I was concerned recently when I received several emails from a lady who had registered for my VA Trainer course but hadn’t heard from me.
I had responded to every single email she had sent me but still her emails kept coming, upset that I’d not responded. This concerned me a great deal. There was no other contact information with her emails and she’d just signed off with her name. I looked up her phone and fax number from the form she’d filled out and tried to ring and fax her – with no success. I then contacted someone I knew in her country to see if they could contact her.
In the meantime I kept trying to email her, from different addresses. Finally I got a response – she’d received one of my emails. I asked her to check her spam filter and there she found all my other messages.
Why did I persist in trying to contact her? Because she is keen to learn about our industry and if she perceives me as someone not interested in her she may feel that the industry at large is not what she thought it was. So I had to make the effort and try since she had emailed me on several occasions.
This is a lesson for us all though. Have you had challenges getting someone to reply to your emails?
What other ways have you tried to contact them?
Do you make it easy for others to contact you in more than one way?
Other than email what other information do you provide when emailing them?
A signature block should include more than one method, whether it be a website with contact information, a phone number, fax number, alternative email (If you aren’t using a signature block then I urge you to create one so people have get an idea of who you are).
We all need to make it easy to contact each other and provide more than just an email address. And if you don’t get a reply after the 2nd or 3rd email – pick up the phone, send a letter or fax a note.
My signature block is below – just as an example but yours does not have to be so comprehensive, a simple version is fine.
Kathie M. Thomas, AFAIOP, MVA, ASO, Author, Speaker, VA Coach
Award-winning Virtual Assistant Services and Network, Est. 1994
“A Clayton’s Secretary”®, PO Box 2918, Cheltenham, Victoria, 3192
Ph: +613 9585 5780, Fax: +613 9585 3785
[email protected], www.vadirectory.net
Join me at FoVA: http://www.forumonvirtualassistance.com
VA blog: http://www.vadirectory.net/blog/
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atul chatterjee says
1. The spam filter is only doing its job.
2. I have actually had a worse experience than yours, since then I open the spam box immediately after opening my email.
3. Another way of leaving your details is through chat, that message transmitted to you will never be treated as spam. (This is true for Google not Yahoo). Your number remains secure.