Sometime I wonder why my email inbox is so empty. Actually it’s full of advertisements and technology related emails. There are emails I receive from credit cards reminding me that my bill is ready to be reviewed and emails from companies I have purchased items from in the past. Thank goodness there is a spam folder where most of the junk mail goes. What's missing from my inbox are responses to legitimate emails. What really gets me going is when I don’t get a timely response from a person or company that I really wanted to hear from. Has the world simply gotten too lazy and doesn’t respond or am I just looking for instant gratification and am upset that I don’t get an instant response? I think it is a little of both.
Now there are two forms of email I expect responses from. First is the emails I send to a company and am looking for a response of some sort. It is amazing to find that in this day and age, some companies have still not realized how important their email communications are. Many companies send email replies late or not at all, or send replies that do not actually answer the questions you asked. The replies that really get me upset are the automatic ones from a person-less email box. I guess it is OK if they give you instructions or provide a name to forward your request to, but to simply send an automated message that doesn’t supply any information is unacceptable. The other type of email I hate are the ones you get a response from a person, but you do not receive an answer to your question. But what really gets me steamed is when you send an email and you get no response. You wait a few days and send another one, but still no reply. It's these that I must resort to a phone call (more on that in a minutes).
Recently, I have been mucking through the various job boards and company career pages looking for something to do (other than writing this blog). The basic process is you find a job that interests you, click on apply, fill out the forms, attached a resume (also called a CV thanks to globalization) and click on submit. A few seconds later you normally get an automated email thanking you for your interest and then nothing. In the old days, before all of this, you would get a nice form letter saying the company was not interested. Not anymore, now you get ignored. Yes I know that many companies are getting inundated with job requests, but it would be nice to get an email back saying no thanks.
It's one thing to be ignored by a company, but when you don’t get a timely response from a personal acquaintance that’s an entirely different manner. Now maybe in reality I don’t deserve a response because for some reason I have upset this person, but normally I am pretty easy going so I would think I would get some sort of response. I always try to respond the same or the next day after receiving an email. Is it too much to ask that the same courtesy be afforded when I send an email to someone?
The same is true with voice mail. I hate leaving voice mail because I hate the way I sound and some times I stumble on the words or don’t know what to say or say too much. However, once I leave the message I do expect a call back (or an email). This usually happens when I leave a message for a company I have business with. You get someone in Customer Service and you leave a message along with all the pertinent information. Most of the time I get a call back, but there is always that one company that never seems to bother returning the call.
So what’s the point? A simple response is all I ask. Just a quick note in return to an email or a call back to a voice mail. Thanks.
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