Compete using technology - includes related articles on Web site usage and nontechnical business strategies - Industry Trend or Event - Cover Story

Home Office Computing, Feb, 1997 by Francy Blackwood, John Moore, Bernard Yee

Rev Up Response to Information Request

Make your best impression on prospects and existing clients by pr0mptty answering their questions.

To make it easier for customers to access your company data via phone, Iowa marketing consultant Teresita Dabrieo recommends that you install telephone management software--such as Front Office 1.5 (STF, 800-737-8277; Mac; $299), Smartcom Message Center (Hayes, 800-429-3739, www.hayes.com; Win 95, Win; $99), or SuperVoice (Pacific Image Communications, 818-457-8880; Win, Mac; $149.95)--with information-only mailboxes. When customers call, they simply select the information they need from a menu and access the appropriate mailbox. If you're hosting a seminar, for example, you can prerecord such details as date, time, location, and deadline for registration. "It puts you head and shoulders above your competition," says Dabrieo. Of course, your information-only mailboxes are available to anyone--including a competitor--who calls your office, so don't post proprietary business information.

Jay Conrad Levinson and Charles Rubin, authors of Guerrilla Marketing Online Weapons (Houghton Mifflin), recommend that you invest in an autoresponder or mailbot program. With this technology, when a client e-mails a request, your PC can read such keywords in the sender's mail as brochure, order form, or price list and automatically forward your corresponding files electronically. Mailbots, which reside on your ISP's server, are available from most providers for $25 to $50 a year, plus a monthly fee of roughly $20.

Build a customer fax-request system of order forms, contracts, and more. Diamond Multimedia (800-727-8772) and Creative Labs (800-998-5227) sell fax-on-demand packages ranging from $129 to $269. Many communications software packages also include fax-on-demand features. HotFax MessageCenter, for instance, provides up to 99 fax files per voice mailbox that clients can access. Or subscribe to your phone company's fax-request service, which allows customers to retrieve your business information via fax whenever they need it. US West (800-898-WORK), for example, sells its FaxRequest service, which ranges from $12.95 to $25 a month, depending on where you live, plus 25 cents per page.

Your client files are in your PC but you're thousands of miles away from the office (with no assistant). Suddenly, you retrieve a frantic voice message from Mr. Big Account who needs a particular document that's stored in your office PC--pronto. The competitive company will have devised a way to remotely send clients information. If you have a laptop or access to a PC, remote access software such as ReachOut (Stac, 800-522-7822, www.stac.com; Win 95, Win; $139), LapLink 7.5 (Traveling Software, 800-343-8080, www.travsoft.com; for Win 95, $149; for Win, $129), or PCAnywhere32 7.5 (Symantec; Win 95; $149) is a godsend. Just connect into your office computer, grab the file, and e-mail it to Mr. Big Account. Similarly, online backup services such as McAfee's Personal Vault (800-338-8754, www. mcafee.com; $10 a month for up to 30MB of storage) and Surefind (www.surefind.com, 800-787-0009; $9.95 per month for 100MB of storage) will make any client think you have a 1O-person MIS department. Within minutes of a request, you can download the file and have it waiting in your client's e-mailbox by the time he or she finishes checking messages.