For a long time, I have been noticing the -- sometimes appalling -- way that people write emails. Too many do not bother to check their writing before sending out their emails. We see that in personal emails, business emails and on internet forums. The worst offenders being sales letters that are full of errors! And, more and more, we see this sloppiness in the correspondence of tech support groups who are front end customer service representatives! Too common in the virtual office... Ok, small typos are understandable. We all make them. But BIG typos, one after another, along the whole string of e-conversations can be very unpleasant to say the least, and do not express a demonstration of customer appreciation nor professionalism. Imagine standing in a real time face-to-face discussion and the person you're conversing with stumbles at every other word, stringing together a couple of words at regular intervals, skipping pronouns and endings, and leaving off whole consonants and prepositions... ... and you had to put up with several of these communicators in your place of business within the inter-personal activities of management, customers and suppliers day after day. How would that feel? What would it say about those people you're communicating with? Well, this happens all the time in the virtual office! Hard to take in Customer Service... And it covers all spectra of email correspondents. But I wrote a report that covers specifically the writing of those in the profession of tech support who are as I already mentioned, front-end customer service representatives. Just recently, I've come across a whole number of these e-communications while working with several technical support groups at various e-service establishments. These are million-dollar outfits. And I'm one of their *treasured* customers. I show an on-going dialogue on an issue where, after several email exchanges, the tech support person 'suddenly' realized that I 'was an affiliate' and therefore had been giving me the wrong information all along -- but I had told him right at the top that I *was* an affiliate. Sends the wrong message... And of course there are the bad spelling and grammar items in all of these correspondence matters. Howbeit not reserved for tech support people only. But certainly shared by them as well. As some experts have said, poor spelling and grammar show a lack of attention and sends the wrong message about how people do business. There are more examples of tech support emails in my full Report. Like the two totally different answers to the same question that came from two tech support people from the same tech support department. And the one where the tech support person totally lost the issue at hand, after several emails, and apologized profusely to the customer for "misreading" her email when, in fact, he hadn't! 3 Steps to Better Email Writing... And, of course, all that happening with a good doze of typos. The Report shows it like it is, but also provides solutions in a simple 3 Steps to Better Email Writing discussions, and some links to excellent web sites on the subject loaded with articles and tips. Read the full, no cost, no obligation, 12-page Report which includes 3 Steps to Better Email Writing at http://www.build-your-internet-business-now.com/tech-support-email.html (copy and paste from here) /end of article. This article may be re-printed provided no changes are made and the enclosed bio and web site contact information are included. Courtesy copy of your publication sent to dhoffm@hofron.com would be appreciated. Diane M. Hoffmann (c) 2004. |
