Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Many small businesses uses free email services such as Hotmail as a shortcut or cost saving measure. Unfortunately it can costs them business in the long run.
I've seen you rail against using Hotmail for "anything important", and you call out using it for business as a particularly bad idea. Why? What do you have against Hotmail? Why should I incur yet another expense for my small business if I can get email for free?
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Because you want your email to get through, and because you want your business to be taken seriously.
I don't have anything against Hotmail, per se, or Microsoft for that matter. Remember, I worked there for many years.
My issues with Hotmail and other free email services arose mostly out of my experience here on Ask Leo!. Or, to put it more correctly, the experience of thousands of people asking me questions.
Those experiences lead me to this conclusion: using Hotmail or any free email service exclusively is bad for your business.
Let me explain why I hold that opinion that so strongly.
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It falls into two buckets: technical and perception.
Technical
I get more reports of problems with Hotmail than I do for any other mail service. Mail that disappears, account access that's lost, email that doesn't arrive, email that can't be sent ... these are all common issues that I see every day.
Hotmail is not alone in this regard, but I do get the most email related to it.
So why do I lump all free email services into the same bucket as Hotmail?
Because they all share one common characteristic: there's virtually no customer service.
If you have a problem with Hotmail, or Yahoo mail, or Google mail or whatever free email service you're using, you have nowhere to turn. There may be a customer service email address or web form, but from what I've heard and experienced myself, it's apparently only there for show. IF you get a response at all, which is rare, it's likely to take a long time and be a "canned" response. If you need hands-on help to deal with your particular situation, there's nowhere to go.
Nowhere.
Because you're getting what you paid for. You paid nothing, and that's what you're getting. The provider is under no obligation to do anything for you. They're well within their rights to ignore you completely, which is apparently what most do.
At least if you pay someone for service you have some leverage. First of all, these providers typically promise service, and if they don't deliver, you have the option of taking your business elsewhere.
Perception
OK, I'll put this as bluntly as I can.
When I see a business using a free email account, particularly a Hotmail account, I immediately think: "this business doesn't care about email, or using the internet to communicate with their customers."
And that perception is not uncommon among internet-savvy customers.
The perception might be wrong. I get that. The company may be deeply devoted to their internet-using customers. But using a free email account doesn't say that. A free email account says "we're not willing to take the relatively small expense to make sure we have reliable email".
And that's a shame.
In my opinion, any business small or large, should have their own internet domain, and handle their email using that domain. Most domain registrars make that easy, and offer very competitively priced packages. And customer support.
"Company@hotmail.com" will always look cheaper and less professional than "anything@company.com".
Not to mention that "company@hotmail.com" is more likely to have technical problems without anyone to help you resolve them.
Article C2875 - December 19, 2006
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
Hi Leo,
You just forgot that Hotmail offers paid email service called Hotmail Plus ($19,95 per year). So thinking in that way:
"When I see a business using a free email account, particularly a Hotmail account, I immediately think: "this business doesn't care about email, or using the internet to communicate with their customers."
Is a little bit stereotypical thinking.
23-Aug-2010
Posted by: Cr at August 22, 2010 6:25 AM
From free Hotmail I switched to MSN for $10/month. So far the support is doing what I need & escalates when needed. Downside is it's still that low-rent hotmail address, but it's an easy switch for hotmailers who need support. [p.s. thanks for answering my question, now I know you're real, Santy Claus, owe you a latte.)
Posted by: Virginia Smith at August 24, 2010 10:52 AMA domain costs $35 or less per year. There are web hosting services that offer a free option for a generous amount of low-traffic volume which includes several email boxes. If that's too much cost to add to your business, then your business is too frail and unstable to do business with mine.
Posted by: Mike at September 2, 2010 3:15 PMHey Leo, I've read your article with interest. I use Windows Live Hotmail for my business.
Of course, I have my business and personal domain name linked to hotmail using Windows Live Admin Center, so my e-mail addresses matches my domain names.
I've never had issues of disappearing e-mails or e-mail that can't be send. Once in a while a connection problem occurs, but that has always been resolved in a short moment.
A few years ago, the hotmail spam filter caused some issues, due to blacklisted provider domains. That was a good thing, I think.
Today, I seldom have a spam message in my inbox.
In case of problems, you can always go to support.live.com. Never needed to do that because it just works fine.
I have used multiple e-mail clients, using pop3, imap and http. No problem at all.
Ok, I don't use webmail (hotmail by using the website) to send e-mail, because that concatenates a footer to the e-mails.
Recently, I even have ActiveSync pushing my (hot)mail to my phone.
Some of my customers uses e-mail services that came with a hosting package. No, not a cheap package. I was hired to solve problems like 'mailbox full', 'message to big' and other malfunctioning.
E-mail is a comodity and Microsoft serves it well. And it's all free! Hurray!
Oops, your article is from 2006, well maybe you've changed your opinion about hotmail (?)
You're doing one thing right: you're using your own email address (like whatever@somerandomservice.com) telling people that and having it forwarded to your Hotmail account. If you must use Hotmail for business, that's the way to do it. It also means you can switch to any other service at another time without changing your public email address.
20-Sep-2010
Posted by: Geert at September 8, 2010 7:18 AM
I've used several domain providers for my email. Frankly, I find Hotmail more reliable, and with more sophisticated spam technology. Perhaps in 2001 this article would have been more relevant, but not anymore. People don't care what your email address is. They usually contact you through Facebook or Twitter now anyway.
01-Feb-2011
Posted by: Mike Owen at January 31, 2011 9:06 PM