Email Etiquette & Your Handmade Business

Email etiquette in your handmade business is SO important!  Whether you love or hate email it’s here to stay – we can’t avoid it – but there is a lot to email etiquette that people just don’t seem to stop and think about.

Now, I’m not talking about the email newsletter subscriptions that you’ve signed up for (that’s a whole other animal, so to speak).  I’m talking about the email that you send and receive as a business owner.

Let’s stop and think about it.

You (we) only get a single chance to meet someone for the first time and “WOW” them with our product or service.

It’s important that we really put our best foot forward and make a good impression.

We’re no longer limited to just meeting prospective customers face-to-face at a craft fair or event.

Technology allows us to meet these same prospects on Facebook, through Etsy, via email, text messaging, our websites, and a lot of other places.

Because of technology we don’t even know when we’ve missed an opportunity to connect because people visit our website, view our Etsy or Facebook shop and just leave without leaving a trace.

Email etiquette is two-sided.

There is our interaction with our potential clients/customers and then their is our interaction with those where we want to be the customer.

In either case – with the advances in technology and this crazy, fast-paced world we live in – are we sacrificing good old fashioned common sense etiquette protocols?  Are we:

• making a good first impression?
• identifying and portraying ourselves as professionals?
• clearly stating the reason for our contact?
• being clear and concise about the purpose of our inquiry – whether it’s a support question or a request for additional information?
• clearly identifying our self and that we are also a business owner?

Some of you may be chuckling or thinking I’m old-school (which I am).  In my software business I receive emails every day that tell me very little about the person who is contacting me or why they are contacting me.  I can tell you its very frustrating.

I receive emails that have no subject, no name, no company information, no phone number in which to contact the person – and this drives me insane!

Obviously the person wants help but they provide me with very little information on how to contact them or what the problem is.

Next week I’ll start a 6-week series of articles on email etiquette.