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All too often small business use free email accounts which seem like a cost savings strategy. In the last analysis this is very short term thinking. Several of my customers, even though they host with me and get three business class email accounts with their account, still use yahoo, gmail, or their ISP (think road runner) email for their business. I'm amazed by this. When the service goes down you don't have anyone to call or they aren't specialists so their help is mediocre at best. Plus you are building brand recognition for someone else. Business owners are threatened with litigation from both internal and external sources. When asked to produce email communications they are unable to with these free services.
The trifecta of business email:
- Support
- Branding
- Reliable
We provide email service to several independent real estate companies who's agents use personal free email addresses. The unfortunate issue here is that if that agent no longer works for you all the contacts he built while working out of your office go with him in his personal email. If he was using yourdomain.com then you would be reinforcing your brand and encourage the repeat customers to contact your office instead of joerealtor@yahoo.com. Additionally, since you control the email you could forward it to someone on your team if the agent does leave.
Many email providers, including your ISP, do not focus on email. Email is not their flagship product so innovation and robust system implementation is minimal or just enough. Great features like shared calendaring, blackberry support, etc are not even on their road map.
Get a service that has great support, reinforce your brand, and get the features you need to get ahead.
Comments welcomed,
Tim Symchych
