Out of the office? Or out of your mind?

Good article by Jeffrey Gitomer below. I have abridged it to hit the high points.

Don’t have your business go on vacation with you.

Out of the office? Or out of your mind?

Ever send somebody an email and it bounces back, telling you that the person you sent it to is “out of the office”?

How did you feel when you got it?

I get emails every day from people telling me they’re at a seminar, on vacation, out of the office for two days, home sick, or worse, that their spam blocker needs confirmation.

Quit doing this. You’re making your customers mad at you. And you look like a fool. Stop it.

Suppose a customer is trying to place an order, and they get your stupid reply that you’re “on vacation, please call Mary.” And they call Mary and she’s “either on her phone or away from her desk.” So the customer decides to call the competition because you are unavailable.

Now you have gone from rude to stupid.

Your customers could care less where you are or what you’re doing. They just want help.

I have forbidden all forms of auto-reply and spam-blocking confirmation requests in my business. In place of that, each person is responsible for figuring out what to do in case a customer emails or calls. By the way, we have no voicemail either.

There are several options for being able to serve customers when you’re out of the office or either on your phone or away from your desk. All of which require thinking, communicating, and serving the customer.

I’m out of the office more than 250 days per year and somehow manage to handle and reply to more than 200 emails a day without a BlackBerry. I have a cell phone where I can receive phone calls when I’m available, or text messages from people who genuinely need me. I have a laptop with a wireless card and an internal airport device so that I can get online virtually anywhere in the world, at my convenience.

Here are some options to stay in touch, or to be accessible, when you’re away from your desk or away from the office:

1. PDA device.

2. Laptop computer.

3. Cell phone.

4. Hotel business center.

5. Internet cafe.

5.5 Delegate to co-worker or hire an assistant.

When someone sends you an email, in most cases they expect a reply within 24 hours. Sometimes within an hour.

If your customer wants an immediate response, and you immediately respond with a message that says, “I can’t respond right now,” that doesn’t help the customer. In fact, it negatively impacts the customer’s feeling about you. If customers need an immediate response then you should internally forward your emails when you’re away so that they can be responded to personally, or have someone checking your email while you’re away.

MAJOR CLUE: The customer doesn’t need to know what you’re doing, or how you make it happen – they want a response to THEIR situation, not yours.

I’m certain that a small percentage of people reading this will not appreciate the cold slap in the face. They’ll keep their idiotic, self-serving auto reply as part of their standard operating procedure. Here’s the good news: There are some people who will totally appreciate it: your competition.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Little Red Book of Selling and The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on sales and customer service at www.trainone.com.

Watch "Sales Rants" by Jeffrey as well.

Know someone going on vacation soon? Forward them this article before it's too late!  http://darrenhardy.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/out-of-the-offi.html