Comments on: How to Lose a Potential Customer in One Email

By: cybergal5184

cybergal5184 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:16:58 +0000

I agree 100%. I loathe making phone calls to strangers and hate receiving phone calls as well. I will go to someone else if you haven’t figured out this email thing by 2009!

By: I Can't Find A Job

I Can't Find A Job — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:02:49 +0000

So true. I often wondered the same as I’ve also had this problem – and even crossed some properties off my list because I didn’t want to make the phone call.

By the way, I just found your blog and I think its great. Thanks for all of your great posts!

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:07:25 +0000

I guess I see it the other way… Catching someone on the phone requires both people available at the same time. With e-mail she can say what times she has available and I could pick on. I already said that I could make almost any time since I work for myself at home.

By: Boomer

Boomer — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:57:31 +0000

I post our single family home rental listing on Craigslist. If someone is interested in seeing the house and contacts me via email, the next logical step is to set up a date/time to see the property.

I agree with NatalieMac that it’s much more expeditious to negotiate an appointment time on the phone than via email. I do not consider this bad customer service nor do I use this method as a tenant screening tool. I just value my time too much.

On the other hand, if a prospective tenant has questions about the property that aren’t covered in the listing, I’m more than happy to answer them via email.

By: Manshu

Manshu — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:45:23 +0000

I think this is just people’s way of proofing themselves from Craiglist scams. I’d surely do the same thing.

By: NatalieMac

NatalieMac — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:30:56 +0000

If either one or both of you is a busy person, it can take dozens of emails back and forth to nail down an appointment time that works for both of you. The same conversation can take place in a 30-second phone call – so for a busy person, it definitely saves a lot of time and frustration to set up an appointment by phone.

Also, I would never give someone an address or agree to meet them without having spoken to them in person. There’s too much shady stuff going on, especially on a free site like CL.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:08:20 +0000

There’s a *lot* of rental scams perpetrated through craigslist. Asking people to call is a barrier to scammers. Not a foolproof one, but it helps a bit.

It may filter out some real customers too, of course. But if you’re an individual trying to rent out a room, you may not have the time to week through the email scams.

By: The Digerati Life

The Digerati Life — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:12:01 +0000

Lazy,
I think they’re sizing you up through your voice, and do a simple phone screen. I remember trying to do the same thing when I was in the process of unloading my car via Craigslist. I wanted to know who I was dealing with before I asked them over… I guess I’m more paranoid that way?

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:47:32 +0000

I agree 100%.

What I hate even more are people who post an ad on craigslist, but then the only way to reach them is by phone. And odds are that you will not be able to reach them or that they don’t have an answering machine.

By: Cos

Cos — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:09:40 +0000

so true, so true

By: kosmo @ The Casual Observer

kosmo @ The Casual Observer — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:11:50 +0000

On the flip side of this, some companies will love you if you handle things via email.

We recently refi’d our mortgage. We handled nearly everything via email. We submitted the required documentation via email (PDFs work quite nicely with the document management systems that many companies use). We would have probably done the closing via email if that had been an option :)

Our day care center loves the fact that we communicate with them via email. Then they have a paper trail if there are any questions later (was that a half teaspoon of medicine, or two teaspoons?) Also, we can send them information with forcing someone to grab the phone (diverting attention from the kids)

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:55:51 +0000

You are right about losing a potential customer. Whenever this happens to me, it throws up some red flags. I wonder what kind of things they are going to try to pressure me into on the phone.

This also applies to commercials. If I see something I might be interested in, I always look to see if there is a website under the phone number I can go to. If not, I don’t bother. I don’t want to call the number and have a sales person try to pressure me into buying something when all I really wanted was more information on their product.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:46:29 +0000

They may just want to get a feel for what kind of tenant you would be before they waste their time with you, and it’s easier to scope someone out on the phone than via internet.

On the phone, they can hear how long of a pause until you answer questions, whether some questions made you nervous, etc.

On e-mail, anyone who takes the time to write well can be the perfect tenant, haha.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:44:00 +0000

I hate that. What bothers me even more is when someone sends you an email basically asking you to call. What the hell? You took the time to write me an email, why couldn’t you at least spend another minute or two typing what you want to talk about or ask me?

But I’m also lazy.