Thank you for Your Suggestions and Support
I asked my readers to suggest some topics that they would like me to address in my articles. I wish to thank the many people who replied, I will endeavour to write on each of the topics suggested in future correspondence.
Here is one such reply I received, which immediately got me thinking.
Email Etiquette:
This email was received from a long time business colleague who was a successful entrepreneur long before the word was common parlance in Ireland.
Email etiquette from this new generation who are always “reaching out to me” yet don’t know my name or what my company does get me.
When I am on the hunt for new business, I will always do my homework, but today homework seems to just consist of churning out emails.
Also, Websites that fail to answer queries, especially the bigger companies, big names like Harrods and Etihad, will never get business from me again. Globalization is depersonalizing business, so I do think this is the era of the smaller, personally driven company if only they can get their act together. I think the younger punters have gone online for everything except their Lattes?
Perhaps I got him on a bad day!
But no:
A short time later, this message arrived in my inbox!
Bot software pretending to be a person at the other end who cares about me but consistently misunderstands what I’m saying is one of my biggest bugbears.
It prompted me to think about similar communications that annoy me.
The person that does not know me from Adam, yet the email suggests that we are best buddies.
The most annoying:
The helpful video or article that leads me to follow someone and click “SUBSCRIBE.”
MISTAKE – As I am now bombarded with messages every time I open my inbox.
“UNSUBSCRIBE” is my next action, which is very disappointing, as this was material I initially found to be of value.
I publish an article once a fortnight which I think is about right and my readers appear to agree as I receive very few unsubscribe requests (I hope I am not tempting fate).
Some of the people I subscribe to appear to publish something several times a day – get a life!
Big Business:
We have large organizations, usually financial institutions, that have the software that should allow them to add your name to the letter they send you.
But no, what you get is Dear Customer or worse again, nothing; just a letter using their language (jargon), not yours, which invariably goes straight into the bin.
Action:
- Please communicate conversationally with no jargon.
- Only engage when you are telling me about something that’s of value to me.
- Do so sparingly, not every time I open my inbox.
- If I do not know you, do not ask me to click on a link – this will lead to immediate deletion.
As my colleague says:
” This is the era of the smaller, personally driven company if only they can get their act together.”
I hope this article on communication has resonated with you, helping you ‘stop and think’ about how your communication is critical to your business’s future.
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