To avoid these old issues as well as scary new ones, here are some tips. Follow these and your mail will get through and not be ignored and cast out or even worse, returned to you unopened. These tips apply to all envelopes and mailing labels that you use. * If possible do not use a PO Box address * Show your full street address (with PO Box if necessary) * Print telephone number and toll free number with return address * List your website and email address as part of return address * Use a postage meter for "real look" of business mail

We have been doing this all along here at my company. The whole point is to make your business as real, legitimate and easy to contact as possible. Not just to person you are mailing to, but to everyone who sees and handles your materials in transit. It's an inexpensive advertising method that could bring more sales.

SOS Factoid: Well labeled mail is not scary mail to anyone.

· Move fast. Speed is half battle won.

· Write tight. Just get to point and leave literature to Shakespeare.

· The jury is out on form letters. Some companies ban them outright. But they do come in handy when you're dealing with large volumes of same queries, over and over. My take: if you use a form letter, modify it to suit situation and add a personal touch.

· Use plain English, not jargon. Your customers don't care about ISPs, HTML and File Transfer Protocol. They just want to know what happened to their order of variegated widgets.

· Give a little bit extra. Amazon.com is a great example of this. Not only do they correct problem but they top it up with free shipping and a credit to say "we're sorry".

· Don't be afraid to say "I" in your letter and sign it with your own name. People want to know they're corresponding with a human being not an autoresponder.

· Once you've sent your message on its mission of mercy, there's one last but paramount detail. Follow up. Make a `pending' folder or whatever you want to call it. Visit that folder daily until you are 100% sure issue has been resolved and customer is in your pocket for rest of his or her natural life!

When you've done all of above, create one more folder on your inbox - folder where you'll save hundreds of e-mails you're going to receive from all your grateful customers. That folder might come in handy at your next salary review!