simplest way to get an e-mail address is through your Internet Service Provider (ISP). When you sign up for Internet access through an ISP, you will automatically have an e-mail address. Typically, your address will look something like this:
Your login code is often not only the name you use to logon to the Internet, it is also the first part of the address. The "@" sign is an integral part of the address and separates the person from the location of the e-mail address. The name that follows the "@" sign is often the domain name (or unique name on the Internet) of your provider. Examples of e-mail address are:
- webmaster@bizinfonet.com (this is the address of the designer in charge of the Business Information Network Home Page)
- editor@asashop.org (this is the e-mail address of the editor of AutoInc. magazine)
- jerry.lewis@aol.com (this is the address of a typical American Online user)
Larger companies might decide to link their internal e-mail system to the Internet through a mail gateway. A mail gateway allows persons within a company to send messages to others within and outside the company. The gateway or mail server determines which messages need to be sent through the Internet; it also routes incoming messages from the Internet through the company's local area network.
How Does E-mail Work?
The incredible characteristic of e-mail is that by addressing your message to a simple address, the message magically arrives at the recipient's mailbox, often within a matter of minutes. How does this happen? E-mail routing is possible through a sophisticated naming system on the Internet known as Domain Name Service (DNS). Basically, there are servers around the world that "know" to point mail addressed to logincode@aol.com to a specific computer connected to the Internet. To send a message, then, all you need to do is fill in the "To:" field of your e-mail software with the person's exact address. If you wish to send the same message to more than one person, simply separate the addresses with a comma. For example:
You'll notice over time that your messages sometimes take mere minutes to reach the recipient, while other messages may take hours, even days. The speed of the transmission is affected by how often your ISP forwards mail to other services, how often your mail gateway (if you have one) sends and receives messages from the Internet, and by overall congestion on the Internet. For example, I noticed that messages sent on Christmas Eve were taking longer than normal to route. Large messages (especially those with large files attached) are often delayed because the Internet will often give priority to small messages.
Finally, if you use e-mail regularly, you will probably get your share of "bounced" messages. These are messages that could not be delivered for any number of reasons, including: the address is wrong, the particular person does not exist, or the mail server of the recipient was down. The most common reason for bounced mail is a misspelling in the person's e-mail address.
Integrating E-mail Into Your Business
If e-mail sounds like the latest gizmo of your techie son or network administrator, think again. You can use e-mail in so many ways:
- If your business has a Web site, Internet users can use e-mail (linked directly from your Web site) to schedule a service appointment, inquire about your shop's services, order a part, or communicate with specific staff members.
- I'll bet that many parts suppliers have Web sites or e-mail that allow you to order parts online, without the hassle of trying to reach a customer service representative or printing and faxing an order form.
- E-mail lets you send timely announcements to technicians and customers, without the hassles of printing, stuffing and mailing. How about a weekly safety reminder to all the technicians? Or a monthly announcement to customers about promotions or special pricing on parts or service?
- E-mail expands your business day. Imagine this: a supervisor sends you an urgent request for information, and he needs the information by 10:00 a.m. the next day. With e-mail, you can assemble the needed information, and send it to your supervisor outside of the normal nine-to-five business window. I'm legendary for responding to client inquiries between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., which is often the only quiet time I have at the office or at home.
- You can use e-mail to respond immediately to customer requests and inquiries. For example, I have standard messages that I send to companies seeking Web services. When I get a request, I determine whether or not the person can receive a standard message, which I can quickly locate and "forward" as a new message. Even if I have to make slight modifications to the standard message, I now have an unprecedented ability to provide potential customers with information. Do you have "frequently asked questions" posed by customers? With e-mail, you could write a standard response to each general question and forward that response each time the question is asked again.
- E-mail communications are virtually free. The going rate for an Internet account is $19.95 per month for unlimited access. Unlimited access lets you send dozens of messages each day, minus the per-minute cost of a long distance call, and minus the costs of printing and postage.
Advanced E-mail Functions
Besides sending simple text messages to others, Internet e-mail lets you "attach" files to your message. These files include any non-text file format, including word processing, spreadsheet, graphics and desktop publishing files. I use the file attachment feature to send contracts back and forth with customers and suppliers, graphics files to designers, and articles to newsletter editors. Not all e-mail software lets you send file attachments; see if there is an "Attach" button in your e-mail software, and check to make sure that you can send binary files.
Participate in listservs or mailing lists. Listservs are essentially online discussions that take place via e-mail. When you are part of a list (typically, you have to subscribe to a list by sending a subscribe message to the list), you can "post" messages to the list by sending a message to the list address; the listserv server will automatically forward the mail to all participants on the list. This also means that you receive all messages posted to the list. Listservs can be a great way to share information and knowledge with others in your field.
Create mailing lists within your mail software. Mailing lists are simply lists of e-mail addresses, grouped by name. For example, I have a "clients" list in my e-mail software, which lets me send a message automatically to nearly 100 of our clients. How often do you wish you could send a quick message to customers, but never do it because of the hassles involved with faxing or printing? With e-mail, it's simple to create mailing lists and send information quickly to customers, staff and suppliers.
Establishing E-mail Guidelines In Your Office
You've no doubt heard that e-mail isn't all that secure, that employers would be wise to limit employee access to e-mail, etc. Although there are some security and privacy issues associated with e-mail, I am convinced that the benefits of e-mail far outweigh the disadvantages. Below are some policy issues you should address with your staff up-front.
- First, train all staff members who will have access to e-mail to check their mailboxes regularly and respond as quickly as possible. You will find that Internet users can be even more demanding than your average customer; in their minds, if they send the request via e-mail, they'll receive a faster-than-normal response.
- Second, decide whether or not staff members will have individual e-mail boxes, or if e-mail will be routed through one person or several persons. It might be a good idea to route all e-mail messages through one person who can be relied upon to check mail regularly and route message appropriately. Remind staff members that centralized mail is not personal and will be read by the designated staff person.
- Third, have a clear policy regarding appropriate office use of e-mail. For example, some companies clearly state that employee e-mail is not private, may be read at any time by managers, and is to be used for business purposes only. At our office, the policy is that e-mail is a lot like the phone - it should be used primarily during business hours for business purposes, although staff members may send and receive a reasonable amount of personal mail. We make it clear, however, that staff mailboxes may be accessed by others, especially if someone is tracking down a particular message from a client.
- Fourth, have a policy regarding whether or not client communications via e-mail are to be reviewed by managers, and how messages from customers are to be archived, if at all.
Practice Good Netiquette
E-mail, like other forms of written and verbal correspondence, has its own brand of etiquette. Below are some general guidelines; take them with a grain of salt, however, and do not view them as guidelines carved in stone.
- E-mail is generally regarded as less formal than a written letter, so keep your language professional, but fairly casual.
- E-mail messages can be of any length, but long messages can be difficult to read on a computer screen, so be precise and to the point.
- When attaching documents, be sure to let the recipients know that you have attached a file, the name of the file, the file format (e.g. Word 6.0 for Windows, or Excel 2.0 for Mac), and, if possible, file size. This will help recipients when opening the file on their local system.
- THE USE OF ALL CAPITAL LETTERS CONNOTES SHOUTING AND SHOULD BE USED SPARINGLY.
- Abbreviations are OK (e.g. BTW for "by the way," and IMHO for "in my humble opinion"), but beware of using too many abbreviations, jargon or slang terms. Abbreviations that I can't decipher make me crazy!
In the end, the point of e-mail is to allow you one more means for communicating easily with family, friends, business partners and customers. I have come to rely on e-mail to help me run my business better, keep in touch with staff and customers, and increase sales. Good luck and see you in cyberspace!
Joanna M. Pineda is president of Business Information Network Inc. (BIN), which specializes in developing Web sites that help organizations communicate better with customers, create new services and increase sales. BIN developed and currently manages Web sites for the Automotive Service Association, the National Automobile Dealers Association, and several of these associations' members. She can be reached at (703) 739-6750, or via e-mail at info@bizinfonet.com.
Let's Enact Auto Insurance Reform The Right Way || Product Technology: Today And Tomorrow || E-mail And Its Business Applications || Guest Editorial: New Educational Horizons || Tech To Tech || Tech Tips || News Briefs || Taking The Hill || Around ASA || Shop Profile || Net Worth || Chairman's Message ||
AutoInc. Magazine ®, Vol. XLV No. 5, May 1997