How often do you encounter people that can't communicate by email?
-
I like email. You don't have to read it when it arrives, if you're busy and can't answer right away, it will still wait for you in the inbox, if you need to research before answering, you can do that too. However most importantly I like it because it gives me time to clearly express myself, it gives me time to carefully arrange what I have to say in such a way, that the other person doesn't have to say much, except yes or no. Lately, however, I find that more and more people just can't communicate by email. Before, whenever I had to ask someone a few questions by email I would write something like this "I have this Question 1 can you elaborate what you meant by . . . Additionally, could you please clarify Question 2? Thank you, JazzJackRabbit" What I find increasingly common and amazingly frustrating, people answer Question 1 and completely ignore Question 2. Now if I still want an answer to Question 2 and I write "In your email you didn't answer one of my questions" then they get an impression that I'm rude, if I just repeat my question then they get an impression that I'm wasting their time by not asking two questions at the same time (I did ask them at the same time, duh, you just didn't see it). *Sigh* So now I have resorted to the following format: "I have the following questions: (1) Question 1 (2) Question 2 Thank you, JazzJackRabbit". It sounds childish and unprofessional, but it's the only sure way I've found that people actually answer all of my questions. Have you met people like this? And if so how many percentage wise? And most importantly how do you deal with people like that? Tell your stories...
-
I like email. You don't have to read it when it arrives, if you're busy and can't answer right away, it will still wait for you in the inbox, if you need to research before answering, you can do that too. However most importantly I like it because it gives me time to clearly express myself, it gives me time to carefully arrange what I have to say in such a way, that the other person doesn't have to say much, except yes or no. Lately, however, I find that more and more people just can't communicate by email. Before, whenever I had to ask someone a few questions by email I would write something like this "I have this Question 1 can you elaborate what you meant by . . . Additionally, could you please clarify Question 2? Thank you, JazzJackRabbit" What I find increasingly common and amazingly frustrating, people answer Question 1 and completely ignore Question 2. Now if I still want an answer to Question 2 and I write "In your email you didn't answer one of my questions" then they get an impression that I'm rude, if I just repeat my question then they get an impression that I'm wasting their time by not asking two questions at the same time (I did ask them at the same time, duh, you just didn't see it). *Sigh* So now I have resorted to the following format: "I have the following questions: (1) Question 1 (2) Question 2 Thank you, JazzJackRabbit". It sounds childish and unprofessional, but it's the only sure way I've found that people actually answer all of my questions. Have you met people like this? And if so how many percentage wise? And most importantly how do you deal with people like that? Tell your stories...
I've just gone through an exercise to find a web host to suit a specific need. I drew up a list of 12/17 questions (some of the web sites had the answers readily available) and sent them to whatever the address they gave for sales. A few didn't bother to respond and quite a few totally ignored some of the questions: all dismissed in first round! Then I sent the remaining 2 or 3 supplementary questions and found jst what you have said: often they would answer the first question and ignore the others so that I had to write back and ask again. I've seen other people do this as well: it's laziness, I think. Anyway, hopefully found a good webhost: only time and some more questions will tell!
-
I like email. You don't have to read it when it arrives, if you're busy and can't answer right away, it will still wait for you in the inbox, if you need to research before answering, you can do that too. However most importantly I like it because it gives me time to clearly express myself, it gives me time to carefully arrange what I have to say in such a way, that the other person doesn't have to say much, except yes or no. Lately, however, I find that more and more people just can't communicate by email. Before, whenever I had to ask someone a few questions by email I would write something like this "I have this Question 1 can you elaborate what you meant by . . . Additionally, could you please clarify Question 2? Thank you, JazzJackRabbit" What I find increasingly common and amazingly frustrating, people answer Question 1 and completely ignore Question 2. Now if I still want an answer to Question 2 and I write "In your email you didn't answer one of my questions" then they get an impression that I'm rude, if I just repeat my question then they get an impression that I'm wasting their time by not asking two questions at the same time (I did ask them at the same time, duh, you just didn't see it). *Sigh* So now I have resorted to the following format: "I have the following questions: (1) Question 1 (2) Question 2 Thank you, JazzJackRabbit". It sounds childish and unprofessional, but it's the only sure way I've found that people actually answer all of my questions. Have you met people like this? And if so how many percentage wise? And most importantly how do you deal with people like that? Tell your stories...
I agree - the same thing happens to me. From experience, I've discovered that two techniques tend to work with varying degrees of success... - send each question in a separate email - the recipient has to read it, and will probably answer (however, this technique is awkward when many questions need to be asked) - use lists (such as in this post), never use paragraphs - with each question having it's own "space" so to speak, it helps the reader address each issue individually The main assumption is that the intended recipient is lazy/stupid/scatter-brained, so you break things up into easily digestible pieces. Disclaimer - The fact that this post uses one of my techniques, a list, should not cause you, the CP reader, to infer that I consider you lazy/stupid/scatter-brained. Of course, it might in fact be the case, but that's for another thread.
-
I like email. You don't have to read it when it arrives, if you're busy and can't answer right away, it will still wait for you in the inbox, if you need to research before answering, you can do that too. However most importantly I like it because it gives me time to clearly express myself, it gives me time to carefully arrange what I have to say in such a way, that the other person doesn't have to say much, except yes or no. Lately, however, I find that more and more people just can't communicate by email. Before, whenever I had to ask someone a few questions by email I would write something like this "I have this Question 1 can you elaborate what you meant by . . . Additionally, could you please clarify Question 2? Thank you, JazzJackRabbit" What I find increasingly common and amazingly frustrating, people answer Question 1 and completely ignore Question 2. Now if I still want an answer to Question 2 and I write "In your email you didn't answer one of my questions" then they get an impression that I'm rude, if I just repeat my question then they get an impression that I'm wasting their time by not asking two questions at the same time (I did ask them at the same time, duh, you just didn't see it). *Sigh* So now I have resorted to the following format: "I have the following questions: (1) Question 1 (2) Question 2 Thank you, JazzJackRabbit". It sounds childish and unprofessional, but it's the only sure way I've found that people actually answer all of my questions. Have you met people like this? And if so how many percentage wise? And most importantly how do you deal with people like that? Tell your stories...
Yes all the time. The exact same phenomena as you describe. I think if you search back far enough in this forum you'll see me complaining that no one reads any more about 4 or 5 years ago and describing the same issue. We see the same thing all the time in our tech support dept. There is a certain percentage of people that simply read the first bit or reply only to the first bit. In my experience it's not a huge percentage, there is a certain literacy barrier to just get to our software since it's all internet sold and supported, however I'd say it's easily 5 to 10 percent. We've also had extreme cases where we present a list of questions to a person to help diagnose a problem they are having and they reply with a one word answer. On one memorable occasion a guy replied to me "less talky more fixy" which we've had a good laugh about ever since and which doesn't really fit the profile your talking about, more the sarcastic bastard profile! :) We've found that it's best to screen for these short attention span people and when we come across one to stick to one sentence emails. I.E. if they have a problem and we need to know a few things to resolve it for them and we ask a list and they reply with only the first question answered we then switch to single question only mode for that person and simply ask each of the questions in single emails. It's frustrating because we know we could have solved their problem in one email round trip if they gave enough info but few people do. Even more annoying are the people that email support@... and all they ask is "Where can I get help for this software?" (yesterday). We tried other things like outright telling the person "we asked you 4 questions and you only answered one, please know that all these questions are important and are the only way we can help you ..." etc, but a key factor with these type of people is that they are not interested in reading and have short attention spans for written material and will ignore that as well. I believe their eyes glaze over if they see too much text which I think is probably anything more than two paragraphs. We've also incorporated these kind of people into our web site and marketing design, we stick to brief short almost bullet points with each having a link to the long wordy version that the readers prefer. Email definitely favors readers who by extension are usually better writers. A child now who is not interested in reading is going to be a second class citizen when they grow up in most of the world's e
-
Clarity is the key when communicating. The use of text speak is annoying as is the use of non-regular acronyms.
Text speak or acronyms is not the issue here. Just last week HR sent me an email saying that I have to change my Primary Care Physician (PCP) because my current one is not in the network anymore. So I sent an email back designating a new one that was in the the network, at the end of an email I asked how hard it would be to change PCP if I wanted to in the future. There were no acronyms in the email, it was nicely formatted in 3 paragraphs. First paragraph is me designating new PCP, second paragraph full contact information of my new PCP and the third paragraph my question. Nice, simple and easy to read. I got confirmation email back saying they entered new PCP in the system, yet HR didn't answer my question at the end... It's like people read the first sentence and then just stop. It's annoying because if you have several questions you have to ask same questions multiple times. I have had sitations in college when I had to send back 3 or 4 emails to counselor because he could never answer them all in one setting.
-
I agree - the same thing happens to me. From experience, I've discovered that two techniques tend to work with varying degrees of success... - send each question in a separate email - the recipient has to read it, and will probably answer (however, this technique is awkward when many questions need to be asked) - use lists (such as in this post), never use paragraphs - with each question having it's own "space" so to speak, it helps the reader address each issue individually The main assumption is that the intended recipient is lazy/stupid/scatter-brained, so you break things up into easily digestible pieces. Disclaimer - The fact that this post uses one of my techniques, a list, should not cause you, the CP reader, to infer that I consider you lazy/stupid/scatter-brained. Of course, it might in fact be the case, but that's for another thread.
Abu Mami wrote:
- use lists (such as in this post), never use paragraphs - with each question having it's own "space" so to speak, it helps the reader address each issue individually
My coworkers are generally pretty good about it, but if I have more than 2 or 3 questions I generally do switch over to enumerated lists which generally works ok until you get into 3 or 4 levels of interspersed replies. Outlooks retarded coloring system's the primary offender though since it eventually gets hard to tell which text is old or new when every reply from person X is the same color. This problem's been solved for decades via >'s in text email, and every other colorizing mail client I've used is smart enough to do it right. X|
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
-
I like email. You don't have to read it when it arrives, if you're busy and can't answer right away, it will still wait for you in the inbox, if you need to research before answering, you can do that too. However most importantly I like it because it gives me time to clearly express myself, it gives me time to carefully arrange what I have to say in such a way, that the other person doesn't have to say much, except yes or no. Lately, however, I find that more and more people just can't communicate by email. Before, whenever I had to ask someone a few questions by email I would write something like this "I have this Question 1 can you elaborate what you meant by . . . Additionally, could you please clarify Question 2? Thank you, JazzJackRabbit" What I find increasingly common and amazingly frustrating, people answer Question 1 and completely ignore Question 2. Now if I still want an answer to Question 2 and I write "In your email you didn't answer one of my questions" then they get an impression that I'm rude, if I just repeat my question then they get an impression that I'm wasting their time by not asking two questions at the same time (I did ask them at the same time, duh, you just didn't see it). *Sigh* So now I have resorted to the following format: "I have the following questions: (1) Question 1 (2) Question 2 Thank you, JazzJackRabbit". It sounds childish and unprofessional, but it's the only sure way I've found that people actually answer all of my questions. Have you met people like this? And if so how many percentage wise? And most importantly how do you deal with people like that? Tell your stories...
JazzJackRabbit wrote:
What I find increasingly common and amazingly frustrating, people answer Question 1 and completely ignore Question 2.
Could the habit of "top-posting" be a contributing factor? Top-posting is the practice of responding to an email (or a post on a webforum or Usenet) by placing the reply above the text that is being responded to. In many circles, top-posting is frowned upon. A sentiment I agree with. I'm willing to bet that the folks that are responding to only the first question in the emails you send them top-post their response above your questions. So they get the email, read the first question, or maybe even the entire email, and hit reply. Their email provider places the cursor at the top, so they just start typing in response with what they recall after having read the email. Since the first question is probably the most important, they base their response mainly to answering it. Instead of stepping through an email, answering each part in turn, their answer at the top is basically a summary response, usually to just the first part of the email.
-
Text speak or acronyms is not the issue here. Just last week HR sent me an email saying that I have to change my Primary Care Physician (PCP) because my current one is not in the network anymore. So I sent an email back designating a new one that was in the the network, at the end of an email I asked how hard it would be to change PCP if I wanted to in the future. There were no acronyms in the email, it was nicely formatted in 3 paragraphs. First paragraph is me designating new PCP, second paragraph full contact information of my new PCP and the third paragraph my question. Nice, simple and easy to read. I got confirmation email back saying they entered new PCP in the system, yet HR didn't answer my question at the end... It's like people read the first sentence and then just stop. It's annoying because if you have several questions you have to ask same questions multiple times. I have had sitations in college when I had to send back 3 or 4 emails to counselor because he could never answer them all in one setting.
Answering every question posed might be beyond some people. Perhaps the pace of life is such that people generally just may not have the time. Or perhaps they don't care enough. My gripe about text speak or non-regular acronyms is that it wastes time trying to find out what the message actually says and what it actually means - thus clarity is lacking. Your use of PCP is the same as the UK's GP (General Practitioner) but in other fields of work it has other meanings as no doubt GP has in your country.
-
Answering every question posed might be beyond some people. Perhaps the pace of life is such that people generally just may not have the time. Or perhaps they don't care enough. My gripe about text speak or non-regular acronyms is that it wastes time trying to find out what the message actually says and what it actually means - thus clarity is lacking. Your use of PCP is the same as the UK's GP (General Practitioner) but in other fields of work it has other meanings as no doubt GP has in your country.
-
I like email. You don't have to read it when it arrives, if you're busy and can't answer right away, it will still wait for you in the inbox, if you need to research before answering, you can do that too. However most importantly I like it because it gives me time to clearly express myself, it gives me time to carefully arrange what I have to say in such a way, that the other person doesn't have to say much, except yes or no. Lately, however, I find that more and more people just can't communicate by email. Before, whenever I had to ask someone a few questions by email I would write something like this "I have this Question 1 can you elaborate what you meant by . . . Additionally, could you please clarify Question 2? Thank you, JazzJackRabbit" What I find increasingly common and amazingly frustrating, people answer Question 1 and completely ignore Question 2. Now if I still want an answer to Question 2 and I write "In your email you didn't answer one of my questions" then they get an impression that I'm rude, if I just repeat my question then they get an impression that I'm wasting their time by not asking two questions at the same time (I did ask them at the same time, duh, you just didn't see it). *Sigh* So now I have resorted to the following format: "I have the following questions: (1) Question 1 (2) Question 2 Thank you, JazzJackRabbit". It sounds childish and unprofessional, but it's the only sure way I've found that people actually answer all of my questions. Have you met people like this? And if so how many percentage wise? And most importantly how do you deal with people like that? Tell your stories...
I find it annoyingly common for people to be unable to communicate in any form, but email is especially frustrating. At the moment I'm in a running battle with a webhosting company, trying to accomplish the simple task of releasing my locked domain names, changing registrars, and cancelling the hosting service. For two weeks now we have been swapping emails - several a day - with no visible progress. They keep responding with the same instructions, almost word for word, despite being repeatedly and patiently informed that the instructions don't work. These people are supposed to be tech support professionals who live by email, yet they are incapable of communicating in the medium. Thank the gods of geekdom that I've never needed real tech support! They're morons... And yes, if this isn't satisfactorily resolved soon, I will be posting a detailed rant for 4 million+ potential customers to read, naming names.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"