I’ve got an object lesson for you today, so let’s start with a story:
I recently bought a new camera (a Nikon D40 DSLR, which I love, thank you), but I’m irritated with Adorama camera. Even though we’re in different states, they charged me sales tax. I sent an e-mail to amazon.com who agreed that it should not have been charged, but that I’d need to contact Adorama directly, which I did. Now, I’m all kinds of happy with my actual order and I can’t fault their order fulfillment, but . . . my God, who do they have doing their customer service??
This is the reply I got back (with misspellings, bad typing, and multi-colors intact):
I am really sorry, but every one have to pay sales taxes, the difference on how much, it will depend on where the shipping address is.
For example I have an overseas credit card, when I use it here in NY either if I choose pick it up at the store or that they deliver it to me , I always pay 8.13%.
Also you please check Sales taxes in the United States – New Jersey has a 7% state sales tax. This is split as 3.5% for the State, and 3.5% for the municipality.
Um, ack! Completely disregarding the lack of a helpful response (i.e., the answer I want (grin)), this is one of the most badly-written, appallingly atrocious e-mails I have ever received. Really. Ever.
Think about how badly this makes Adorama look. I’m not happy about the $45 sales tax, but I am absolutely appalled at the verbal skills of this person from “On line customer services,” who doesn’t even seem to know that “online” is one word, or that titles and department names are usually capitalized. (The fact that she so nicely/patronizingly gave me a link to Wikipedia informing me that NJ has its own sales tax didn’t help matters. Gosh, really? I’ve never bought anything here ever in my life and hadn’t realized. SO helpful.) My verdict on Adorama? Great camera and very prompt service which I appreciated and can’t fault, but their follow-through and customer service?? Oy. Awful.
Which just goes to show–it doesn’t matter how good a service you provide, how well you fulfill that service IF you don’t back it up with a professional appearance. Good grammar may not be the most important thing in the world, but just like a clean appearance, a friendly smile, and decent manners … its absence sticks out like a sore thumb, and that’s what people are going to remember. Years from now, I might remember how quickly I got my camera in the mail, but I will absolutely remember the terrible e-mail I got from customer service. Not only that, but if I needed to place another camera order right now? I’d be more inclined to patronize a company whose employees show a reasonable grasp of the language.
You might say, but didn’t this employee got her point across? Yes, she did, but she left a bad impression. If there had been one typo in there, I would have chalked it up to a simple error. Everyone makes mistakes, and people are busy, yes, yes, but with this many? Not to mention the sloppy visual of the bad typing with double spaces between words, and the multiple colors? Not very professional.
And that is exactly the point. End of lesson.
I think that you might be able to get that sales tax back next year when you do your state taxes. Well, you probably wouldn’t get it back, but you might get it taken off what you owe or added to your refund.
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I’m sorry you’re offended by the service rep’s English language skill level. I’m an ESL teacher and I’ve seen a lot of non-native English writing. I’d be willing to bet that the writer is not a native English speaker. (This guess is supported by the rep’s reference to an “overseas credit card” btw.)
I find myself of two minds here — or more precisely, two emotional reactions. I do feel that the company would have done better to test the English skills of its reps before turning them loose on the public. However, I have a lot of sympathy for foreigners trying to get by in English.
If I were the one receiving this customer service email, I think I’d probably come down on the side of hoping the nice non-native writer has many years ahead to improve his or her English.
Shira
Not speaking any other languages myself, I have nothing but admiration for people who learn to function in a language different than the one they grew up in. My grandparents did, but I can’t remember ever hearing my grandmother use anything less than good English–she had a faint accent, but her sentences were as complete as mine were.
I absolutely agree that this woman sounds like a non-native speaker and, if she were helping me out at a store in person, I’d be willing to make allowances, while applauding her for tackling this challenge. But that’s different. If a person is a sales person in a camera store, or working in a department where communication skills aren’t vital, then shaky English is unimportant and more power to them. But to have been hired to respond to customer emails–which is strictly a use-the-written-language skill–then I feel that the language skills are VERY important. Because that’s the main point of her job. I sympathise with the learning curve, but that shouldn’t be the kind of job that requires on-the-job training (grin).
I agree. Customer service, especially over the phone or online, where you only have words to work with, are not the kind of jobs for people who haven’t learned the native language yet. Sadly, they are often the best job a person in that situation can get.
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I have to agree with the sentiments already expressed. My first thought was that this is clearly an ESL individual. Considering that, the grammar actually isn’t so bad.
My second thought was of a member of my family who happens to be very intelligent but has an ongoing struggle with spelling and grammar. However, this family member would never take a job that requires a lot of written communication.
My guess? Overseas outsourcing.
My verdict? I don’t think companies should hire people with a poor command over written English to engage in written communications with customers. It’s bad for business. However, there are worse things. Like no answer at all. 😉
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I did receive an e-mail from another person there who said:
“You are absolutely right to be unimpressed with the standard of English and the overall presentation of the email that you received – I certainly was……… I appreciate your discretion in not publishing the name of the sender of the email; however, I would be grateful if you could forward it directly to me as the content indicates that we need to address this issue either on an individual level, or within our staff training programme. Adorama is one of the largest photographic retail and mail order suppliers in the USA, building our reputation over 30 years in the photographic field. We don’t use an agency or a call center outside the US to provide customer support; the sales team are all based in our New York office. Once again, my apologies for the email that you received; you can be assured that we will use this as a learning experience to improve the standard of training within the sales team.”
I wholly sympathize with ESL people because they’re still managing something that I can’t do (grin)–but if your job is communication, it behooves you to communicate as well as possible, or it reflects badly on you and your employer. The person at the other end of the e-mail can’t see that you’re still learning, while a face-to-face encounter would counteract that.
It’s true, though, Melissa–no answer at all would be worse! (grin)