Summary: Many small business 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.
Related:
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Ask Leo! - Are free email services worth it?
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Ask Leo! - Messages deleted on HotMail: can I get them back somehow?
Article C2875 - December 19, 2006
What I don't understand are those companies that have their own domain, yet still use Hotmail, AOL, and Yahoo e-mail addresses.
I've seen more than one business card with "http://www.example.com" and "ExampleCom@aol.com"
Posted by: Ken at December 21, 2006 12:37 PMI agree with Ken. If you're connected you can have proper email addresses - usually 5 of them. The only thing I would suggest is that if you think you might change your ISP - which you probably will do sooner or later - use a service like bigfoot.com which redirects your mail to your current mailbox. If you change your ISP just change the redirection address at bigfoot and life goes on as usual. Bigfoot is free but if you go over the free limit it's only $10 per quarter. I wouldn't be without it.
Posted by: Ross at December 22, 2006 8:34 PMYou mentioned the extra expense of having email in a domain that you own.
What hosting service that hosts a web site - even a one pager - does NOT supply email accounts with the basic package? Even the hosting services that are under $10 per month (and there are many) provide at least a few email addresses with the service. I have NEVER seen a hosting company that doesn't.
At Merchant911.org, a free service for on-line merchants to help them protect against credit card fraud, we immediately reject any application that does not use an email within the domain being registered.
And, on a personal level, I will not do business with anyone that has a web site and uses any of the free email services. It's just totally unprofessional.
Posted by: Tom Mahoney at December 30, 2006 5:38 AMFunny I have a slightly different perception.
company@hotmail.com (or any other Hotmail/Windows Live International site) and company@yahoo.com look bad. company@msn.com means even worse, because they've paid for the priviledge of Hotmail's poor service, but company@gmail.com doesn't look so bad (to me personally).
Whilst I personally have had no trouble with any Hotmail or Windows Live server, and actually have not known many people who have trouble with those services, I do understand that this could be simply luck. Hotmail's customer service is very often pathetically formal and don't deal with the issue at hand. (They tell you their engineers are working on it... and they can't tell you when it will be fixed)
I have not heard of technial problems with GMail, and certainly email@company.com means that the company is prepared to pay for a reliable email service.
Posted by: Eli Coten at January 6, 2007 5:13 PMi ignore anything that pertains to business from a @hotmail.com or @yahoo.com
Posted by: autoprt at April 8, 2008 3:11 AMtoo many thieves located in foreign countries use these accounts to scam millions of Americans every year and i don't want to take chances.
The perception thing is great. I think it is good advice not to have an anyone @hotmail.com but the new live services are superior. In fact I no longer use my gmail acct because I prefer hotmail. On top of that there is email forwarding. Anyone remember that. I get all the emails whoever@scaleprogrammers.com AND i can change in hotmail the FROM to my email address. SO while I do agree about the perception, it is easily remedied.
Posted by: John Russo at June 3, 2008 4:34 AMI agree with the point about perception. Once a business has registered their domain name, they could sign up for Google Apps for Business at no cost. This will give them professional looking email addresses for all of their employees with a great, easy-to-use webmail interface. Best of both worlds!
03-Dec-2008
I agree wholeheartedly with everything above but I'm surprised no one has cautioned another, and equally important reason, for giving a wide berth to Hotmail and Yahoo! They are responsible, without doubt, for the vast majority of spam and, even worse, fraudulent activity via e-mail.
I know several companies who filter out all mail originating from a Hotmail or Yahoo! account. I don't go that far but scrutinise all such mail very carefully. I've also noticed, increasingly, e-mail originating from a bogus address but with a Hotmail or Yahoo! ReplyTo: address. Without exception, these are all engaged in some form of scam.
Finally, a business using a free e-mail service, particularly Hotmail or Yahoo!, is not conveying a professional image.
Posted by: Bill Chubb at December 9, 2008 9:28 AMBill Chubb is on my wavelength. Don't blanket ignore/delete Hotmail/Yahoo! but check VERY carefully.
Posted by: Linn Barringer at December 9, 2008 9:45 AMRegarding Autoport's comment (April 8) "...too many thieves located in foreign countries ... scam millions of Americans every year and i don't want to take chances."
You're absolutely right not to take chances. But I think you'll find that people in other countries take a very similar but subtly different view, viz. "Too many thieves located in America originate spam/scam emails to billions of the rest of the world."
Evidence/source: http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2004/12/sa_dirtydozenyear.html.
Yup. I've been telling my writers who seem to insist on using Yahoo! email for queries this same thing for years! Some of them even have their own domains and websites for their writing but still insist on using free email accounts! (Strangely, though, I don't seem to mind gmail accounts AS much. Shrug.)
Posted by: Michelle L Devon (Michy) at February 19, 2009 10:17 AM