arboriculture and e-mail?

[treeman82]

I believe I had either started a thread about a month or two ago, or I had brought it up in the chat room about communicating with clients / potential clients via E-mail. I am finding that the more I hand out my new business cards, the more people I have sending me e-mails. Just yesterday I had met with a man and his partner about doing some tree work at their house. By the time I had returned to my house the man had sent me an e-mail expressing how happy he was to have met me and how he looked forward to doing business with my company. The guy also said that if it is easier for me that I could send him a rough estimate on some other work via e-mail.

I am sorry if this is off topic, however I was just wondering if this is becoming a trend for others in the industry??

 

[kf_tree]

i think it will change with the future. but most tree guys i know could barely use a fax machine let alone a pc.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I do it from time to time. Don't have it on a bizcard yet though.

 

[budroe69moni]

i don't have my e-mail address on my business cards
but i do have my web site address on them. there is
an e-mail link on my site and i do get jobs from that.
whenever i hand out a business card i always say....
"check out my website". it's worth the 19.99 per month!!!!
budroe

 

[Treeman14]

I've done a few jobs using ONLY e-mail to communicate with the client. Never even met them. One guy sent a whole bunch of digital pics with circles and arrows and a paragraph under each one to walk me through the property. Pretty slick IMHO. We get a couple every month via e-mail.

 

[Nickrosis]

This reminded me to check the corporate e-mail accounts! A little late for one of the e-mails... He did like the website, though, which gave me warm fuzzies.

I think e-mail is great for friendly conversation, but it isn't at the point of critical communication EXCEPT in intra-corporate or intra-institutional senses. Checking your e-mail three times a day is essential for a college student these days because that's how you receive your homework assignments, class rescheduling announcements, and the occassional cancelation (yes!).

One of the biggest holes in e-mail is the inherent security weaknesses. Without really hacking or password guessing, I can get into e-mail logs and see who's e-mailing who when and from where. If I were malicious, it would be a wee step further to actually intercept e-mails. That fact alone is enough to keep me from using e-mail for sensitive information. Bids, credit card numbers, etc. would fall under that category for me.

Nickrosis

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Security is a valid concern. I like using email better than the phone sometimes.

Jeff Jepson told me that he had a marketing idea he was going to try out this summer. His work area is in central Minnesota where there are few cities. The area that he works is the area that people from the Cities have cabins and vacation. that means that Jeff spends a lot of time driving to do bids. His proposal was to have people take digi-pics and then write up the concerns or highlight the pics so that Jeff wouldn't have to drive to the house. With decent pics, he could give a bid. He thought about giving a discount for using email. What he would be doing is actually charging for estimates since the drive in ones would pay full fee.

I put my email on my bizz card. Not too many people email though. I've gotten many calls from people looking in the internet YP/WP or our chapter website. Those people are pre-qualified and motivated buyers too.

Good to see another use of modern technology!

Tom

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Area code

Besides email on the biz card, how many have their area code on the card and on all of the trucks?

Here in the Twin Cities we have four AC. With the use of cell phones, you need to have the AC. If you work in an area that has many AC, it isn't good marketing to leave potential clients guessing.

Tom