Shouldn’t “contact us” offer an opportunity for personal contact?
Here is a prime example of how the Internet can get a firm in trouble when it lets high school students develop the company’s website.
Imagine a supplier company wanting to reach a bunch of dealers in hopes of getting them to carry their product line. The supplier invests tens of thousands of dollars in renting booth space at the Consumer Electronics Show and tens of thousands of dollars renting booth space at the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association show.
The firm flies out a half-dozen staff members to man the booths for a week at a time. They ship tens of thousands of dollars of product to the booth. They spend thousands of dollars creating brochures about their products as well as spec sheets. This company clearly wants to increase their business by attracting the attention of dealers who can carry their product.
But also trolling the show floor is an enterprising magazine editor looking for innovative products that he can feature within the pages of his publication as well as in his soon-to-be-launched online buyers guide. He spends a minute or two chatting with the staff, grabs some information about the product and moves on.
Back in the office, the editor reviews the information again and determines it really would be a great fit for his magazine. He writes up a little blurb about the item, and then seeks to get a digital image of the product to accompany the text. That’s where the fun starts.
The only contact information on the brochure is a Web address. That’s generally not a problem, in fact it’s often a sign of sophistication – an indication the company knows how to market its products in the 21st century. In fact, for high-tech mobile electronics industry, an Internet presence is mandatory.
The enterprising editor surfs to the company’s website. First he checks for a news section. Many times companies post new product releases on a special “media” section of their websites where editors can also find links to download photos. No such luck.
So the editor turns to the company’s “contact us” page in hopes of finding an e-mail address. E-mail is often the best opportunity to communicate image requests to companies because the requests can be forwarded to the appropriate people who can easily handle the request. No such luck. All the company offers is a form to fill out requesting more information.
But there is a phone number listed on the page for technical support. It’s unlikely that a technician would have access to a high-resolution digital image, but surely the technician could transfer the editor to someone who could fulfill the request. At the very least, the technician could provide a phone number to the company’s main switchboard.
Amazingly, that would be an incorrect assumption. The technician is “not allowed” to give out the company’s main telephone number. Nor can he take a message and forward it to someone who can call the editor back. Nor does he know who in his company he can talk to get a digital image. Nor will he allow the editor to speak with his manager because his manager is “busy.”
Surely, the editor thinks, this can’t be happening – not in 2007 in the highly-competitive environment in which businesses today operate. So, he hangs up and tries the number again. A different technician answers, but provides the same general response.
The editor then returns to the company’s “contact us” page where he realizes he’ll have to go through the generally senseless process of filling out the “contact us” form. Based on the editor’s experience, those types of form-generated requests go unanswered for days and weeks – if they are answered at all — and the editor doesn’t really know for sure if his request has been received. The webpage usually says something like “thanks, your request has been processed and we’ll get back to you soon.” Unlike e-mail, where bad addresses can bounce back immediately, the “contact us” forms may be set up so the requests invisibly forward automatically to an e-mail address in the company that is no longer active.
But the editor fills out the form anyway and clicks the submit button. Immediately, he receives the following e-mail message:
Dear Customer:
Thank you for contacting us. We are currently researching your inquiry and, one of our friendly customer service representatives will be responding to your inquiry within 48 hours. In the event that your message is received on a holiday or over the weekend, a delayed response is to be expected. You may want to check our website for frequently asked questions.
Sincerely,
Customer Service
Seven minutes later, another e-mail arrives. Here’s what it contained:
Valued Customer
Thank you for purchasing from us. It is in our best interest to make sure that your unit works at its best, so that you may enjoy your product. Please contact us at the number listed below for more detailed and better technical support. Please be ready to include a model # and brief description of the problem before calling our tech support number (which is listed below). Please make sure you register your product before calling our customer service number (listed below) for top quality customer service.
For additional questions please check out our FAQ (frequently asked questions) Page to find your answer to your question at (website address).
Thank You
Technical Support Customer Service: 1-888-849-0846
Alex Ramirez,
Account Executive of Tech Support and Customer Service
1800-938-9886 ext. 8338
Hallelujah! A phone number! The editor quickly calls Mr. Ramirez’ number, but it’s for a different company – one contracted to provide, you guessed it, technical support for the product. The editor punches in the extension and get’s a voice mail box for someone other than Mr. Alex Ramirez. He leaves a rather frustrated message describing that all he is looking for is a picture one of their products.
The editor waits – one, two, three days – for a reply. No luck.
By now the editor is on a mission. Surely someone in authority at this company would need and want to know how inefficiently it is being operated. The looks to see if the company is publicly traded by checking the Securities and Exchange Commission website. No luck. The company is apparently incorporated under a different name. He also looks for corporate registrations in California, the state in which the company is located.
The editor also Googles the company name in hopes of finding any link to a company phone number. Although several links come up, all point to the general technical support number.
So, the editor returns to the company’s “contact us” page because he remembers seeing an address on that page. Next, he surfs to www.anywho.com and enters the company name, city and state. Amazingly, there is no phone number listed for that firm. Next he Googles the street address in hopes of coming up with a phone number. The street address returns hundreds of hits, which suggests the company is leasing space in an industrial complex or an office building. But, a word search of the company name on the first 10 pages of Google returns brings up only one legitimate hit – the “contact us” page of the company’s website.
Exhausted, the editor gives up. The product will not be featured in his magazine reaching 12,000 RV dealer personnel. Nor will it appear on the online archives accessed by 8,000 unique people a month, nor will it appear in the editor’s new searchable online buyers guide where products will remain active for at least a year.
The editor hopes when Nextar receives a copy of this blog by snail mail at their address in La Verne, Calif., they will realize how absurdly ridiculous their company’s approach to marketing – and media relations – really is. Perhaps they’ll realize how extremely important it is to give people an opportunity to follow up with them after trade shows. And maybe, although I won’t hold my breath, they’ll realize the purpose of a “contact us” page is to allow customers, dealers and other legitimate business partners to truly contact them.
February 11th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Kevin brings up some good points here. I’m also amazed at the number of companies that do not have any kind of program established to measure customer satisfaction and identify positive and negative aspects of the business relationship.
In my “real world” career we use the Zoomerang (www.zoomerang.com) for quick surveys if we have critical issues that demand immediate feedback and we also employ a professional customer service firm that calls everyone of our customers that meet a specific dollar value per month or per year to make sure we are completing their work in accordance with a signed Statement of Work that signed by both the customer, the sales rep, and our production operations manager.
February 10th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Greg,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I find usability issues like this so often, it’s kind of scary, but important to remember that many business decisions, Internet related or not, are based on what someone thinks works best vs. finding out what really will work best.
We’ve been testing some short/sweet feedback surveys on some dealers websites in the last months. It’s amazing what you can learn just by asking the prospects/customers using your website what they think.
Keep up the good work!
February 10th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Greg,
What a great article. Thanks for sharing the hoorendous experience with all of us that are developing companies and businesses and working on setting up our web sites and the responses that customers deserve and expect.
February 9th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Greg, what a great article, I just tried to communicate with Xantrex, where the customer service is just as good as a recording. I had an emergency command center for the local county Sherrif’s department down and needed a part. I kept being told ” we cannot guarntee that a next day shipment will go out that day.” IT was just before 2:00 p.m.Eastern time. In asking for the shipping department I was given a canned statement, in getting a supervisor I got the same canned statement. After 45 minutes of hearing the same thing over and over again and not getting anything but the “canned statement” I thought I would just talk to the rep at the upcomming trade show in Las Vegas, I could not talk to the reps, they were busy talking to the guys in the booth next to them.
Maybe I will try the website… by the way, there was only one major emergency the County could not respond to while the vehicle was down, I hope the family of the people who were lost in the Utah mountians with tempratures below freezing can understand why the vehicle they pay taxes for could not be there.
February 9th, 2007 at 8:55 am
I actually did have a voice mail waiting for me the other day from Alex at Nextar. He suggested that I visit their website and right click on any photo I need and save it to my computer. He then rattled off a contact number so fast that, despite listening to it multiple times, I could only understand nine of the 10 digits.
The problem is that web photos are sized at 72 dots per inch to decrease the time it takes to load a page. Publications, on the other hand, require images at 300 dots per inch in order to better form an image on a printed page.
I did send them a snail mail copy of the blog a week ago. My guess is that it’s sitting on a desk waiting for someone to return from a trade show in order to open it.
February 8th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
What amazes me even more is that Greg posted this on February 2nd, and we have still not heard from the folks at Nextar. You can’t tell me that somebody in this business has not phoned, faxed, written, or e-mailed them all or some portion of this thread. I guess they are still hiding under their desk hoping that nobody notices!
Somebody put a lock in the door and put them out of their misery.
February 8th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
What you described is very common. I usually go to a competitor who makes it easier to find information about their products or services and a contact number.
Finding contact names is out of the question.
February 8th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Our industry is all about our customers having fun with family and friends. Our goal is to make sure our systems and processes do not interfere with their fun. We all hope our competitors do not understand that. But that would not be good for our industry.
February 8th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Great story….can you imagine what service would be like AFTER you bought the product!
February 8th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I have had similar bad experiences trying to contact companies. I wish all companies would have some sort of contact number (need not be toll free but it is nice) for questions or needs that are not able to handled online.
February 8th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Funny thing, you go to trade shows, such as Stag last month, and the reps from different lines are so busy, talking to one another–they do not have time for the dealers that came, sooo I left the show in frustation!!!
February 8th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Hi Greg,
Pardon me, but I could not help but utter a little chuckle regarding your experience. Yet, we find that the Internet and Email provides us with more (and often better) information regarding applications, leads, etc. than does a phone call. While it is nice to hear a real live person when you dial up a number, to often the person on the other end of the line may be the lowest paid person in the place. From then on, it is a “pass the buck” on down the line until the ultimate frustration sets in and you hang up. Yes, smarter, but no wiser….
Personally, I would rather spend a few minutes composing a good Email than spend 10 minutes listening to someone ask me about the weather or which team won the ball game.
Not all Internet contacts or Emails are handled perfectly, but I would guess that 99% are handled quite well.
Just wait a while until the Internet features live TV contact with the person you are trying to reach. What then?
Gene
February 7th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
For some reason, the internet has given some companies the idea that human interaction is no longer necessary. It’s ironic that this type of “service” will mean the downfall to many businesses. I’ve often made the comment that we’re like a “general store” of this industry because customers will call just to chat for half an hour. I’m sure many of you get the same thing. Yeah, you can look at it as wasted time, but I’d rather have a handful of people who know me by name than a website that gets thousands of hits each day. Of course, we still need the website, but we can’t let it be the only voice our customers hear.
February 6th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Greg,
We do agree with your experience mainly in the case of large corporations too fat to even care.
Owner operated smaller companies mostly react. In our own case, we answer questions re prices
and go out of our way, but just always receive no further comment, questions or a thank you,
this is our experience with inquiries in Germany. But keep up the good work you people are doing.
Best regards,
J M Krippendorf
February 6th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Maybe I can redo their website for them . . . sounds like they need help.
February 3rd, 2007 at 3:32 pm
i agree. That is why I like a friendly voice on the phone who can give answers and voice mail that will be answered. we also make sure email is checked more than once daily.
We still are not perfect but communication in primary in every business.
February 3rd, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Greg…Amen!…As a used RV dealer, we have to deal with every manufacturer & distributor on the planet…It is incredible how difficult it can be to communicate with a company contact that can actually impact an outcome…90% of the people we are able to reach clearly demonstrate the difference between ignorance & apathy - “I don’t know & I don’t care”…~BL
February 2nd, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Greg - this article is going to be required reading for all of my clients - I’m in marketing communications and PR. Thanks for hitting the nail squarely on the head!
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Greg,
You can’t fix stupid!
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:20 pm
We agree - that is why our email and phone contacts are always easy to find - the reverse side of course is that the spammers find it also. However, it is a small price to pay to serve our customers.
Thank you for you article
Issue has been a bug of mine forever.