Email is now one of the fastest ways to gain or lose
potential customers.
Consider one of your employees is in a bad mood.
Someone emails them with a trivial question and they reply with a brash tone.
Do you think that the recipient will use your company.
On the internet
word travels fast. It takes me 3 minutes to send email to 50-100 people. Therefore
your company can lose 100 current or potential customers with the brash email
sent out by your employee. This can happen in a matter of minutes.
Speaking
from personal experience I sent out what I considered a helpful message concerning
a virus on the internet. One person thought it was quite annoying because they
knew that some of these messages are merely hoaxes. The message I received, without
a doubt, shot lightning bolts at me. What did I do? I apologized. I visited their
site to see what kind of business they were in and I new that if someone had ever
asked me to give them information about products relating to what they sold, I
would most likely say. Do not use "this company."
I find that it is
most helpful to search newsgroups for my company name to see if good or bad things
are being said about me. Try searching for Microsoft, Netscape or AOL in DejaNews
(http://www.dejanews.com) and see what results are presented to you.
Remember newsgroups are simply meeting places on the Internet where people exchange
information. Most people know that the best business comes from word of mouth
or "word of email."
Back to the story, After I sent my apology and received
a reply the next day stating that they was sorry for what they had said. Problem
solved. I now have no problem recommending that company to a friend. O
n some occasions a brash answer is responded to with a brash reply. Those are
the lucky ones. Be careful, there are many vindictive people who will reply to
brashness by breaking into your entire site and demonstrating how angry they are
with you. I cannot and will not try to break into someone's website, but people
who are more knowledgeable can and do.
However, because of the lack
of vocal inflection, gestures, and shared environment, email is not as rich a
communication method as a face-to-face or telephone conversation. Y
our
correspondent may have difficulty telling if you are serious or kidding, happy
or sad, frustrated or euphoric. Sarcasm is particularly dangerous to use in email.
Avoid sending email that might trigger an upsetting response from the
recipient. As moods, personalities and emotions are difficult to convey when using
email, symbols, referred to as "emoticons," have been developed to help communicate
feelings and show some personality when appropriate. For those not blessed with
literary flair, they can be an amusing way for even the wordsmith wary to add
warmth to their emails.
Symbol Translation
| : -) | smiley face/happy |
| 8-) | eye-glasses |
| :-| | indifference |
| :-e | disappointment |
| :-P | wry smile |
| :-! | foot
in mouth |
| :-& | tongue tied |
| ;-) | wink |
| :-O | yell |
| :-/ | perplexed
|
| :-> | devilish grin |
| :-Q | smoker |
| :-{ | mustache |
| :- | male |
| :-( | frown/sad |
| :-@ | scream |
| ;-} | leer |
| :-D | shock
or surprise |
| C=:-) | chef |
| d:-) | baseball
smiley |
| >- | female |
It
pays to be nice and it's not difficult.
Chris McClean Pertinent
Information Ltd. 2314 Richmond Rd, Victoria B.C. V8R 4R8, Canada http://www.pertinent.com
chris@pertinent.com | ph: 1-250-598-9102 | fax: 1-250-598-9109
