Providers often list email in their contact info on the ad.  And when they don't mention a prefered contact method, I often email them.  My dilemma is that many of them never reply to the email.
Even 2 well established providers that I have emailed on ter, never replied.

My email:
Hello,
I'm _______.  Your ad looked great, and you seem like the type of woman I'd like to spend some time with.  Do you have any reviews?
(depending on the ad, I will sometimes include ter handle or P411 id, etc.

Is there a different approach?  Thx for your ensuing humor.

you've already found her reviews and decided you're sure you want to make an appt. for a specific time and date.

You do realize that the ladies receive more than just your email inquiry each day?

You aren't indicating that you want to meet on such and such day/time...rather looking for more info that, if I read your post correctly, is already available on TER ("Even 2 well established providers that I have emailed on ter, never replied").  Hence the time waster email that these gals get an awful lot of.

Try and sending those gals inquiries about dates, times and such and I would expect your ratio of contact vs ignoring will go up

Like the others have said, from your email you provided there is nothing that says you are actually interested in meeting... So you get no replies.

First, do your homework and research before you contact them.  Find their reviews, know what screening information they need, know that you want to see her.

Then send an email requesting a visit on a date and time for the length of time you want to see her.  Provide your screening info up front....

Do this and you should have better results.

thanks for the input so far - i didn't get into all the details but i have requested times & dates for meeting (of the ter reviewed providers).  but the rest - (on eros) & w/o any ter reviews - i simply asked if they had reviews & did not schedule time & date.  i will adjust my intro email & see if the stats change.

Sometimes our inboxes just get really full and we don't have time to get through them all.  You can always send a followup email just in case the last one was overlooked.  Also, sometimes some of my emails get sent to my spam folder which I rarely check.

Include some details about who you are, i.e age, what you do for living etc. A link to an online picture/video of you would be very much appreciated. With this approach, the ladies have always thanked me since it takes a lot of stress out of meeting someone out of the blue !

Either your email went into the Spam Folder and she never received it,you could try re-sending,or they see you as a time waster.Every lady is different on how they will respond or if they will even respond back to you but if many of your emails are not being answered I would try a different approach.I would suggest that you do your research and see if she has reviews if so I would not mention that in a introductory email.If she does not and you have researched I would ask if she could send you a link to her reviews or the site where you can find them.
Sample:
Hello(insert whatever her name is)
I saw your ad and you are someone I would love to spend some time with.You can say something about her pics like you said you look great or something along those lines.I am a P411 member here is info, TER member here is my handle.Introduce yourself tell her a little about you does not have to be long but just an intro to let her know who you are.Provide the required info she requests for appts like reference info and links to the ladies ads and/or websites.Provide the date or dates you would like to schedule an appointment,the time,and length of appointment.

If you do this I am sure you will get a lot more replies than the emails you are currently sending out.Some might perceive your emails as a waste of time just depends on the lady.
Just my .02 from a provider
Good luck!

-- Modified on 6/29/2011 12:00:21 PM

-- Modified on 6/29/2011 12:16:27 PM

IMHO, these posters and any providers that agree with them are missing something of fundamental importance.  All of the replies so far convey admonitions of the OP.   Let us not forget that providers are selling something.  In any other field selling a product or service, anyone that is successful holds certain tenants as important.  First and foremost is "the customer is always right".  I am often completely floored by the absolute immaturity and sometimes pure bitchiness of some providers if I ask them for anything more than a specific date and time.  The replies so far seem to condone this, but I say, fucking-bullshit!  Furthermore, the real pros out there, the ones all of respect and love to meet with, would have no problem whatsoever with responding to this sort of inquiry.

In my opinion, the OP's sample inquiry should only be considered inappropriate if he hasn't already done whatever homework he can to answer the questions on his own.  If a provider doesn't have the maturity and business acumen to respond to fair and polite inquiries, they should be blown off by anyone other than those of us that are experienced enough to accept a high probability of a negative experience to TOFTT.

I have had this problem with this too.  I really would prefer txt or emailing for initial contact but so many won't do that. I've also been told - I don't have a computer.  Sometimes it's just a pure money problem and they have someone else doing their posts.  But I agree with another poster who said - if it were ME in business I'd take texts, emails, and phone#s - whatever.  

Thanks for tip about linking to picture, video or handle.  It does scare me that such info "gets out" somehow.  Every time I've sent a photo it seems to be ignored like "why are you sending your photo?" so I decided maybe I shouldn't take the security risk.

I absolutely agree with your premise...but this is not a real business (as so many of the gals have told us in not so few words).  This is the "hobby"..and it is unlike any service business that I have ever seen.  And many of the gals have no formal training in "customer service", because if they did they wouldn't be here doing this (IMHO) in many cases.

I'm sure you know some gals relatively well (given the number of reviews you have) and could probably agree that the inquiries they get, in many cases, are time wasters.  At least, in my discussions with quite a few that seems to be the concensus.

And frankly, in my business, I wouldn't respond to somebody sending me an inquiry such as "How much for a tax return?".  Should this question deserve a reply?  You seem to think so, but I don't agree.  This is just a guy/gal looking for a price, and I don't do MY business that way.  And I do believe that a number of "quality" ladies share that thought.  If somebody is really a potential customer I have no issues spending some time with that potential customer.  But having been down that road over the years, it is pretty easy to identify the serious buyer from the "time waster".

First, I'd give a time frame for the date, whether it's next week, or two or three days from now.  And I always include my screening info, the way you say you sometimes do.  Willingness to give your information is a strong indication of seriousness.  I'd say, try again.

I've had the same thing happen to me and I have just about given up on emailing them unless that's all they have posted.

I have used Appointment Reguest (or something similar) in the subject and included the proposed date and time and I get nada.

Forget email.  In my experience it doesn't work for a first time introduction.

Personally, I would never not respond to an inquiry such as the one you mentioned regarding your CPA services.  I might be brief, but I would at least respond with something like:  "I provide quality, personal attention to all returns.  The price varies significantly depending on complexity. I'd be happy to set up a meeting to discuss this at your convenience."

You are probably correct in pointing out that the reason that many of these ladies are in this profession is that they are too immature or otherwise challenged to be in other fields.  That is why TER is such a great service.  In many of even these cases, it gets us past this barrier, once someone has TOFTT.

At least 90% of the initial contact emails I get are more or less exactly what you say you send. The only notable exception is that I don't get asked about my reviews so I assume since I point people to them that they have already seen them.

Few people in their initial email to me specify a date / time and even fewer do that along with providing reference information. Does that make it easier? Of course it does but it's not the norm; at least not for the guys who contact me.

I treat these emails more or less the same way every time - I ask when they have in mind if it wasn't specified and I ask about references if they weren't offered. The way I see it, if someone has seen my posts, reviewed my site  etc and wants to try and setup an appointment I'm going to try and make that happen.

All I can say is, e-mail has worked well for me.  I think it depends on the lady.  If she's established, with a web site, it's likely she'll respond.  I have also done it through P411, and their e-mail notification system works well.

BOTH OF YOU are condescending ......

Lina

"many of these ladies are in this profession is that they are too immature or otherwise challenged to be in other fields. "

Or if you did say it you meant  "few".

OP may be or may be not a time waster, but you Sir are condescending .....

Lina

Then again I always put my full name and screening information in my emails, plus I state the time, day, and length I am looking to book. But then I do my homework and screen the ladies I book long before I contact them.

95% response rate is much better then any other way of contacting them.

It is my preferred method to make first contact. The only diffrence is, I don't get into specifics and do not mention anything remotely connected to the hobby. It goes something like "I came across your information and I am interested in making an appointment and say something about myself in very general terms. I gotten replies all the time, as a matter fact can't remember an instance where I haven't got reply. Beaides, if I don't get a reply, I generally forget and move on.

Many people forget today that email is not a guaranteed delivery system. As mentioned above some ladies get flooded with email and quickly check for what appears to be serious inquiries first. Also beside personal spam filtering many ISP's filter spam also. I remember trying to explain to my SO why a group she wanted to communicate with happened to used a noted 90% spam site as a mailing site and our ISP blocked all mail from that site.  If its really important and you don't get a reply then communicate again or by other means. Remember also that unlike major business that usually have more then one person addressing email many independent ladies are juggling appointments, a regular life and responding to emails. If she gets lots of requests then you need to stand out as a serious request.

By the way, if you are provider and you are using email, you should look at your spam folder. Depending on how you have set up your spam filter, most of the enquiries are going to end up in spam folder. Doesn't make whole lot of sense.

I was merely concurring with the following from the prior post:

" And many of the gals have no formal training in "customer service", because if they did they wouldn't be here doing this (IMHO) in many cases."

Also, I was drawing a distinction to the true professionals among providers and those that become offended by any question beyond "can we meet in one hour".  Go back and read all I wrote, and try not to get offended when no offense is meant.

It totally depends on the provider.  I try to respect each providers preference on this.  For instance, I absolutely hate text messaging, but I obtained a keyboard hobby phone, just because some providers prefer it over other forms of communication.

Lina,

Don't fret. I'm sure he's referring to many of the ladies that he's had an interaction with. Anything besides that would be quite fallacious.

xox
Colette

My response to those type of emails is always:
Hello so&so
Please feel free to let me know what day, time & what type of session you'd like.
Thank you ..
If its an "are you available? " & nothing else I will not respond.
That's too vague.

If she has any, she'll expect that you have already read them.  It wouldn't surprise me if some ladies considered you to be a time waster, or even LE, since asking about reviews may be construed by some as discussing potential activities.  Also, I will provide the lady with my occupation, and a general physical description of myself in addition to references, the last of which you stated you didn't always provide initially as well.  Since I almost always hear back from them positively, it seems that my way of setting things into motion works.  I noticed also that you stated that the two well established ladies were contacted via TER PM's?  I've found, and been told by several ladies, that they usually respond faster to e-mails sent to the e-mail addy's listed on their website than to PM's, and it wouldn't surprise me if some declined to make appointments that way unless they already know you.

One last thing, and it circles back to you asking about reviews:  If you can't find any (common if you're using sites such as Eros as your primary resource), unless you like TOFTT or trust reviews on other websites, you obviously have no idea what to expect.  Not the best way to hobby if you ask me...

It crosses my mind that they have a "mental list" of potential problem contacts that they want to avoid, and this is in no particular order:

- LE
- Future stalker
- Safety issue
- Time-waster

I think a guy's initial contact needs to include information that will neutralize concerns about the above.  Those are the ones that get responses, I believe.