Connect With Customers

How to stay in touch with customers, from one reply to a whole email list

Connect With Customers covers every way your business talks to people: replies, texts, email, social, and reviews. The articles here start with email, and this overview covers the rest of the picture.

Every message is one of three kinds

Most of what your business sends falls into one of three kinds, and each one needs something different from your tools.

Replies. Somebody reached out with a text, a DM, a form, or a call, and they're waiting on you. A reply needs to reach you wherever you are. The inbox and calls and texting are about that.

Announcements. You have something to say to people who asked to hear from you, like a new service, a workshop, or this month's newsletter. That's one message to a lot of people, at a time you pick. An announcement needs a list. That's email and SMS, and social for the people who haven't found you yet.

Follow-ups. One person did something: signed up, booked, bought, or went quiet. What they hear next depends on which it was. A follow-up needs to know what that one person just did, and nobody keeps sending these by hand for long. That's what automations are for.

There's a fourth kind you don't write yourself, which is what a customer tells the next one in a review. The part you control is asking for it and answering what comes in.

A message is only as good as what the sender knows

The third kind is where things usually break, and the reason is simple. Say someone buys your course. The course platform knows they bought it. For the welcome email to go out, the email tool has to know too. When the two are separate products, it only finds out if something between them passes it along. If that link stops working, nothing looks wrong on your side. The welcome just doesn't go, and the first you hear of it is a new buyer asking where to log in.

That's the story in the tech stack that couldn't send an email. It's a setup with a paid tool for every job. The course, the sales page, and the email tool each kept their own copy of the same people, and the welcome sequence for new students never went out.

The rule underneath it applies to every channel. A message can only depend on what someone did if the sender can see what they did. When contacts, bookings, purchases, and conversations sit on one record, nothing has to be passed along. That's how a FableForge account is built: the people you email are the same contact records the rest of the account already uses.

Choosing where to send email from

Most tool comparisons line up features. The email tool comparison asks a more useful question: what does each tool expect you to connect it to? It sorts what people need into three stages. First, sending emails that look professional without typing each one. Then, emails that go out on their own when someone books or signs up. Then, emails that change with what someone did and who they are. Each stage asks the email tool to know more about the rest of your business.

So before you compare anything, write down where your contacts come from and where people pay you. Each item on that list the email tool can't see for itself is a connection you'll be looking after. Read the sending limits and fair-use terms as well. Some plans move you up a tier automatically when you go over.

Then price it at the size you're heading for, not the size you are today. Many email tools charge by the number of contacts, so the bill moves every time the list grows. Check what adding an assistant costs while you're at it. The cheap starter plan is priced for the list you have now, and you're hoping the list gets bigger.

The sequences most businesses end up needing

Five email sequences every coach needs lays them out. There's a welcome series for new subscribers, a follow-up for someone who looked at an offer and didn't buy, and onboarding for someone who just paid. Then there's a check-in for people who have stopped opening, and milestone emails through a longer program.

The emails matter less than the rules around them. Every sequence needs three answers. Who goes in? Who stays out? What happens when someone qualifies for two at once? The second one catches people most often. Someone who has already bought shouldn't still be getting the emails that try to sell them the same thing. The article's answer to the third is worth borrowing. Anything to do with a purchase comes first, so a new client leaves the welcome series and starts onboarding.

A sequence doesn't have to sound like a machine sent it. Putting someone's first name at the top isn't what makes it personal. What does is writing to what you already know about them: how they found you, what they told you they wanted, and whether they're a client yet. Someone who joined after a workshop and someone who downloaded a checklist can get different first emails from the same sign-up.

You don't need all five at once. Start with the one where somebody is already waiting on you, which is usually the person who just paid. Then add the next one when you notice it's missing.

Where texts, social, and reviews fit

Email suits things people will read when they get to them. A text suits things that need reading today, like a reminder, a change of plan, or an announcement with a deadline on it. Social is where new people come across you, and your list is where you reach the people who already said yes.

Reviews work differently from the rest, because the customer is the one writing. Your side is making the asking routine and answering what comes in, so the next person reading sees someone who replies.

Replies can land in one inbox too, whatever app they started in, and they sit on the same customer record as everything else. It's the same principle as the email one. Every conversation knows who it's with.

Where to start in these articles

Choosing a tool? Start with the comparison. Already have a tool and a list, but nothing goes out on its own? Read the five sequences. Plenty of tools and it still doesn't work? The tech stack that couldn't send an email is the one for you.

Questions about staying in touch with customers