One of the many things that bothers me in this day and age is the amount of businesses/services/individuals who accept email as a form of contact yet completely ignore or delay using it.
9 times out of 10 any website that you visit will have a contact section in some shape or form that will either have an email address or contact form encouraging you to get in contact if you have any questions or queries.
However, what I have found when using this method is that I get completely ignored or forgotten about. If that isn’t the case, then waiting 3-7 days for a response isn’t uncommon either.
For an example, late last month I went looking for a WiFI extender for a friends motherboard. I thought what I found to be a decent product on a fairly well known NZ tech website. Not knowing the motherboard properly or knowing if the extender would fit, I hit the large ‘ENQUIRE’ button in the middle of the web page and asked if they were compatible. I sent that email on the 24th March at 9:46am. I got a reply on the 27th at 19:58. Three and a half days later. This from a store who is actually dedicated to computers.
Being in IT and using email as my main form of contact everyday this frustrates me to no end and will usually result in me taking my business elsewhere (which in this case I did).
What I don’t understand is, why is this the case? Technology is now almost everywhere and with the likes of smartphones and tablets email really is at your fingertips. I can understand that people are busy and not all businesses involve having someone sitting in front of a computer all day, but how hard is it to either send a quick reply saying ‘We’ll get back to you by the end of the day’ or even something as simple as flagging it to give yourself a note so that when you are next in front of a PC you know to email back.
Likewise, if you have dedicated call staff or in a shop-front (who usually have computers in front of them) why not have them set up with email in order to respond directly.
At the end of the day if I walked into a store front or rung directly I wouldn’t be ignored and I wouldn’t be waiting a week for a response. So, if you do use email as a form of contact, USE IT!
Do you agree? Not agree? Or just have a general opinion then feel free to comment, or hit me up on twitter @JAGracie