How do you address people who did not provide a name in an email.

[jecasc]

We often get enquiries by email without name or any hint about the sender. How do you adress those when you write an answer?

Simply "Hi", or "Dear customer" - but they aren't customers yet. "Hello potential buyer"?
Dear Sir or Madam? Sounds a little formal. Any ideas?

[kaled]

I never address emails to anyone - the reader usually knows who they are so what's the point? Emails aren't letters - I don't put my address at the top nor do I sign them with ink!

Kaled.

[engine]

Working with lists that have some giving a name and some not, or even just an initial, can prove messy without consistency.

If it's business to business, in most cases, i've used a generic term such as Colleague.

[caribguy]

I always address emails, unless they're part of a long conversation or I already have an ongoing relationship with the recipient.

When a sender is too lazy to use common courtesy and sign their name, I often use their email handle - the part in front of the @ sign. When the email comes from a registered user of my sites, I generally try to look up their name in the user database.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Hi. :)

If it's business to business, in most cases, i've used a generic term such as Colleague.

Regarding the above, I see this as being too familiar and I don't like it when people I don't know address me as "friend" or "Colleague".

Perhaps you should use what you prefer to see yourself because you are never going to please everyone.

Ignoring the address can seem abrupt at times but if you start with a polite acknowledgement like "Thank you for your enquiry" that should cover it.

[jecasc]

Perhaps you should use what you prefer to see yourself?

I never write emails without giving my full name, so usually the replies I receive are addressed to me.

We only do B2C, so it's usually an enquiry about one of our products. The general rule we use is to always fully address our customers even if the request is only a one-liner like "do you ship to the UK". Even if I feel tempted sometimes to simply type in: "Yes" and click on submit.

[anand84]

Quite a timely thread considering that Yahoo just recently sent me an email titled 'Dear Advertiser' though they know my name. It felt kind of strange that Yahoo didn't want to connect better with me.

Having said that, yes none of those Dears and Hellos work good enough. Probably a 'Hello there' or a 'Hello' could be used - They are not casual, but not too formal either.

[phranque]

greetings:

...

[Old_Honky]

It depends on how they've addressed me.
if they just say Hi so do I, likewise Dear Sirs etc., the ones who just go straight into it get a similar reply. The very few aggressive ones who start off with Dear @rsewipe or worse get one of my standard Dear Moron we don't want you as a customer because you lack manners and common courtesy.. replies.

[Propools]

I'll generally reply back but with somewhat of a cautious tone.
But then I do always put my full salutation at the end of the email.
This way, they will see that they aren't blindly sending off an email to some place. This helps to build a level of comfort.