Gmail Shortcut for Booksellers

Thanks to an excellent LifeHacker article today, I discovered a shortcut to send "Canned Responses" to customers via Gmail.  Here is the complete article, with several other timesaving shortcuts you may want to enable.  P.S.  The LifeHacker daily newsletter has consistenly been THE most helpful and informative email newsletter I have ever received.  I highly encourage anyone operating a web based business to sign up for it.

I previously had all my canned responses saved as a Word Document and would have to open it, copy and paste the text, but now, by simply enabling a Gmail Lab entitled "Canned Responses" and entering my Word Documents into Gmail I can save a few steps and plenty of time in the process.

If you're not already using Gmail, I seriously encourage you to give it a try.  It has more user friendly features than any other Email program I've ever used, along with plenty of interesting bells and whistles.  I have all of my business email (kristian@lowestcostbooks.com) forwarded to my Gmail account so that I can make the most efficient use of some of these features, and more importantly, my time.

If you are currently using Gmail for business, go to the Gmail Labs page and enable "Canned Responses".  You can then begin entering and saving your favorite replies.  Here are some other instances where I use canned responses, with slight modifications:

1.  When an International Shipment hasn't arrived yet and the customer is being a bit impatient.  A polite the book is on its way and should arrive soon type of note usually does the job.

2.  When a customer within the US wants to know where her book is two days after ordering.  Again, a polite response with the necessary tracking information.

3.  When a book has not arrived within the expected timeframe.  This doesn't happen too often, but it does happen.

4.  When a customer is a bit late in paying for an item purchased from my Ebay store via Paypal.  You can also do this via Ebay.

5.  When an International Shipment from an Abe or Ebay order requires extra funds to cover the actual shipping costs, which happens more often now that Economy Surface Letter Post is gone.

6.  When a book is returned by the USPS, a follow up asking for an updated/verifiable address.

7.  A polite request for feedback removal when necessary, such as cases when a customer gives you a 2 out of 5 because they didn't like the ending of a book.

8.  A follow-up email to a repeat customer who may be interested in purchasing additional books directly from my website.

There are a few others I use, but these are the most common, and having them slightly automated has saved me plenty of time in the long run.  Setting this up in your Gmail account shouldn't take too long and will be well worth the trouble.

I will be glad to share a few of my "Canned Responses" in future posts, or via email for any of you who are interested.