Apploigies but i just fancied a bit of a gripe really; why oh why do companies bother to have websites and email addresses when they don’t respond to enquires that are sent to them. I know this is a hardy perennial whinge by punters but you would hope that as we slip further in to the electronic age people would somehow have grasped the importance of emails to their business. In the last two weeks I have twice emailed (once via their online form and once from my personal email address) a stalking company about a training course / stalking package that they are currently offering on their website, I asked a couple of simple questions which could be answered in two sentences, but to date I have heard not a jot from them.
I have been of the customer of this company before including doing my DSC1, some stalking and purchasing items from them so it is not as is I’m some random person emailing them out of the blue. Neither are we talking about the nit and grit enquiry asking for that one special 4.3mm x 79.46mm bolt with a thread pitch altering between fine pitch and course pitch every 12.3 turns and made of belly button lint of the cross eyed Patagonian tree dwelling heffer-pig; I’m asking about a service that they are offering as part of their core business. Additionally if I was to book this package I would be spending over a grand with them (have to spend the wife’s money somehow).
Now some of you are probably thinking (if you have bothered to read this far), why don’t you ring them? They are possibly too busy to reply to your email, and you could get your answer quicker than it has taken you to write this post. And you are right, I could ring them; equally they could email me or even phone me (as my enquires included my mobile phone number), if they are scared of the technological age they could have a rummage in their filling cabinet and find my home address and put pen to paper for the real “human touch”.
So what’s my view of the situation? Well am I going to bother to chase after a company trying to force over a £1k’s into their sticky little mittens? Or should I share the wealth with some other companies and get some different experiences instead of worrying about their turnover? Let’s just say I won’t be emailing them a third time if they can’t be bothered to reply to either of my first two emails.
P.S I would like to say while this whinge was prompted by a stalking company, you do meet companies like this in all walks of life both in my private life and through work. Companies need to realise that in this day and age an enquiry by email should be seen as no less important as an enquiry by phone of a customer walking into a shop; in this economic climate all are important and failure to respond to any of them will hit your bottom line for a long time. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently” (Warren Buffett)
Simon
I have been of the customer of this company before including doing my DSC1, some stalking and purchasing items from them so it is not as is I’m some random person emailing them out of the blue. Neither are we talking about the nit and grit enquiry asking for that one special 4.3mm x 79.46mm bolt with a thread pitch altering between fine pitch and course pitch every 12.3 turns and made of belly button lint of the cross eyed Patagonian tree dwelling heffer-pig; I’m asking about a service that they are offering as part of their core business. Additionally if I was to book this package I would be spending over a grand with them (have to spend the wife’s money somehow).
Now some of you are probably thinking (if you have bothered to read this far), why don’t you ring them? They are possibly too busy to reply to your email, and you could get your answer quicker than it has taken you to write this post. And you are right, I could ring them; equally they could email me or even phone me (as my enquires included my mobile phone number), if they are scared of the technological age they could have a rummage in their filling cabinet and find my home address and put pen to paper for the real “human touch”.
So what’s my view of the situation? Well am I going to bother to chase after a company trying to force over a £1k’s into their sticky little mittens? Or should I share the wealth with some other companies and get some different experiences instead of worrying about their turnover? Let’s just say I won’t be emailing them a third time if they can’t be bothered to reply to either of my first two emails.
P.S I would like to say while this whinge was prompted by a stalking company, you do meet companies like this in all walks of life both in my private life and through work. Companies need to realise that in this day and age an enquiry by email should be seen as no less important as an enquiry by phone of a customer walking into a shop; in this economic climate all are important and failure to respond to any of them will hit your bottom line for a long time. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently” (Warren Buffett)
Simon