Question

One of the major challenges companies face is providing customer service information via email. Think of companies you do business with. Do you email them? How long does it normally take for them to respond? Explain some of the shortcomings of using email for customer service.

Answer 1

With the evolution of technology, a cheaper and faster mode of communication came into picturel; E-mail. You can communicate anything with anyone with just a click of the mouse. It's fast, conveniant and easy to use. However, there is a down side to it as well. For eg: using e-mail for customer service.

I'll take a personal example here. There was an e-commerce startup which I used to order stuff for my business. It basically sold used and refurbished products at a very cheap price. I once order something, which I needed very quickly, like in 1 day or 2. The product was delivered but it contained nothing but papers in it. I was so astonished to see that how could someone deliver newspapers in a box which was supposed to contain 1-2 Kg of products. I looked up on the internet to find a customer sevice phone number, but that company only used email as a source for customer service. Here are all the shortcomings I felt of using email for customer service:

• Takes time to explain your problem : When you are on a phone, or talking directly, you tend to keep things simple and can easily explain your concern. But while writing an email, it usually takes a lot of time to get your concern properly worded.
• Can be easily misunderstood : After writing a large email, it might be possible that you miss out to mention some of the key situations that might address your problem. Or maybe there is some technical jargon that you use that is not easily understable to the person reading your email.
• Takes time to reply: When you explain your concern on the phone, the other person is laible to give you a turnaround time or what steps they will take to address your problem. but with emails, you generally have a to wait a day or two to have them reply to you. Till then, you have no idea as to what they will do to address your problem.
• Lacks the emotional touch: With email, you lack the emotional response that you might want to capture while explaining your problem. It is seen that while communicating over phone, with a hint of emotional touch can get the other person to address your problem, which is very hard to do over phone.

So I feel that these are some of the shortcomings of using email for customer service.