What are the biggest email problems and why do they occur?
Chances are, your current outbound customer service email is being written poorly enough that you are losing sales. “The situation is dire,” says Marilyn Rudick who together with partner Leslie O’Flahavan has trained thousands of agents on how to better handle email. “People who handle email are expected to be nearly superhumanly helpful. They work under really tough conditions. Their jobs are like a battle. They are expected to answer 50-60 emails a day which is an awful lot, often while taking phone calls. If they do live chat, it’s 3-4 chats simultaneously.” “Most often they don’t come to the job with strong writing skills. Imagine you’re trying to keep up under a constant barrage of customer questions and have deep product knowledge, all for $7 an hour.” The canned answers most call centers use to help automate email processing present three challenges as well: 1. Customers often write garbled, half-incoherent emails and expect excellent answers in return. O’Flahavan says, “If you
