A deeper dive into an email service failure
Jeff Toister
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post detailing a service failure I experienced via email. I had contacted the office that runs the indoor soccer league I play in to get my team’s schedule for the upcoming season. My blog post summarized the exchange and offered an analysis of what went wrong along with some tips for improving responses to customer service email.
What happened next was an unexpected surprise. A colleague emailed to point out what I could have done as a customer to receive better service. Over the next few weeks, I showed it to participants in several of my customer service classes and they had similar observations. (You can read the original post here and see if you can spot what I could have done better.)
A small misunderstanding
Many email service failures start with a small misunderstanding. The customer doesn’t provide enough detail in their email or perhaps explains the problem poorly and then the customer service rep misinterprets what the customer is looking for.
Of course, you can’t put the onus on your customers to improve their communication. What you can do is take the time to read each email and ensure you fully understand what’s being asked before responding.
Unseen pressures that lead to poor emailing
The big question then is why don’t people take more time to read and understand emails before responding? We know that these small misunderstandings can lead to unnecessary back and forth, wasted time, and ultimately customer aggravation. So why don’t companies do more to fix it?
With the help of several participants in my training classes, I was able to put together a list of possible reasons why people don’t take enough time to properly respond to customer service emails.
- Yabba Dabba Do. It’s late in the day and their brain has already clocked out.
- Time crunch. They are rushing to get through a mountain of email.
- Text happy. They learned all their emailing skills from text messaging.
- Distractions. They are too distracted to give the email their full attention.
- Reading skills. Their reading comprehension is less than what it needs to be.
I’m sure this is only a partial list of reasons why customer service reps don’t often take the time to see past small misunderstands and figure out what their customers really want. What other reasons would you add to the list?
Reader Comments (6)
Jeff, your post here goes to the core of what's needed for *any* request - whether by email or in person - to be successful. The weird thing is how startlingly difficult it is to remember these things. I mean, I teach this stuff and live by it day in and day out, yet I still keep forgetting my own guidelines!
Here's the thing: any request needs to be complete. It needs to contain everything that the recipient will need in order to fulfill your request.
That means a clear statement of what you need, of course. But it also means some background, or the "why" behind the "what." For instance, if in your example you'd explained why you wanted the schedule (so you could post the games you're playing in into your calendar, for instance), you might have avoided going through the email loops you describe.
It also means a statement of when you need a response. In your case, this was less important - but how many times have we all made a time-sensitive request, only to hear nothing back ... and get frustrated? (This might be a partial solution, by the way, to your other posts about how quickly we expect email replies!)
If I explain that I need something by the end of the day on Friday, that gives the recipient a chance to either relax (if s/he thought you meant RIGHT NOW!), or to say, whoops, sorry, I can't get to it by then, will next Monday work? ... or to simply fulfill the request within the time frame I specified.
So without going on and on any longer, there are three basic needs in any request, all of which have to be addressed by the requestor:
1. WHAT, exactly, is needed?
2. WHY is it needed? (The purpose of the request can often change the answer/response.)
3. BY WHEN is it needed?
As you say, the customer can't be expected to know these things. But if the customer service rep understands these three factors and sees anything missing, they can then ask the appropriate questions that will lead to a more complete and responsive reply.
Jeff, your post raises some excellent points, as does Grace's comment.
From participants in my business email writing classes, it seems like the biggest reason for not reading emails carefully is information overload. It gets worse during crunch time, of course, but even when people aren't rushed, they're wading through lots of emails.
One of the things I stress in my trainings is making it as easy on the reader as possible: for instance, organizing longer emails for readability by using lists, bullets, or headings. A good, descriptive subject line is also crucial to make it through "email triage."
Excellent points by everyone. I agree 100%. I always say jokingly (and 1/2 serious) that people don't read. We are always so rushed. Work overload in the past few years has increased and people are averaging over 100 emails per day. So overload is a very real problem. The other is what Grace brings up - we don't always get the WHAT, the WHY, and the WHEN. Jeff teaches about cutting down on email simply by providing all the needed info at 1 time. If we stop "talking" through email, that cuts down on a lot of it. That's wishful thinking on my part though!
Thanks for the thought provoking blog today Jeff - it's nice to take a few minutes to think about why things happen the way they do.
Grace - thanks for providing a wonderfully simple framework. Yes, "What (exactly), Why, and When" is a simple & effective reminder.
Of course, you, Alisa, and Nancy all point out how hard it is to stick to these basics, especially when we're rushed. Thanks for the terrific comments.
And of course we all believe that time pressures are the factor when we don't take the time to craft our request carefully and thoughtfully.
But doesn't it SAVE time in the long run, when we don't have to fire emails back and forth and try to figure out what's really going on, not to mention getting annoyed at the confusion?
Just a thought. :-)
Grace -- you make a solid, rational point that we can save time by taking our time to do things right. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on how other factors often override our rational brain and prevent us from following common-sense advice like yours.