I am setting up a new practice and dont want to be relied on as the face of the firm. So I am setting up as I mean to go on. I will be setting up a team e-mail (althought there is only me presently) so what do people think is a good name@ I have seen info@ hello@ amongst many others.
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Use the names of people
info, enquiries, support et all give me zero confidence that the organisation considers me important. Let the lowest ranker reply
Info when there are less than 20 people looks pretentious
Would you really want to send emails out from info@
Use the names of people
info, enquiries, support et all give me zero confidence that the organisation considers me important. Let the lowest ranker reply
Info when there are less than 20 people looks pretentious
Would you really want to send emails out from info@
Agree.
You could just use the firm’s name, eg [email protected]
I would say something a little more formal than info or hello, I think enquiries@ is fine, or some abbreviation of the firm's name, which is what we use.
I don't think it's too impersonal using a general mailbox, it's preferable for receiving unsolicited email and it's essential for using some services relying on emails communications, but you should ensure anyone you're addressing directly gets an email from an actual named person, we never send anything other an automatic emails from our general mailbox, it's primarily a receipts only account.
Not sure why you believe "The replies will be by the FirmName, the xxxx@ does not show up on sent e-mails, also when clients respond the to will show FirmName"?
As far as I'm aware ... whilst format of an email address is always [email protected]; how this is displayed at the recipient's (or the originator's) end is dependent on the software they are using and the settings applied. So not under your control.
The issue IMHO is what 'prefixes' to use on open public platforms - partly to help you negotiate the plethora of unsolicited junk that will follow, but also to position yourself professionally to those whom you've never met but may want to do business with.
For those scenarios, it's best to use a prefix indicative of the required function - hence enquiries@, sales@, accounts@, etc (using words that you're happy with).
But I wholeheartedly agree with others that any response should be from a name@ address (i.e. an individual) if you want to be seen as providing a human & professional service (as opposed to an automated software-driven service).
A California-based tech company which I worked with were very early adopters of email when it was in its infancy. They were heavy users of "group" aliases and this worked extremely well for them.
So for example, all of the secretaries at the company could be reached in one go by simply emailing [email protected], and so on for the European salesforce, the R&D team, or whatever group you wanted to reach.
It worked very well.
That’s a relief. For the last 22 years we’ve used ‘tiger@....’
Easy for clients to remember and I believe the dti also used it.
I wouldn't use enquiries..
We have 'enquire' here, and it is a pig to spell over the phone, and people get it wrong - then emails do not arrive.
If you must, use a common word like support@ or something.
You can fix the misspelled prefix by creating a catch-all wildcard email address eg *@Deloitte.com and then map that address to forward its emails to your proper email address [email protected]
We use named email addresses (ie chris@), but use software Front App to help us share inboxes. You can choose which staff members are given delegated access.
With this you can both have staff cover when you're off, you can assign emails to different staff members, or collaborate (eg get a junior to draft it, you then tweak and send).
Historically I had the fear that clients might get annoyed about someone other than me replying to them...but it never happened, not once. Whether that's cos the staff give better answers than I do I don't know!
I have a spam filled "contact@" on my website for general contact.
And then use myname@ for myself & staff
Plus I have the good old IR@ for HMRC - probably dating that one to a long time ago.
accounts@ etc is fine for functional communications, but hello@ might as well be goodbye@ for client facing stuff. Some time ago we experimented with made up names where we didn't have a dedicated person e.g. Sandra@ for payroll
This experiment included replying to spam from nospamplease@ in the hope they would desist
The other thing to consider is who if anyone they get to speak to should they phone the practice.
But it all sounds a lot of faff for what is currently a one person practice. People buy people.
If you're looking for a general mailbox then personally I like and I'd use mail@ - whatever you pick it needs to be easy to say, easy to hear, easy to spell bearing in mind regional dialect variations. FWIW I also think replies should come from a real email.
Cadwallader's a mightily impressive name. I often use it at coffee shops whenever staff want to write my name on the paper cup.
And when they ask how you spell that it's C-H-A-D
RichardWalterJohnMontaguDouglasScott10thDukeofBuccleuchand12thDukeofQueensberry
@hotmail.com
I went to a coffee shop (pre covid) with my friend and her husband, he told the barista his name was Marc with a 'c'.
Over comes his mocha with 'Cark' written on it.
Heh heh! I guess baristaing has its lighter moments.
I never mind such poor service as it makes me feel a little better about not leaving a tip.
I use admin@ for general stuff and documents@ specifically for that purpose. Seems to work ok.
I also have payroll@ (3 clients still use it) but it was confusing to some and they would send general stuff to payroll and payroll stuff to admin so I stopped giving that email out.
Can’t remember which service provider it is (Vodafone?), but if you want to leave, you have to do so in writing to ... customerloyalty@... ! Made me more likely to leave, not less.
"I am setting up a new practice and dont want to be relied on as the face of the firm", you are thinking too ahead of the game and my concern is you will get caught in your own web.
First start where you are and be the face of the business, as you grow and employ staff, you can start delegating and move away.
It is only my learning, the important fact of not being the face of the firm is choose a firm name that is not associated to you.
As you grow, the client will know the firm name they are dealing with and not you.
Hope this helps.
It's just me so I use [email protected] for displaying on website etc, new clients contact me via this email.
otherwise for day to day, I use [email protected] for all emails.
For HMRC logins I use [email protected]
support@xxxx is another option. It reflects your practice is there to support clients.
Email can be signed by whoever responds to add a personal touch.
Also consider that if you are intending at any point to use an email platform (Active Campaign, Mailchimp, etc) to send either bulk marketing (to potential clients) or notification emails (to clients) or an automation sequence (for e.g. onboarding if someone signs up through a website) that some mail providers (hotmail, etc) are more likely to block receipt of any emails from non-person addresses as they are more likely to be seen as spam.
I have a domain name & have used hello@ as my website contact email so if it isn't an actual enquiry form, then it's spam / cold sales email as that hello@ is nowhere else & I always reply from tracey@.
I do have several other emails client1@, client2@ only because it helps me keep it all segmented in my head & in folders as I don't have a Practice Mgmt system.
Good luck - you just gotta find what works for you.
Shorter the better as you have to type it in everywhere you log in nowadays.
Our general one is enquiries@.
Going to change this to help@ in due course.