This is the first post on the official Email Center Pro Blog.
Official not because there are rogue ECP blogs lurking online. But official because that’s just the way things are said.
Welcome to a place that celebrates the realities of email.
No matter your position in the overall conversation, the truth remains: email, for all the conviction that befalls it, is a vital component of the overall communication strategy for organizations of any size — from the independent consultant to the Fortune 500 behemoth. For many, the problem lies in the fact that email is see
n not as part of that strategy, but as a by-product that simply dumps difficulty and frustration into workers’ laps.
Email Center Pro is a tool that can be used to combat that. The application facilitates a re-engineering of how email is perceived. That core concept will serve as the foundational component of this blog.
Email is too often berated and seen as a necessary evil. That’s not surprising, given the impractical way so many of us execute the management of this communication vehicle. But the fact is, there’s no need to languish any longer. Instead, it’s time to adjust our focus and see email as a:
- Work flow optimizer
- Customer service tool
- Record of your company’s living history
- Customer retention vehicle
The next four posts on this blog are going to deal individually with each of these bullet points. The series is called “Email: A View From Above”.
Now, while we think there’s room in the blogosphere for our effort to become a consistent voice in the practical application of email space, we’d be remiss if we focused entirely on theory, best practices and other suit-and-tie conversations.
Which is why we’re also going to bring the EmailFail blog under our umbrella. Palo Alto has been using that space to point out email blunders, gaffes and eye-poppers for the past two months. That will continue here, so you’ll still get your fill of headlines like:
How to Use Email to Lose Your Job
A parting thought
We believe in email for all of the reasons noted above. When managed transparently and respectfully, it can be the communication vehicle of record for your company without delivering an endless stream of headaches and frustration. It doesn’t have to be the bottleneck that perhaps yours has become. You can fix the overlooked, duplicated or mixed messages that plague your customer service team and, eventually, your bottom line.
Stay tuned and we’ll show you how.
Tomorrow, look for the first installment in the “Email: A View From Above” series: “Company work flow broken? Check your email”
