In my previous column I discussed the use of e-mail for handling initial information requests.
I suggested that while the medium has some unique characteristics, it must also be considered as part of a unified communications strategy, which includes an Internet site and more traditional channels.
Progressing to more complex, personalised dialogues present both opportunities and challenges.
All in the name of research, we’ve just booked trips to Zimbabwe and Indonesia by e-mail. We’ve also ‘failed’ to make a booking for Costa Rica.
These enquiries centre on highly specialised itineraries, customised to our specific interests and requirements.
The dialogues are therefore not representative of mainstream holiday bookings, but our experiences nevertheless highlight key issues in the use of e-mail.
Starting with Zimbabwe, a destination that we have been to several times before, and where we deal directly with Craig, a safari agent in Kariba.
One immediate appeal of e-mail as a medium in this instance is the greatly reduced cost compared with phone or fax.
Ironically, for all the supposed unreliability of the Internet, it’s also our experience that an e-mail is often easier to get through to a destination blessed with a ‘less than perfect’ phone system!
It’s also easy to bat a complex itinerary back and forth with minor edits at either end. Craig was able to provide the Web address to enable us to check the details of a newly opened camp in Hwange.
Within half a dozen exchanges spread over a couple of weeks we had confirmed the trip.
E-mail is also proving ideally suited to handing minor changes in our itinerary such as internal flight timings, with a minimum of paperwork.
In the run-up to our trip, Craig can even keep us updated with current animal sightings – such as the leopard seen around the camp last week. Strange how that experience never happens when we are around!
Turning to our second ‘case- study’ and our search for an ‘get away from it all’ millenniumholiday.
Our first choice destination was Costa Rica. A favourite destination with Americans that boasts many informative Web sites. Surely e-mail should be an ideal medium to communicate by?
Instead, our half dozen enquiries produced not a single actionable reply – I’m excluding the company that sent an out-of-date newsletter by post, and the operator who referred us to a US agent who then failed to reply!
This immediately highlights an ‘issue’ in the handling of e-mail.
It’s relatively easy for us to make multiple enquiries, at minimal additional cost.
Without the direct face-to-face or telephone contact, it’s then much harder for the receiving agent to gauge the serious intent behind what might equally be a highly speculative enquiry.
On the ground in Costa Rica it was peak season for the various operators, and I’d guess that they also had no availability for the millennium – hence their reluctance to devote time to even a cursory reply.
Understandable perhaps, but also a missed opportunity, in that it’s a destination that we’re certain to enquire about again in the future.
I’ll leave the final and most telling case study until next time – the story of how e-mail has ultimately proved to be our millennium saviour.
Not only does text lack the emotional cues that vocal inflection gives, it also lacks cues from body language. There is no twinkling of the eyes to say you are kidding and no shoulders slumping to display discouragement.
However, under the broad umbrella of Netiquette, there are serveral textual stand-ins for gestures. Facial gestures can be represented with what is called a ‘smiley’ or ’emoticon’: a text drawing of a facial expression. Smileys are comprised of ordinary keyboard characters the most commonly used are:
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