Email vs. Chat

The trendy offshore business communication has been pre-dominated by the exchange of electronic mail; a fast, efficient way to relay business transactions. The generation of an effective email is also given much consideration where the sender is obligated to put some considerable thought into the material he sends out. Other advantages of e-mail include remote storage and centralized maintenance. Email is stored remotely on a server, which means that it is accessible anywhere there is an Internet connection and a Web browser. There is also a centralized maintenance of the e-mail client; backups, upgrades and security fixes are done by the administrator. There is no need to install, update and patch local e-mail clients.

However, According to a recent article published on Clickz, reported open rates for email marketing campaigns is seeing a steady decline - from 28.7 percent in Q2 2003 to 22.3 percent in Q2 2004. These statistics were based on the figures provided by Bigfoot Interactive. The decrease is attributed mainly to ISP's and web hosting providers increasingly implementing anti-spam and anti-virus strategies spam by blocking remotely hosted images in emails.

As far as online business transactions are concerned, live chat is slowly replacing email. Why do customers prefer live chat over email? Real-time response is one of the foremost and quite undeniable reasons. Clients appreciate the sense of urgency provided them by the company where they be mere queries to a business deal formulation. Live chat has incorporated business application features to cater to real-time communication of consumers and providers.

Though email may present written communication in a much more formal manner, internet live chat has practically incorporated onto itself everything the once mighty email had to offer. There is no question why a good number of clients prefer real-time online interaction with company representatives.

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Email vs. Chat
Marketing email open rates declining - or are they?