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Today, several companies use e-mail as a means of differentiation from their competitors because email improves efficiency and provides an effective way to communicate between two or more individuals. In addition, the flexibility of this channel offers prospects and existing customers a fast way to interact with any company from whenever device they choose.

Considering the importance of e-mail, companies are increasingly turning to email hosting solutions that offer access to premium e-mail at a reduced cost.

“Business environments today are beginning to develop a 24/7 approach in response to increasing expectations as regards service and response,” says Mark Edwards (News - Alert), director of product and services at Intuate Group, in a press release.

Communication via email promotes lead cultivation, cross-selling, up-selling and after-sales interaction. However, for email hosting to offer companies the best results, good planning and management is key.

According to a U.S. survey, close to 40 percent of respondents did not respond to e-mail within 25 hours, and did not know what their average response time was. But, by using technology such as auto-responses that confirm the receipt of an e-mail and state that it is being processed, companies can elevate e-mail performance and thus can enhance customer satisfaction cost-effectively.

Edwards added, “To better manage expectations, companies should implement e-mail metrics much as they do with voice contacts. It is possible to set and achieve reasonable response times without adding resources in an integrated contact center. Unified contact center software will manage multiple channels, including inbound and outbound voice and e-mail simultaneously. While inbound voice channels have priority, e-mails can be delivered to specific agent groups when they are not engaged on the phone.”

Further, managers can analyze categories of interactions and use the results to plan appropriate follow-up actions including proactive voice calls to check on the customer's level of satisfaction. With the help of the right information from all the communication channels, agents will be able to provide better services.

“Evaluating the effectiveness of such campaigns can be difficult. However, elements of unified contact center systems allow the creation of media categories for the tracking of e-mail and telephone sources, which provide data that can establish the impact and success of such campaigns,” he concluded.