GoFaxer Blog

I recently found an article online by Elizabeth Morgan that seemed totally out of date given the popularity of fax to email services.

She answers the question: What is a fax machine? Her answer:

“A fax machine, short for facsimile machine, basically sends and receives reproductions of a document through a telephone line.”

Of course, when this technology first came into use some 30 years ago, it was seen as an amazing new convenience. You could send someone a document across the world in minutes. But now, with the overwhelming dominance of email, fax technology can seem a bit quaint. But as Morgan suggests, “the fax machine is still essential in any office for instantaneous sharing of documents such as proofs, contracts and other documents.”

Consequently, innovative new businesses will want the convenience of their email while also being able to have a fax service. This is why fax to email services like GoFaxer are so popular. They allow you to be an internet based business, while being able to employ older technologies like fax.

Modern companies don’t even need to ask, “What’s a fax machine?” They don’t have to ask themselves whether to buy an inkjet fax machine or invest in a laser fax. The issue becomes mute with Internet fax.

It’s scary to consider, but we may be looking at a recession in the coming months. A recent article in Newsweek by Daniel Gross says:

Just two years ago, Wall Street economists spoke of a Goldilocks economy, in which everything was just right. These days, it’s the three bears. As of this week, the economists at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are all predicting a recession for 2008.

The last recession came in 2001 after the tech bubble burst, causing businesses to stop investing. Prior to that was in 1990 as a response to the commercial real estate/savings-and-loan implosion.

Home prices declined 6.1 percent in 2007, which makes economist and business people think that we’re facing our next big slowdown here shortly.

In this time of potential recession, companies need to be aggressive at cutting business costs. If your business hasn’t converted to fax to email, now is the time. It’s less expensive than using a fax machine and it will save you time. It’s also wonderfully convenient. You can send and receive a fax from anywhere that you have an Internet connection.

We hate to spread doom and gloom about the economy. One hopes that the slow-down will be short and minimal in scope. But regardless of the extent of the damage, now is the time to prepare with smart business decisions.

I prefer email. Most of the documents, messages, and conversations that I have within the work setting are usually done through email. Sometimes I’ll send an email to someone who sits right next to me in the office. It may seem easier to simply say hello and make the request in person, but then they might forget. I find that when I email a request, the person has that document in their inbox as a reminder. Whereas if I simply make the request over the phone or in person, they’re far more likely to forget. Most people seem to manage their to-do lists from their email inboxes.

So I’ve become very email savvy, but also dependent. I was recently working with a client outside of our office that wanted the document sent through fax. Now, I prefer email for everything, but I don’t have the right to tell my clients how to run their offices. If they want a fax, I have a responsibility, as part of doing good business, to provide them with the document they want in the format they want it in. and if they want it as a fax, I need to be able to do that for them.

This is where fax to email services by gofaxer comes in so handy. I can send them a fax, through my email. I get to do it the way I want to do it, and they get to receive the document the way that they want it.

With the use of fax to email, it’s easy to forget that the old rules of fax etiquette still apply. For example, it’s easy to forget that one still needs to send a cover sheet. So in that effort, let me remind you of these simple rules to remember the next time you send something out through fax.

Cover sheets should preferably be type written, but handwritten cover sheets are totally acceptable. Clearly delineate your name as the sender. Indicate the name of the person that you are sending the fax to. Your address, phone number, and email address are all very important to include.

This may seem fairly common sense, but make sure that you proofread the cover sheet and the document for typos, misspellings, or anything else that could be inappropriate.

In business, remember to use:

• Official letterhead
• Company stamped fax coversheets
• Well organized and formal email formats
• Well printed business cards with your logo and title

All of these small things communicate the quality of business that you run. God is in the details, and a professionally detailed faxed document can look divine.

Yesterday I was at the doctor’s office. They were doing a series of tests. The nurse jotted down the results of those tests on my paper work. When the doctor came to the waiting room to discuss the results of the tests he couldn’t find where they were written. He looked all over and finally discovered a percentage written and circled on my bill. He started laughing, asked me which nurse had written it on the report. He left the room. I could hear him in his main office outside teasing the nurse. All of the other nurses laughed.

I have no doubt that at some point that form was to be faxed to my insurance company. I’m glad that the doctor noticed this inaccuracy before it got sent. If that had been faxed to my insurance company I would have received a strange bill.

This made me realize the importance of checking all fax cover sheets, and faxed documents carefully before we send them. Even when you use fax to email services, it’s easy to do it quickly and not pay attention to the little details. So if you work in a doctor’s office, or are simply sending important business info, make sure your fax paper work is all inline before you hit the send button.

One time at work I was working with a hotel. We were trying to set up a cross promotion with them, and in order to even approach them, they required that a letter be faxed to their General Manager’s attention. Now, I’ll admit, I do everything electronically now, and don’t really like messing with a fax machine.

But I was thrilled to learn that I could simply send them the fax through our fax to email service. I simply created the letter digitally on my Microsoft Word program. And I then didn’t have to mess with the whole hassle of printing it up, etc. I could just send it from my regular email, but through their phone line and onto their fax machine, the way that they’ve specified.

In a world where technology is constantly changing, I love the new services like this that are being created, which cross different media methods to meet the individualized preferences of the user. If someone wants their document in email form they can get in email form. If someone wants it in paper form, they can get it faxed.

This cross over ability that we’re witnessing is really remarkable, and it makes my life much happier. Even if it saves me a few minutes trying to remember how to use a fax machine, my time is valuable and worth it.

One of my most negative first work experiences was learning how to use a fax machine.  I knew from the moment that I came into contact with that machine we would not be friends.  Do I put the page upside down or right side up?  Does the writing on the sheet need to face me or face the machine?  What number do I dial?  Do I have to dial 9 first?

And then when I did seem to get it right according to the long list of instructions posted on a white piece of paper above, I had to wait while it called the number.  Sometimes it would take several minutes to go through.

You can imagine my excitement when I realized that I no longer had to use that rotten machine anymore.  In my office I use fax to email, which in my opinion is one of the more important innovations in modern technology.  Now my computer is my fax machine, which I most definitely prefer.

I can do it from my seat.  No more waiting for the phone to ring.  It’s fast, convenient, and I don’t have to remember which side of the paper goes in first.  Yay!