E-Mail Should Not Be an Inconvenience

Are you tired of opening your email at home or at your job only to see a bunch of spam and no important email at all? Are you tired of spending more time deleting emails than getting your job done when you’re at work? How many times have you missed an email important to your business because there are so many spam emails in your inbox or an important email at home because you’ve got more spam? If you’re one of the millions of computer users who are sick of spam and unimportant emails, then be of good cheer.

There are several ways to tame your inbox and make sure that all that spam goes elsewhere, and you don’t have to worry about it. For corporations especially, spam and unimportant email is becoming a huge problem. In 2008, the founder of TechCrunch Michael Arrington cited email overload as a huge problem and basically challenged tech entrepreneurs to create a solution to it. He’s right. Millions of workers are losing productivity because they are spending more time deleting emails than they are actually working. According to a study done recently by a company called Radicati, corporate email users get 200 emails a day. That is a lot of wasted time dealing with things that are not even important. Also, according to another study by the Grossman Group, those in middle management spend 100 hours per year just dealing with non-important email. Needless to say, for those corporate email users, it’s very important to free up those hours dealing with unnecessary email.

A new web-based application called SaneBox is the solution to corporate email problems. Private users have already been able to use SaneBox for their home email, and now SaneBox has launched SaneBox for Business, meaning that corporate users and small business now have the same great features that the SaneBox for private users already have. Basically, SaneBox takes all spam and unimportant email and filters it into folders. For instance, if you get a spam email, SaneBox’s algorithms already filter it into the spam folder. If it’s some fund-raising appeal, same thing. That way, instead of slogging through hundreds of spam emails, charity appeals and what not, you’re reading the email you actually need to read. There are other great features on SaneBox like smart reminders, which basically remind you to answer an email you haven’t answered yet; snoozing email, which means you can postpone receiving an email and calendar synching.

SaneBox for Business works with all web-based email services such as Gmail and Yahoo. It also works with clients like Microsoft Outlook. Since SaneBox is cloud based, it’s easy for IT people to integrate it with their Exchange users and there’s no software to download or application to keep up. It’s also very easy to use. If you know how to use email and folders, then you know how to use SaneBox. There are many happy users that no longer have to deal with spam or unimportant email and now are able to focus only on the important email they get. With SaneBox, email is no longer an inconvenience. It’s something useful again.

 

HelpScout Helps You Manage Your Customer Email Inquiries

By Julie, CreativeMMS

So, by now your inbox is properly sorted and prioritized with the help of SaneBox. But what about your company’s never-ending list of incoming inquiries? Today, people expect more than ever from their technology, their products, and their service providers. In today’s on-demand market, if you can’t provide stellar customer service, you will fall behind in the pack.

There are a couple of key tools that effectively can help you manage your customer service. However, we always find that the simplest solution works bests.

We compared three online tools and found the one we like the best: HelpScout!

Firstly, you have to check out HelpScout! Helpscout.net quickly and easily manages a large volume of email while still being able to effectively interact with each customer one-on-one. The program sorts and responds to “catch-all” addresses that are typically read by several administrators such as a contact@, support@, or info@ email addresses. Helpscout helps growing companies manage their customer service inquiries while keeping team members on the same page through constant communication management. Use it for tech support, sales, billing, or sharing an inbox. The “saved replies” option saves time by allowing you to set up standard templates to frequently asked questions or common inquiries and customize them to your client’s request. HelpScout is extremely user-friendly and requires few features to make it useful for many different types of companies.

Reasons it rocks:

  • You don’t have to change your email address
  • It’s not an email host, just an organizer.
  • It’s invisible to the customer and message looks like a personalized email with a signature from a company representative.

We use HelpScout because it’s super affordable, but there are two other great customer service organizers that are just as effective as getting the job done.

Here are the other two tools we evaluated, that came in as close runner-ups.

ZenDesk
ZenDesk not only centralizes all your customer conversations so nothing gets ignored, but their awesome website features webinars, a “whitepapers” tab, a blog, and a whole section devoted to infographics.
http://www.zendesk.com/

UserVoice
UserVoice also creates simple online feedback, help desk, and knowledge base software, but a cool addition to the UserVoice program is their easy to install Facebook tab to allow companies to take the power of UserVoice to a fan page.
http://www.uservoice.com/

Bio: CreativeMMS is a full-service multimedia company specializing in web design and development, programming services, social media strategy, online marketing, and website maintenance. We know the web. Follow us @creativemms and www.creativemms.com.

 

Best Way To Update Your Contacts: WriteThat.Name Simply Works

When I come across products that help me save time and be a better emailer, I  get really excited.  I’ve been using WriteThat.Name for a whole, and just happily paid for a Pro subscription.

How Does It Work?

Once you register with writethat.name, it will analyze the signature of every verifiable email and extract the necessary information. It then converts that information into your address book, which is immediately available to you.  It works amazingly well.  As soon as a new contact emails you with their signature, you have their info in your Contacts. It is compatible with Gmail and Google Apps and will soon work with Microsoft Outlook, as well.

Just like SaneBox, WriteThat.Name doesn’t require a download because it uses cloud technology.  While it is true your emails are being scanned for contact information, the actual content is never even seen by the staff at writethat.name. The emails are actually scanned by computer technology, allowing all your email content to remain completely secure.

Create Separate Contact Lists or Merge Several Together

One of the great aspects of writethat.name technology is that it gives you the freedom to determine how to store your data. If you are currently using several Gmail accounts and/or Google Apps, you can decide to keep each of these contact lists separate and writethat.name will work for each one. If on the other hand, you want to merge all or some of these accounts together into one comprehensive address book, it can easily do that too.

Let writethat.name Update Automatically or Check Manually

Another great feature is it allows you to decide how to update the new contact information to your address book. We used the automatic/instant option. It’s just easier that way, and it hasn’t been wrong once. The manual option gives you the opportunity to look through all the daily changes that were captured and decide which information to store in your address book. Each day you will receive an email detailing all the changes made to your account. With the automatic system this daily email is simply a notification, but with the manual system, you give your authorization and the changes are made.

It is fluent with scanning all email written in English and French and can read relevant information, such as a phone number and address in several European languages including German, Italian and Spanish.  Que bueno.  And here’s another cool part: for a $20 flat fee, WriteThat.Name can scan all your historical contacts. I happily did that as well. I’m glad I have a new tool in my email management kit.

Do yourself a favor and check it out!

 

5 Indispensable Email Skills For Job Seekers And Employees

If you are about to apply for a job via email, the quality of your emailed covering letter to the potential employer is extremely important. After all, you are marketing yourself. This means that the employer’s HR department will first judge your capabilities by how you introduce and portray yourself. If clothes make the man (or woman), then his or her words make the aspiring employee.

In many cases today, emails have degenerated to offensively abbreviated messages. Job seekers seem to assume that the quality of their emails is not as important as their actual work. The point is that the Human Resources departments of the most prestigious companies today will ignore badly worded emails containing chat-like abbreviations, spelling errors and grammatical bloopers. They are looking for serious, properly educated, well-spoken employees who take pride in their communication skills and will be assets to the company.

Here are some pointers on effective email writing to help you get that lucrative corporate job:

State your business clearly in the subject line. For example: ‘Application for the position of _______’, ‘Response to your advertisement for __________’, etc. In direct email inquiries to you, the company’s HR department will have used a relevant subject line. Simply hit ‘reply’ while answering – do not change the subject line.

  1. Be brief and to the point – Do not bore the HR operative with long introductions. Get to the point.
  2. State your name and experience, and express interest in working for the company. End with your complete contact details.

Check out the other 3 tips on The Human Resource Blog.

 

Stop Checking Email – Get Custom Notification Alerts from AwayFind

AwayFind’s mission is a noble one – to help you stop checking email and stay out of your inbox as much as possible. AwayFind’s services alert you about important messages so you don’t have to obsessively check your inbox 10 or more times a day. Depending on rules you set up, AwayFind will scan through your inbox and send you notifications through many mediums such as phone call, SMS, iPhone, and Android push notifications. AwayFind is an ideal option for avoiding email and information overload. Let’s find out exactly how it works.

AwayFind Setup

Considering all the unique features, setting up AwayFind is easy.  I quickly set up an account using Gmail oauth, and I was guided through the whole process (and if I can do it, so can anyone).

I chose to use SMS messages as the main notification method, and when I keyed in my cell phone number, I received a verification code immediately (it’s also refreshing that the code is only 2 digits, and I didn’t have to enter a 14 digit hexadecimal code). After this, I was allowed to set up the email filters that can apply to all my incoming mails. When doing this, you will notice two filters that are already set as examples. The first filter allows you to receive notifications when a contact you’re meeting with ‘within 12 hours’ sends you an email, and the second one is an email with ‘asap’ or ‘urgent’ flags. You can  set up new contacts based on the subject, the contact’s name, etc, and specify a time at which you prefer receiving these notifications.

Having set up the filters, you can now look at other unique features: email signatures, intelligent auto-responders, an iPhone and Android apps and customized contact forms that can be used by contacts to send you alerts.

AwayFind Features

–        Outlook and Gmail plugins that help you to set up and edit filters without necessarily signing into the site.

–        Unique, intelligent ways of setting up filters for scanning your emails and notifying you.

–        A custom contact form that your contacts can fill to contact you without knowing your phone number.

–        iPhone/Android client push notifications.

–        A handy guide on how to avoid email overload without checking your email.

–        AwayFind offers different pricing plans. The individual plans range from $5-50/month, and there’s a version for businesses as well. The free plan includes limited access to features and smaller caps for alerts while the other paid plans include access to all features and up the caps for alerts.

We think of AwayFind as a natural extension of SaneBox. SaneBox helps you spend less time in your Inbox, and AwayFind lets you leave it altogether. Check it out, and tell them the SaneBox Gang sent-cha.

 

10 Rules to Reverse Email Overload Spiral And Save Time: Part 3

The finish line to becoming email experts is just within reach. You’ve mastered how to respect recipient’s time, celebrated clarity, quashed open-ended questions, slashed surplus cc’s and tightened your threads. Training’s been vigorous, but you’ve made it through and now’s the time to test out your endurance for the last lap. Let’s check out the final 4 rules to reversing the email spiral as we come to the end of the Email Charter.

 

Rule 7: Attack Attachments

Sometimes fancy signatures or company logos at the end of your email appear as attachments to your message. Typically, when there is an attachment to an email your recipient will assume that it is something intended for them to download. Their time is wasted trying to see if there’s something to open. You can solve this problem by using a standard signature including your name, title and appropriate contact information. Or, if you still desire a distinguished signature there are sites like WiseStamp that will create unique signatures without any attachments. You can even go so far as to add a headshot.

Another attachment faux pas is attaching documents with text that could have simply been included in the body of your email. Take a few extra seconds to copy and paste the information to the message. This way you save time for your recipient and keep everything in one place.

 

Rule 8: Give these Gifts: EOM NNTR

Abbreviated Coded Rendition OName Yielding Meaning. ACRONYM.  If your email message can be expressed in half a dozen words, give the gift of an acronym to offer a heads up to your recipients. Try putting EOM (End of Message) after your subject line so you save them the 30 seconds it takes to open an email. For example: “Staff Meeting at 9am Tuesday. EOM” You get your message across and shave a few seconds off of someone’s busy work day.

Another worthwhile acronym to test out is NNTR (No Need to Respond). Tag it on to the end of a message that requires no response. You’ve just cut an email out of their to-do list and saved yourself a click or two in your inbox. Many acronyms confuse as much as help, but these two are golden and deserve wide adoption. Hopefully it will catch on around the office and you’ll be the next workplace trendsetter.

 

Rule 9: Cut Contentless Responses

You’ve just adopted the NNTR method to avoiding unnecessary responses, now’s the time to follow your own system. Before you hit the send button, which can’t be undone, ask yourself “Will this make a difference?” If your response does not define or develop the conversation then take a safe bet and cut it out. You don’t need to reply to every email; especially not those that are themselves clear responses. An email saying, “Thanks for your note. I’m in.” does not need you to reply “Great.” Unless your message engages a new direction or stimulates further response don’t bother hitting that button.

 

Rule 10: Disconnect!

A GradSource study reminded us that “learning occurs when what you put into short-term-memory connects with what you already know which is stored in long-term-memory.” By giving yourself a 10-minute break every 50 minutes you have a higher rate of retaining information. When you are constantly connected to your inbox, you’re not giving yourself enough time to process all the information that you’re feeding your brain. Give yourself a break to rejuvenate and recharge. If you can’t commit to small increments throughout the day, consider calendaring half-days at work where you can’t go online or make a pledge to email-free weekends with an ‘auto-response’ that references this charter. If we all agreed to spend less time doing email, we’d all get less email! Give each other a break and catch up on the things your missing when your eyes are glued to your smartphone and, don’t forget to smell the roses.

SaneBox prioritize important emails