Just imagine your MD or CEO sending you an email instruction and you ignore it or respond 72 hours later?  What do you think their reaction may be? Yet, it appears to be acceptable to treat customers this way! 

Today, email response technology platforms are well proven, readily available and demonstrably delivering world class service - you need only look at how service led companies like Tesco and Argos are rising to the challenge. Proven solutions that can have payback in months! So why are organisations not taking this challenge seriously?

Here at numéro, we believe this approach is more to do with apathy and ignorance rather than a desire to excel.

Recently, executives of two of our major clients made me pause for thought, why? They assumed that all organisations today are concerned about service and really do care. They even thought that their competitors’ had this attitude. The same competitors who we see regular advertising on TV, at football matches or at Formula 1 events that are guilty of these service failings to which we refer.  It is even rumoured that one of these big named Brands has been so overwhelmed by inbound customer enquiries (and complaints) that it simply turned off the email communication channel! Look no more complaints - we have achieved our service targets! Um?

However executive teams do not appear to be worried? If consumer correspondence is being deleted how can they be sure their organisations comply with regulatory standards? How can they demonstrate process conformance, regulatory control or even the ability to audit their processes? Surely their stake holders would be alarmed if they really understood these practices were occurring.

A recent article in Computer Active based on fifty top UK customer service organisations showed that over half of them either failed to respond or took up to 7 days to reply to a customer enquiry via email. So, in a time when our business leaders talk endlessly about their desire to delight their customers with a “common customer experience” - why is this communication channel so poorly served?

Email is perhaps the easiest form of direct communication for the customer. Access is increasingly available, there are no queues or frustrating automated telephone systems to navigate; and like a letter, the customer has a permanent record of the transaction.

So why are businesses not leading their customers towards this channel? It is far easier for the customer and if managed properly, more economic for the organisation. Is it that they don’t know how to implement or manage this channel? Bizarre, when you think what the number one communication process within these organisations is likely to be!

We would like to thank Peter Motley of Marketing Crew, petermotley@marketingcrew.co.uk, for his contribution to this article.