Customer service is a large part of every business. Without face-to-face interactions online, proactively reassuring your customers of your support and service is even more important. One great way to reassure customers that you will quickly respond to their needs is to use automated e-mails to get back to them instantaneously.

There are two common ways to do automatically respond to customers -- autoresponders and web applications.

Autoresponders
An autoresponder is a special e-mail address that is setup on your server to send a preset text message in response to any e-mail it receives. It can also be setup to forward the message received to your main e-mail address.

For example, we could request that anyone who needs assistance send an e-mail to help@brilianceweb.com . Then we could setup an autoresponder that said

"Thank you for contacting Brilliance Web Design, Inc. We have received your request for assistance. We will make every effort to contact you regarding your request within the next two business days. If you need to contact us before that time, feel free to call us at 414-425-4069."

This e-mail would immediately be sent to anyone who sends mail to help@brillianceweb.com. Then the e-mail sent to help@brillianceweb.com would be forwarded to my e-mail account.

Note that due to e-mail spamming this autoresponder is not setup.

Web Application
E-mails can also be automated to interact with your website through a web application that your developer can integrate into your site. These can be setup in many different ways.

For example, when you sign up for an e-mail newsletter you might receive a welcome message that has your name in it and gives you information about a company's services along with information about how to unsubscribe in the future.

Similar applications can be used to thank customers for a purchase, send them a receipt, send them a forgotten password, or automate other common tasks for your business.

Web applications have the advantage of being able to personalize the e-mail that is sent with any information the user enters in or has entered into your site database in the past.

Put It To Use
Identify areas where your site could use automated e-mails. Determine your needs for e-mail personalization or customization. Ask your web designer about setting up the needed autoresponder or web application or call Brilliance Business Solutions at 414-425-4069.