If someone contacts your company via email or phone, respond.

I know this sounds elementary, however, last week I was looking to hire a web design company and I was astounded at the number of companies who never returned my phone call or email.

James and I were talking about how this affects our perception of a company, and we shared tales of bad experiences about company sites without contact information and companies who insist on filtering people through online contact forms but who never respond to those email. It was quite the rant.

And then, over the email transom came this great tip from The Guerilla Marketing Association:

If somebody from among those 40 or 50 million people on the Internet takes the time and trouble to write to you, take the time to write back.

Designate people within your company to respond to various topics. Design your Web site to route e-mail to the appropriate person.

Internet experts say that rapid and certain response is probably the single most important factor for building a die-hard audience, just the kind you want.

So if you want to stand apart and generate positive feelings about your company, simply answer the phone and respond to emails.