Email Response!

One of the things I'm known for at this site is the fact that I answer all kinds of questions people send me through email. This is actually the most difficult thing for me to accomplish in a given day. I get so much email that by the time I have deleted all of the spam and organized the rest, I still have a ton of email to go through. However, I do try to answer as many legitimate questions as possible. If you want to keep loyal visitors coming back to your site, this is an excellent place to begin.

I sometimes wonder whether anybody runs a site at all after sending them an email. I have even sent in a note about how a sign up form was not working...in any browser. You know what? I never got even a simple reply, and the form at that site still does not work! Needless to say, I don't want to purchase that product anymore. Even if I wanted to, I would not be able to!

This is one reason why it is important for webmasters to read and respond to their email. I get an occasional error report at this site, and they are usually mistakes I made ( a typo here, a forgotten closing tag there...). If I did not read these, the problems would still be there. The truth is, most people will just become angry over the error and leave. The visitors who care will send you a message, and it is a good idea to respond if at all possible. If you send them a note explaining what happened and that you have it corrected, they will probably come back to your site.

So, do I answer every last email I get? Unfortunately, I am not able to do that. I will tell you the steps I take to answer as many as possible, though. The first thing you must do is decide what is spam and delete it. Spam is a complete waste of your time, and even having to sit around and delete it is a waste of time. After that, check for email from people who wish to do business with you (Advertising, sales, etc.). After answering those, look for anything that might be about an error on your site and take care of any problems you may have. Send them a return email letting them know it is fixed. Now, if you have a site like mine, there will be a stack of email questions left over. I go through these one at a time, answering those I know off the top of my head on the spot. The others I place into a folder marked "questions-need time". I try to get to those within two days if possible, but on occasion it takes longer...or worse yet I forget to place some of the questions in this folder and they end up forgotten forever once I get new mail. Try not to let that happen if at all possible. I'll try to do better with that one myself.....

So, are you a surfer upset about not getting a response to your email? If you have not gotten a return email from me or another webmaster, here are some possible reasons this can happen:

• Your email return address was invalid or the server hosting the email account was down. Be careful when you send a message, if your return address does not work, the webmaster has no way to answer you....unless you give away your phone number or snail mail address in your email.
  
  
• Your question was already answered on the site, or sounded like a joke of some kind. You would be surprised how often I get an email with a question like this: "Do you know of any sites that will teach me html and how to build a web page?" That question is either a joke or the person got my email address from a friend. You be the judge. I may or may not answer this depending on whether or not I feel it is sincere.
  
  
• The webmaster lost your message. I have done this quite a few times myself. Some webmasters get a lot of mail. Like I mentioned earlier, your message can get passed over while the webmaster is sorting out the mail. Try again in a couple of days and see if they catch it this time around.

As webmasters, we need to be sure we do the best we can with the email part of the job. Try to respond in a polite manner if possible. Sometimes, this isn't possible, I know. You probably don't want to see some of the notes I sent back to someone who was just being rude. Just remember that an answered email can mean a repeat visitor, or even a repeat customer!