email address?

[tacks]

What email account would be appropriate for a licensed tax/accounting professional? Would Gmail be OK?

Someone advised me that my yahoo email account looked totally unprofessional. So i did not give it out. But then my clients complained of not being able to reach me via verizon email. So i just started using Yahoo anyway because at least it would accept emails from people -- emails from clients didn't get bounced back.

Any thoughts?


Again, great forum. Very happy to be a member.

[Zee]

What email account would be appropriate for a licensed tax/accounting professional? Would Gmail be OK?

Someone advised me that my yahoo email account looked totally unprofessional. So i did not give it out. But then my clients complained of not being able to reach me via verizon email. So i just started using Yahoo anyway because at least it would accept emails from people -- emails from clients didn't get bounced back.

Any thoughts?


Again, great forum. Very happy to be a member.

email is email. How does AOL, or any other make it more professional. I use Gmail, and it's features make it very helpful, and you can also use gmail with outlook and sync with your phone, etc. (just like all others). Their spam feature is excellent, and blocks most everything.

[jimmcg]

[QUOTE=tacks;87326]What email account would be appropriate for a licensed tax/accounting professional? Would Gmail be OK?

Someone advised me that my yahoo email account looked totally unprofessional. So i did not give it out. But then my clients complained of not being able to reach me via verizon email. So i just started using Yahoo anyway because at least it would accept emails from people -- emails from clients didn't get bounced back.

Any thoughts?


Again, great forum. Very happy to be a member.[/QUOT


We need to impress upon our clients that the Service never communicates directly with a taxpayer via email. Only via USPS or in the rare case of a CID "visit" in which case they will have gold badges and ID cards and probably be "packing."

[Lion]

Email

Do you collect email addresses of your clients? What do most of them use? Especially, your business clients and other business contacts. You might find that your ISP allows aliases, so that YOU@aol.com can appear to be YOU@YOURCOMPANY.com to the senders. Or, if you already have a website, then see if they include an email account in your fee. Mine does. I'm ME@MYCOMPANY.com for business. I still have ME@optimumonline with my ISP, but it's forwarded to MYCOMPANY. That way, I check only one set of emails, but I can still tell if I gave out my email in a business context or personal. As long as you respond to your clients, they won't care what you were called.

[taxmandan]

Don't use a free email account

I use an account at: www.netaddress.com It costs $40 per year and has excellent spam protections and plenty of storage. I really like the tag on it: XXXX@usa.net It's easy to say and spell.

taxmandan@usa.net

[JohnH]

What email account would be appropriate for a licensed tax/accounting professional? Would Gmail be OK?

Someone advised me that my yahoo email account looked totally unprofessional. So i did not give it out. But then my clients complained of not being able to reach me via verizon email. So i just started using Yahoo anyway because at least it would accept emails from people -- emails from clients didn't get bounced back.

Any thoughts?


Again, great forum. Very happy to be a member.

I use Prodigy.net (Now AT&T/Yahoo), and if a client told me my email account looks unprofessional I'd probably tell them they have too much time on their hands. Besides, the important part of email is what's in the body of the email, not all the fluff on the screen.

Just curious, does the client who told you this happen to have a dog in the fight? Maybe they stand to make some money by selling you some sort of redesign or they get a months free service if they get you to switch to whatever they use?

[ChEAr$]

If

I couldn't use the excellent email account I now have with bellsouth.net (actually it's AT&T
these days but for now they've retained the bellsouth.net domain), I would go to gmail
I think. Agree that "yahoo" sounds unprofessional, maybe not to computer savy people
like ourselves, but to clients who don't know no better.....!

Lion I think asked if we collect email addresses of clients and how we use them. I do,
and send those clients a periodic; no, make that sporadic, newsletter when I have something to say or there's new tax law they need to know about now. For instance
that new blurb by IRS on how to rollover a 2009 IRA distribution already taken way back
in January.

[ChEAr$]

I use Prodigy.net (Now AT&T/Yahoo), and if a client told me my email account looks unprofessional I'd probably tell them they have too much time on their hands. Besides, the important part of email is what's in the body of the email, not all the fluff on the screen.

What's that? Prodigy is STILL around?

I remember good old *P* back in the early 1990's. It was that tax board where I got my
feet wet with a group of tax people later to be known as "The Tax Gang". We had
PA's, CPA's, EA's, laypeople, volunteers, even an IRS person in forms at national office;
also some retired IRS types.

Ah yes. But then, "nostalgia just ain't what it used to be!"

[JohnH]

Harlan: I was on that board as well. Remember Julian Block? I have a copy of his 1996 book which he signed for me when I bought it. Did you ever participate in the Thursday evening forums when people would sign in and ask questions in real time? Prodigy is still around in name only - it's still used in email addresses. But it was absorbed by SBC, then AT&T, & then somehow combined with Yahoo.

[ChEAr$]

[QUOTE=JohnH;87341]Harlan: I was on that board as well. Remember Julian Block? I have a copy of his 1996 book which he signed for me when I bought it. Did you ever participate in the Thursday evening forums when people would sign in and ask questions in real time? Prodigy is still around in name only - it's still used in email addresses. But it was absorbed by SBC, then AT&T, & then somehow combined with Yahoo.[/QUOTE

Really? Well I'll swan!

I also had a copy of his book, which I won at the first Tax Gang Convention in St Louis.
That was in... oh... about 1993? Do you remember when we had it? And what moniker
did you use on that old *P* board?

[erchess]

unprofessional email address

I have been told and believe that it is important for a business to have an email address whose domain indicates that it is a paid address rather than a free one. I have no idea whether Yahoo or GMAIL measured up to this standard. I do not personally think that either of those names is inherently unprofessional. I do know that I do not use my MSN email address for business purposes because some MSN addresses are free just as I believe all Hotmail addresses are free.

It's just that to my mind you're not an established and probably not even a serious business if you have to use a free email account.

[Zee]

I have been told and believe that it is important for a business to have an email address whose domain indicates that it is a paid address rather than a free one. I have no idea whether Yahoo or GMAIL measured up to this standard. I do not personally think that either of those names is inherently unprofessional. I do know that I do not use my MSN email address for business purposes because some MSN addresses are free just as I believe all Hotmail addresses are free.

It's just that to my mind you're not an established and probably not even a serious business if you have to use a free email account.

Nothing is really "free" any more. I'm not sure how gmail makes their money, but user's certainly must contribute an intangible of some kind.

I don't think the negativity of "free" email any longer applies. There are many larger businesses using gmail. Why? It's reliable.

[geekgirldany]

I still use my mindspring.com account and I have a business email also. Yep still have it from before Earthlink bought them out. I haven't had anyone say a thing about it. But I do use the business email for receiving files and I do give it to my new customers. I have a short biz email address so they can spell it out easily.

Also on Gmail they do make money. Through advertising. I believe you receive around 25% advertising in emails. Also not to freak anyone out but they are tracking our social patterns which is worth alot to advertisers.

[tacks]

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who's posted on this thread. Lots of good stuff.

[tacks]

What email account would be appropriate for a licensed tax/accounting professional? Would Gmail be OK?

Someone advised me that my yahoo email account looked totally unprofessional.

...and if a client told me my email account looks unprofessional I'd probably tell them they have too much time on their hands. Besides, the important part of email is what's in the body of the email, not all the fluff on the screen.

John, you make excellent points which i strongly agree with! I NEVER hesitate to use yahoo for existing clients. Over time most of my clients come to realize i provide excellent service at a very reasonable price. (Again, it's the issue several of my competitors being very very bad. And after doing what i've done i question why anyone would use anyone else.)

I'm more concerned with the image i present to potential clients.

And it wasn't a client that told me yahoo was unprofessional rather it was another business person.

But then my clients complained of not being able to reach me via verizon email. So i just started using Yahoo anyway because at least it would accept emails from people -- emails from clients didn't get bounced back.

Just curious, does the client who told you this happen to have a dog in the fight? Maybe they stand to make some money by selling you some sort of redesign or they get a months free service if they get you to switch to whatever they use?

Some of those that complained were elderly volunteers at a church's finance department. So i believe them to be sincere about having problems with my verizon email account.

All the same, thanks for asking.