How to set up your acknowledgement email page

How to set up an acknowledgement email for a customer who has placed an inquiry through your contact or support page.

• Most ISP's will provide an email auto-responder with your account. You can set this up with your host. Check with your host, to see if you can set up this time saving tool. An auto-responder sends an email to the original sender, with a preformatted message.

Initial information you can communicate to your visitors, or include with your auto responder:

• The inquiry has been received
• The problem is being reviewed or worked on
• The expected time frame for a formal response from a human being.

Some hints for dealing with visitors that bring a problem to your attention.

1. Take care of the visitor, then take care of the problem.
   1. i.e. thank the customer for taking time out of their busy schedule to communicate with you.   Apologize for any inconvenience he has been put through. Then address the problem
      
2. Let your visitor know why the problem occurred.
   1. Let them know what went wrong, and how it can be avoided in the future.
   2. Give them as much information about their concern as possible.
      
3. Provide a solution for your visitors inquiry
   1. Let them know what you are going to do about it
   2. Let them know what they can do about it
   3. DO NOT just acknowledge the problem, let your visitor know what can be done about it!
      
4. Start to build blank 'response templates' based on recurring inquiries.
   1. With a few emails under your belt, you can start to build a work or text document that provides the solutions to many of the same questions.
      • for example, one of the most popular email support questions we receive deals with a 'bug' in the Swish 2.0 flash animation software. Although we provide the answer several times in several places throughout the website, some visitors are more comfortable using email to find the answer. We've created a generic email response template to deal with this question. We basically copy the information from our text file into the email , change the name, address any specific questions, then send it off. Our generic email template for this support question answers all the questions they may have about the problem, why the problem occurs, and links to more information about the software. Instead of spending 10 -15 minutes on each support email for this very same and popular question, it only takes about 1 minute to respond.
   2. Include your phone number.  You should provide a phone number on the website, but if you don't, then you could include it with your response.

Examples of how to respond to a customer inquiry or support email.

Worst case scenario -the customer complains and wants his  money back!

You receive this email from a customer:

 Dear Company...

Last week I ordered a video card to upgrade my computer. When I received it, I spent 2 hours trying to get it to fit into the mother board, following the instructions that came with the video card. I have not made any progress, and I wish to stop wasting my time and get a refund for this video card that does not fit. How do I return this video card for a refund?

John Doe

  --  how to respond, de-constructed  --