The Web is not mature enough to safely satisfy the desires of Christmas shoppers, or threaten the bottom lines of traditional merchants. In fact, local businesses should be acting out of enlightened self interest by letting shoppers know just how bad Net shopping could be this year. CStation has stepped up to the challenge by sending news releases to The Elkhart Truth, The Goshen News, The Paper, and The South Bend Tribune, reporting in detail why shopping at home is a better idea than taking to the Net. The good news about e-mail is that it's simple to use and basically cost almost nothing to operate. The bad news is that far too many businesses pay more attention to emptying the office trash than their e-mail operations.
Nothing angers a web user more than to wait three or four days for an e-mail reply.
E-mail messages should be checked three or four times a day and answered within hours. Net users expect that kind of attention. And if they don't get it, you won't get their business. Promote your email address every place you can. Some newspapers now forbid companies to put e-mail and web addresses in the advertising of those businesses.