Auto Emails & Canned Answers: It is What You Believe in That Matters Most

I started Voice123 in July 2007 right before SmartCast was released, and one of the tasks that was understood I would have to deal with is creating automated emails and canned answers to use for customer service. I decided, as is true of my nature always, to try something different, which usually equates to me trying to break rules before I have fully learned them, then doing twice the work to fix it while learning a valuable lesson that makes me better than before. It is not easy to be me.

I decided, 'No auto or canned emails!'.

Why? Because as someone who has a passion for customer service, and treating people with respect, I figured that each person had to be written to personally, so they did not feel disrespected by our customer service team at Voice123! I vowed, 'I am in this industry too! I would not do the same to anyone else!'. Indeed, it was a noble gesture, but looking back I am not so sure I would be willing to do something like that again, and I do not think I would be disrespecting anyone in doing so.

I learned several key points from conducting such a practice at a time when customer service was needed more than ever.

Starting with the 'Bad News':

• Writing each person directly takes up a great deal of time, even when you know the answer, immediately.
• When you have 1000 people to get back to, there is no time to have a special 'one on one', even though most Americans spew the phrase, 'Let me speak to your supervisor!', before they say, 'I think I can find out for myself'.
• Even when you write the customer an answer, the customer will assume it is 'canned', if they do not like it.
• After answering at least 100 emails, you soon find out that customers say pretty much the same thing over and over again, and when you are at that point, you know what you have to fix. So, no answer in the book will satisfy them unless it is, 'We fixed it!'.
• As is the case with all technology, you may find times where you feel you should be getting paid for giving classes on how to use a computer.
  
• I recall that month, from July to August 2007, a time when I answered emails and calls for 15 hours a day, 6 days a week.
  

Needless to say, I learned a few valuable lessons from the experience, which translates into the 'Good News' of this experiment:

• Writing each person is a great way to know who the bulk of your customers that consistently need help.
  
• Writing to each person is a great way to pick up on an overall 'vibe' as to how the people who contact you either enjoy or dislike your service.
• You have the opportunity to speak with your customer, which in the days of 'outsourcing to India', seems so rare an occurrence.
• In no way, do I see what I did during such a busy time to be a 'failure' because I never would have learned as much as I had by sending out a canned response.
• The biggest lesson that I learned could be that you cannot send a canned response until you know what you are talking about i.e. 'To break the rules, you must first learn the rules.'
  

Lesson learned...in just one month. However, no matter what you try it all comes down to what the customer believes, and you can never change that in a person. You can only do your best, and see who gravitates to your service to shape your community.

I say this because I personally write, and spend a great deal of time on emails that go out automatically, based on actions customers perform while using Voice123.com. Yet, I will get responses such as:

• "I dont know why you hide behind that picture. Nice fake name! You are obviously in India."
• "How clever of you...but I know this is an auto email. That is disrespectful of you."

Sometimes, I even reply BACK:

• 'Didn't you get MY email?.'
  

I have feelings to you know! :)

Those that understand me a little bit more or working online, especially after July 2007, reply to me with:

• "Thank you for writing me personally.
  

Go figure. You see, even though the email was automatically sent, it was done so because of an action I knew could help or harm the enjoyment of Voice123, and me recognizing this in the past, I constructed a 'personal email' for all those who may do the same thing.

Does that make it any less personal, canned, or auto-mated? I wrote it personally. No?

Like I said, it is all about what you believe, or in many cases, how experienced you are with working online.


ps- I have never been to India.


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