Internet marketers are losing money by ignoring emails they are sent from customers and potential clients. According to experts in running call centres, eGain, 44% of firms completely ignore emails they are sent by visitors to their web sites.

Some sectors are worse than others it seems. The telecomms industry – people who you think would understand communications – is the worst. They ignore six out of every ten emails they are sent. Also, the research shows that two thirds of companies take longer than 24 hours to answer emails.

These figures show that Internet marketers are behaving badly. It is rather like someone walking into a shop, asking a shop assistant a question who then completely ignores them, walks away and doesn’t return to the visitor for a day or two. That is clearly unacceptable, so why is the same behaviour online so normal?

It is obvious that successful online businesses are those that respond quickly to emails. Customers appear to be most satisfied if you respond within an hour of receiving the email. So you need to ensure that whenever possible you organise your systems so that rapid response to emails is made possible. Otherwise you are losing money and creating negative feelings about your business.

For more details on rapid response emails see the Email Articles.