Sorry, I Don’t Do Email!
8th February 2010
Email - A Staple Business Tool
In today’s business world most people have the staple tools needed to conduct business with other people on a daily basis.
Such tools inevitably include the obligatory diary (electronic or otherwise), a pen, a notepad (electronic or otherwise), a telephone (landline and mobile), a car or some other form of vehicle and of course a computer of a description with an internet connection and associated email account.
Fifteen years ago you could have probably omitted the email account for some folk and any connection to the Internet would have been on dial-up rather than broadband. Twenty years ago pagers were the ‘away from the office’ communication tool of choice for many unless you were either a Yuppie or a keen early adopter who owned a mobile phone. Computers whilst becoming more common place, hadn’t quite penetrated through to every nook and cranny of business life as they do today and Lotus Smartsuite ruled the roost when it came to office software applications.
Today, technology has spread throughout the business world and is not purely the domain of early adaptive geeks. You don’t need me to tell you that I’m sure.
Take a straw-poll of business bodies in a room to find out who uses a Blackberry™, iPhone™ or other type of smart-phone to email and surf whilst on the move and I’ll wager that most of the hands will go up. Similarly, notebook computers and netbooks are outselling desktop computers by a large margin and mobile internet access is common place through 3G and WiFi coverage. Tweeting and messaging through the social networking sites (SNS) is the new kid on the block and are deemed to be a more flexible and superior substitute for email by some.
Phew!
Voice-Mail Hell
So I was amazed at the outcome which resulted from being trapped in the hell of a voice-mail loop with an associate of mine. You know the score; someone leaves you message on your voicemail, you return the call, missing the person but getting diverted to their own voicemail and so the circle continues. Nightmare!
This went on for a couple of days with this particular bloke, both of us listening to a one sided message from the other. Frustration gradually creeping into the tone of our delivery.
So, as one does, I thought; “I know, I’ll send this guy an email with the information he requires!” Out came his business card, “ah yes an email address”. Tap, tap, tap! Gone!
That should illicit a response.
Er, no! Nothing!
Another day goes by without contact, but at least I was safe in the knowledge that he had the information he needed on email.
I don't do email
Then, one morning the phone goes. It’s him, sounding angry now!
“In my defense”, I retorted, “because I couldn’t get to speak to you – I dropped you an email instead. Did you get it?”
“I don’t do email!” bounced back the reply. “I will check it later and get back to you if I didn’t”. I called him later regardless to check. Yes, he’d got it and was happy with the details I’d emailed to him two days previously.
“That’s okay, we got there in the end.”
So in a world where email is a staple commodity of business, this fellow obviously still lives in the late 1980’s. Just imagine how more efficient he could become and less frustrated into the bargain, if he just “did email.”
Which beggars the question of course; if the subject in this post “doesn’t do email”: then WTF does he have an email account for?
Now texting, there’s another story!
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Tags: Clients
The Laundry Sorter Says:
I think a business without a website and email address these days doesn’t seem to inspire confidence or professionalism. And not checking one’s email everyday now is a big no-no. Because if you take emails out of the business world now, it will be total chaos!!
22nd February 2010