Out of office and out of mind
The average business is terrible at responding to email, says Chris Crawshay
Crawshay: Business email etiquette is sorely lacking
If the customer is king, why do we deem it acceptable to leave senders of email hanging, never knowing whether their message has been received, or when they might get a response?
If we phone someone and cannot reach them the first time, we expect to be diverted to a mobile, or to be able to leave a message that will be responded to in a timely manner.
This experience is rarely mirrored in email, unless an individual has gone on holiday and remembered to activate an out-of-office message. Unless the recipient replies right away, the interaction may stop dead, which is not only frustrating for the sender but downright rude.
When people say, ‘sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner’ the sub-text is that they had more important matters to attend to and you were at the back of the queue.
Poor response-handling can have a direct financial impact, through poor customer service.
Dedicated contact or service centres tend to do better, in my opinion, using automated responses at least to acknowledge an email has been received, and usually with an indication of the window in which a reply might be expected.
The average staffer, however, does not extend the same courtesy. Until, or unless, they reply personally (assuming they are not away on extended leave and have set up an out-of-office notification), the sender will have no idea whether the message has even been received.
You can request a receipt via Microsoft Outlook, but such requests can be denied.
Where companies do use auto-responder facilities to acknowledge receipt of an email, they may be stock, look cold and dismissive, and add little information of value.
The auto-responder tool can be customised, to send out messages which vary by sender, recipient and context. A sophisticated rules engine can create automated responses that make senders feel respected and cared about.
Automated replies can mimic real Outlook responses using HTML, referring to the subject matter, and addressing the sender by name. This offers a much softer and positive experience than a blanket response that seems to say, ‘I’m not here and I won’t give you a moment’s thought until I’m back.’
Emails can also be automatically forwarded elsewhere.
The more global businesses become, the more of an issue this is. The informality of business email common in the UK does not sit well in other cultures, where a rapid, formal reply may be expected as a matter of politeness, even if it is a holiday.
Chris Crawshay is chief technical officer at Exclaimer