I have to respond to emails which are sent to a website. Sometimes it is nice to help people. Sometimes I have to email some really obnoxious individuals. It is as if they forget there’s a human at the end of the email. You can tell me you don’t like the website without telling me I’m incompetent useless or overpaid. Don’t tell me my organisation’s website is dreadful and I should fix it, – that doesn’t help me. You need to be specific. Was something hard to read, hard to understand, did it not work right in your browser. Send me a screenshot. I can’t see what you see unless you show me.
I like to get feedback good and bad but it is frustrating when I can see that someone is really angry about some part of the site but doesn’t give me enough info to help. Insulting me or my organisation is no help either. I’m not your tech support either. I can’t spend ages helping you with your browser settings or give you advice on whether you should use Firefox or IE.
Being on the receiving end of so many unfortunate emails makes me think more carefully about the feedback I give others. I don’t think an angry customer ever gets the most sparkling service – they get the ‘difficult customer’ protocol. Be polite, be courteous, be specific and try and leave your anger and disappointment out of it. If you shout your issue at me all I hear is the shouting.
