Hehe...no.

I just want the email to be as proactive as possible. It's just a matter of tone and professionalism.

Rich

Rich:

LOL -- I have tried the email reply thing the two different ways. Finally I settled on a combo-email. They can simply reply and I give them a clickable link at the end of the email for a reply. This way which ever is easier for them they got it.

Also if a customer is a repeat customer (meaning at least the second time they have purchased) their email template has a FAX number at the bottom of the email. I've found that this works in that some times they will fax a want list or an image of something they are looking for.

I've stopped short of putting in the phone number. I have a line that could be put to that use but I'm afraid that I'll spend even more time on the phone and not get anything done. The phone itself has one of those electronic voice answering machines built in and I suppose I could use that - however that would really defeat the purpose of putting in a phone number. So that idea is still on the back burner.

Garry

Garry,

If the buyer elects to use the email link, How do you deal with the association issue. Do you respond back to the email from the buyer after associating the reply? Or do you create a new message on the buyers Invoice?

You know, now I am wondering if we all ought to share some of our email template contents. It might be helpful to new users and the "old" users could get new ideas. Things to do, things to do

Judy/blue

Judy:

The easiest answer is "it depends" because if they reply to an email and their invoice is still active I reply back and it is associated with the invoice.

If, as some people are famous for doing, they keep the email well past the end of the transaction and they use it to get in contact with us - well then there is no association made. The invoice from that email has long been archived and it isn't possible to associate it anyway. So in this type of instance the email is handled - replied to etc. After it is sent it is filed in the email area of aw2k in a folder called awaiting action or non-live-auction messages.

Usually that type of email is "i want another one" or "here is my want list for stamps from Japan" etc. That is where the FAX number in the email template has helped - one less email to deal with.

I've found that the customer does get tired of emails after a while. It all depends on their definiton of spam. About a month ago I changed a couple of templates to try to fix that problem. For years when a customer paid they got a "Payment received" email that gave the amount of payment, payment type, and the ususal verbiage of thanks and hugs etc. Then once I went through the remainder of closing out the sale - feedback left and all ready to pack and ship they got a Shipping eMail. That had the expected date of shipping, the method of shipping, the address we would be using, and a clickable link to any tracking information if it applied to them. Then it finished off with more thank yous and hugs.

I've now combined them into one email. After all is done and everything is ready to ship the one email is sent and it is a combined version of the two. It took some getting used to here as I had a rhythm for checking out and was used to the two emails being sent. Once I got over that hitch it seems to be going smoother. I can choose between 5 different "Final Shipping" emails. They are dependent on tracking, repeat buyer, etc. I try very hard to treat a repeat buyer differently by letting them know I'm aware they have returned to us (of course aw2k has their address already and that sure helps impress them) and their acknowledgement of purchase, and shipping emails are different.

Whew, lots of unnecessary info there I guess. Sorry, got carried away. You're right - sharing templates may make a difference in that it could help out someone else or give all of us an idea that we may not have stumbled across without having looked at someone elses email template.

Garry

Garry,

I do about the same thing as far as replying to emails. And even if the email is not associated with the Invoice, we will manually associate it. I created a simple "letter" email template so my staff can type out personalized response to very specific requests. Which works well. Only field tags included in it are the user's name, the Invoice number. Then I have all our hyperlinks in it, etc. But the main message body is blank so the staff can type in messages. They use it quite a bit.

I have also toyed with the idea of combing Payment received and Shipping notification into a single email. I will have to say, for the most part, I find buyers like the communications informing them of where their goody is in our system and when it has shipped. That is as long as they don't have an AOL email addy. grrrrr to AOL I bet 95% of AOL addy buyers, experience difficulty receiving email. Irks me to no end. My listing templates even request they add my bluepennylady email addy to their address book. Do they do it? Nope and then wonder why they are not receiving email from me. I have not yet changed my emails as it will require some re-arranging of our workflow and work assignments.

We also deal with our repeat buyers differently. Repeat buyers are pushed to the head of the line, so to speak. We package their products first and address their inquiries ahead of others. And they do love being recognized even if it has been an extended period of time since their last purchase.

Well new thread is on its way then. I think this could be real helpful. sharing the email content. More brains mean more ideas!

Judy/blue