Have you checked your website’s enquiry facility lately? Are enquiries routed to an email address that still exists? Do you have someone nominated to check incoming enquiries? How quickly are enquiries responded to?

These may seem like obvious questions but I’ve had a number of experiences lately of sending off queries via website ‘contact us’ forms and receiving no response.

It’s disturbing on several levels. We genuinely seek an answer to a question that’s important to us. But at a deeper level, we are relying more and more on internet communication in so many parts of our lives. Non responses undermine our confidence and trust in this communication channel.

And can any business really afford to burn these contacts? Web enquiries are an an important part of the marketing and customer service mix.

On a positive note, I have been cheered by responses from people in various countries as I arranged my recent holiday, and impressed at the efforts many people are willing to take to provide assistance, regardless of the language barrier.  Needless to say, they won my confidence and my business.