Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

“Well, I hardly ever check email.”

“I don’t like voice mail.”

“I didn’t know about the meeting!” they say, accusingly. Well, they would have if they’d checked their email. They did, after all, ask to be added to the email notice list.

“Don’t you use Twitter?” they say, in patronizing amazement that you didn’t automatically know that was the best way to reach them is to send them a “tweet.”

We’ve all dealt with them. People who say, “the best way to reach me is (email, twitter, land line, cell phone, smoke signal…).” When a responsible person says this, it’s a nice courtesy. Certainly, if they’re seldom in their office or won’t be checking email often, it’s good to know how to reach them in other ways. But, then there are those who abdicate all responsibility for any response unless you use the one and only “best way”…rather you know that way or not.

Then, there’s the “catch me if you can!” crowd. They lead you a merry chase through all the methods, giving you a long list of alternatives, since they’re leading, bleeding edge available, RIGHT NOW, LIVE! blackberried, bluetoothed, wired to the gills...and you can never get them – um – live, much less get a timely response. (Nope, no email response. I’ll try the cell. Oops, voice mailbox is full. Maybe if I send a text…can I fit my problem into 140 characters for that dad-gummed Twitter thang?)

What’s even more amazing is when people do this to their customers.

The key word in “instant message” should be message.

Effective communications requires interaction.

Some things can’t be accurately communicated in texting, much less 140 characters (Twitter’s limit.)

Sensitive or difficult topics should be discussed via phone (and no speaker phones).

Really sensitive or difficult topics should be discussed face-to-face.

Some things shouldn’t be said.

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, communications, social media, email, emarketing