Email is the primary form of communication when you are in a B2B setup.
Emails help keep track of every information that flows in and out of your organization.
Have you gone a day without checking your inbox?
Yup! it's like an addiction that you can not do away with.
Business emails are opened when commuting back and forth to work.
Most businesses are interconnected globally. When collaborating with someone from a different time zone, you would communicate mainly through emails.
Emails are sent out every second and they are the most effective means of communication without a doubt.
In 2017, the total number of business and consumer emails sent and received per day will reach 269 billion, and is expected to continue to grow at an average annual rate of 4.4% over the next four years, reaching 319.6 billion by the end of 2021. Source
Best practices to communicate effectively in business emails. We live by these mantras at Chillibreeze.
When you receive an email from your customers, never leave them hanging. They hate the wait. In fact, no one likes waiting.
Chillibreeze customers are always assigned a Point of Contact (POC) who ensures that work gets done as requested and is delivered before the given deadline.
Customers love it that we are responsive to their emails and that we pick out every point from their emails and make them our responsibility.
Customers appreciate it when you clearly write to them about the nitty-gritty of the deliverable and the why behind it. They are busy and will not have the time to respond to each of your emails. But you make it easy for them when you make the emails as clear and concise as possible. Simply, for this reason, our customers look forward to emails from their Chillibreeze.
Here is a step-by-step process of writing a responsive email to your customers. Much of this is from experience gained working with customers from various geographical locations and time zones.
Receipt Email
So you received an email from a customer about a task or job that needs your attention. The deadline is also stated.
You don’t want to leave your customer wondering if you received and started the work.
What do you do?
You write back to the customer confirming the receipt of the file, folder or the project.
Here is an example.
Apart from confirming receipt, your clients/customers appreciate it when you ask questions if something is not clear before you start the project.
Here is what our customer has to say.
I love that your team emails me when they have received my request and details any questions they have at that moment instead of having received a question in the morning and no work (that's happened to me several times with other vendors)
Call out email
You have completed the project, upload the file, and hit SEND.
Doesn’t that feel incomplete without a call out an email?
Something like, “Hey, the completed project is on its way… or I hope you find the final deliverable satisfactory…”
Again, your clients and customers love to hear from you. They may or may not respond, but getting an email telling them about the deliverable gives them assurance.
Why call out emails are important?
Here is what a Chillibreeze customer has to say.
I love that when your team sends me back the work they call out if anything is inconsistent between slides and why - instead of me having to guess or noticing it later. That's very helpful.
Here is an example.
Besides just notifying a customer that you have sent the file, giving them details about the additional work or improvements that you have incorporated into the project makes them feel valued and cared.
They like to hear your opinions and suggestions.
Customers/clients work and function in the same way that you or I do. They need a push or a nudge here and there to tell them what is good and what to change.
And if you see that there is a need for improvement in parts of the project, the advice is welcomed with open arms.
It's extremely helpful that your team provides multiple design options for slides. Even if a client picks only one of say three options, we now have two other models that we can iterate on and bring into another presentation where it makes sense. It seems to save a lot of time in the long run. – a Chillibreeze customer
Ray Rasmussen, the Managing Principal of The Spur Group, also one of our growing customers, in this podcast explains why we need to say hello to everyone you can in your business every day.
A simple hello can start a conversation, and that conversation will tell you everything you need to know about a person, or in this context, your customer. In that way, you can serve them better.
Good communication is the key to building a long-lasting relationship. And with that, you also gain the trust of your customers.
When our clients send over their files to us, they know that when they get to work the next day, they will have it in their inbox pronto!
Chillibreeze has gained the trust of customers over time through flawless communication.
I know that if I send your team something, it will be in my inbox the next morning. I know that if I message your team, they will get back to me promptly - or direct me to someone else who can help me quickly.
Do you want to build a long-lasting relationship with your customer?
Whatever form of communication you pick for your organization does not necessarily limit you to serving your customers well.
It’s the approach that you take that will build a strong foundation for an ongoing working relationship with your client.
Start with these simple steps through the emails you exchange with them every day.
Once you adopt this process, it becomes an integral part of your daily routine. Caring for your customer becomes a habit!
Do you follow any communication process that has proved successful in your organization? I would love you hear about it.
Leave us a comment.
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