New developments in customer relationship management
By Gillian Kerr, RealWorld Systems
The information in this article is current as of June 7, 2003.
E-mail is the most common activity of those online in Canada. In a summary
of a 2001 Ipsos-Reid survey, CyberAtlas
reported that e-mail was accessed several times a week by 88% of online
Canadians, and daily by 62%. The average user received 22 messages per day.
It's likely that the numbers are higher now.
(By the way, Internet penetration in Canada is estimated at about
53% according
to CyberAtlas, somewhat lower than in the U.S.)
Eighty-five percent of online Canadians
in 2001 believed that e-mail makes them more efficient at work,
but they also
reported that e-mail overload was becoming a serious problem. Here are some
of their complaints:
...[The] annoyance of receiving
irrelevant messages from
colleagues (which happens to 21% frequently and 45% occasionally),
and the misuse or abuse of blind copying, which 46% frequently or
occasionally
experience. A further 42% have often been the uncomfortable recipient
of an e-mail that has had the wrong tone, and one-quarter
experience miscommunications
as a result of the tone of an e-mail. Joke e-mails are also a contentious
issue, but Internet users are split. About the same proportion agree they
often receive joke e-mails that they consider inappropriate (37%),
as those who agree they look forward to receiving joke e-mails at
work (35%).
"People have forgotten their manners at the e-mail table when it
comes to interpersonal e-mail communications. Things that were unacceptable
in a phone conversation or a person-to-person discussion have
suddenly become
the norm among e-mail users," Mossop said. "It's an example of a
classic technological
conundrum; we have invented this wonderful technology, but have neglected
to consider the rules or the ethics surrounding its usage."
But when asked
on an unprompted basis, 43% of Canadian Internet users said their
number one pet peeve of e-mail usage is spam. Spam received five
times as many mentions
as the next often-cited problem of unsolicited sales requests --
chain letters,
pornography, jokes and viruses (each were mentioned by 8% or
less).
This is important information for agencies that are using e-mail
to communicate
with donors, volunteers and other stakeholders. Anything that looks
like spam,
even if it was acceptable a couple of years ago when e-mail wasn't
so burdensome,
will infuriate recipients now. But I covered spam last
September; this month, I'm focusing on e-mail etiquette.
Please ensure that
all staff know the basics of polite e-mail use. Agencies sometimes
make 'beginner's
mistakes' that vastly irritate people who use e-mail for a living. Errors of
etiquette are good ways to alienate people in government, business or other
not-for-profits who deal with a hundred or more e-mails a day. Furthermore,
it's difficult for recipients to explain the rules to colleagues and friends
who don't know them. It's like telling someone that they have bad
breath; it's
hard to do, and embarrassing for both parties. So your agency may be causing
a lot of annoyance without knowing it.
Following is a checklist of recommendations on e-mail etiquette, or
'netiquette',
that you can adapt for your staff, by Kass Johns. For details and
explanations
see the full article at www.kassj.com/n
etiquette/netiquette.html
- ALL CAPS means shouting.
- Use underscores or asterisks for emphasizing words.
- Watch your tone -- it's written, not verbal communication.
- Check your spelling.
- Quote back only what is relevant.
- Use an automatic signature, especially if you are a business.
- Where are you located if requesting goods or services?
- Don't send unsolicited file attachments.
- Use a descriptive Subject line.
- Only forward jokes and chain letters if you are SURE the recipient wants
them (and hasn't already gotten a copy or three from someone else).
- Don't send "Check This Out" unsolicited URLs.
- Don't expose your e-mail routing list to spammers.
- If you are on AOL, do not use the "Forward" command.
- Don't believe every cybermyth, urban legend, hoax or virus
"alert" sent
to you (verify it before believing or forwarding it to anyone
else by visiting
urbanlegends.about.com/culture/beliefs/urbanlegends/mbody.htm).
There are many, many web sites on e-mail etiquette, and most of them have the
same advice. For example, the following excerpt is from an
article by a grumpy old-time e-mail user regarding etiquette
breaches, complete
with an 'annoyance meter' for each one. I can't recommend the
article for distribution
because the writing is sometimes nasty. However, he sure expresses
the frustration
that many netizens (citizens of the Internet) feel:
A couple of my correspondents are on several joke - or
story-a-day
mailing lists and apparently assume that I would join these lists if I just
knew how. Add to this the urban legends they forward and my intake of junk
mail from these sources is worse than spam -- since a few of these e-mails
might include a personal message from the sender, so I dare not
set up a bozo
filter. It is hard for me to know how to respond without hurting
their feelings
-- especially since they are neophytes and probably don't realize
the volume
of e-mail an old-timer gets. . . The point is, don't assume that
other people
you know want to see all the interesting stories you receive in
your in-box.
In other news:
Jakob Nielsen, usability guru, has just written a great article on
"Usability
for $200", describing how you can build in usability principles on a tiny
budget. Anyone designing or paying for a web site should read this article.
**********
Gillian Kerr, Ph.D., C.Psych.
President, RealWorld Systems
gkerr at realworldsystems.net
Read my weblog at http://blog.realworldsystems.net
