Thank Yous Do Make a Difference

Often is discussed whether you should send an e-mail reply that just has a simple “Thank You!.” One could say that to be a waste of time or that you are creating an unnecessary e-mail being added to the recipient’s inbox.

I have to wonder what type of society we live in where one has to ask if sending a Thank You e-mail is O.K. If everyone were courteous and e-mails simply stating “Thank You” were coming in by the handful, I could see where it may become an issue. But that’s not what is happening.

In my experience, those who take the time to send a Thank You for something you’ve done on their behalf are few and far between. Actually, Thank Yous are downright rare. I always get a smile on my face when after doing something for a site visitor or client (even something as trivial as answering a few questions or concerns) an e-mail lands in my inbox with those 8 little letters that only took a moment to send.

So until the day comes when everyone is so polite and considerate that we are all sending Thank Yous and they become meaningless, as of today, by doing so you stand out from the rest who don’t feel this little effort matters. Cause guess what — it does matter and make a difference. I know I am always more inclined to assist those who thank me over those who show no gratitude.

Put a smile on someone’s face today by letting them know you appreciate their efforts on your behalf. Take a moment and thank them! They’ll be glad you did!

A.T.&T., BellSouth, DSL — BEWARE!

Thanks to all who e-mailed wondering where I’ve been this week. Folks actually noticed I haven’t been posting.

To make a very long and painful story short, I’ve been off-line trying to recover from an AT&T/Bellsouth DSL corrupt/incomplete DSL installation. That disk came out of my drive last Friday afternoon and since that time, my computer has not been the same. Data lost, drives crashing and corrupt registry keys from their partner add-ons. There is so much junk on that disk that you are not given a choice to install or not. Then, the fact the install didn’t complete (I had no indication of that) or was corrupt and there you have it.

Being AT&T is now well on its way to taking over the telecom world — again — do yourself a favor and do a manual install if DSL gets introduced to your area. I went through 5 “tech support” knuckleheads who had no clue about how to help other than to tell me to keep turning my computer off and on when it locked up!

Tech Support “Level 3″ finally got around to calling me only to advise, since I paid an outside IT guy without their permission to get my business back up an running after their 5 “Level 2″ tech guys couldn’t, I would not be reimbursed. Plus “we can see you’ve been using your DSL connectivity for the past two days…” Yeah, how ironic — the DSL works fine — it’s the rest of the computer that is now not working. When I pointed him as to what to look for in the registry keys — dead air — even he didn’t know what to say.

Was I to wait up to 24 hours for tech support guy #6 to give me a call to “see” if he could resolve the situation after 2 days of the 5 previous to him obviously being incompetent? Nope — I made a command decision — to get my computer back up and running again and not sit around and wait to do so on AT&T’s terms! I had three businesses down that run off this workstation. Apparently to AT&T all they could do is read chapter and verse and scold me in the guise of inadequate customer service.

Thank goodness for the great guys over at Support.com! They were patient and pretty much spent 2 days on the phone with me to get my computer up and running to the point where I could backup data and reinstall the programs that that darned AT&T DSL Installation “Wizard” corrupted.

One day everything is just dandy. No errors — no problems, my $3,000 Workstation is humming along with no problems. You trust a company like AT&T to provide quality assistance and to back up their products and they don’t. So you’re on your own.

The lesson grasshopper? Never use an installation disk if you don’t have to. Never rely on big corporate giants like AT&T to do right by you and finally… if you run into computer problems, hop over to Support.com and ask for Dave P.!

A Little Please Never Hurts

Please: adverb

Used as a polite addition to requests, commands, etc.: if you would be so obliging; kindly: Please come here. Will you please turn the radio off?

E-mails flow into NetManners.com on a daily basis from folks wondering why those who e-mail them for assistance or with requests are so rude and blunt. “Is it me who is being over-sensitive to expect a ‘please’ once and a while?”

Even our Mothers taught us to say please and ask nicely for things. Why wouldn’t that apply to e-mail!? The answer is it does — that is if you don’t want folks to cringe when they see your name in their inbox.

You are not over-sensitive to expect a little common courtesy from those who are requesting you do something on their behalf. The next question that always follows is in regard to how they should respond. Should they ignore these type of requests? Should they ask the other side to say “please?” Many stating that they are inclined to not respond at all until they are asked nicely or in person.

Never stoop to the level of those who are so concerned with only what they need or want at any given moment that they neglect common courtesy. You are better than that. Lead by example, “kill” them with kindness — show them the right way to politely communicate via e-mail!

Taking the time to type these six letters will speak volumes about what it is like to work and communicate with you, not to mention what it says about you as a human being. Most importantly that you are a person that values other’s time and assistance when you need it.

Selective Capping O.K.?

If you needed to send an e-mail to your coworkers with a very important message, would it then be O.K. to cap and bold the sentence that was of the utmost importance?

Ask yourself this… Would you cap and bold if the e-mail were on company letterhead? If not, then don’t do it in e-mail. Do you think that unless you cap and bold those selected words that the recipients would not know their importance otherwise? You may be perceived as being condescending.

Keep in mind when using any sort of formatting, you are indicating emphasis. And, you are leaving the level of emphasis up to the recipient’s perception of what they think you mean. Why take that risk?

I prefer to believe that the right choice of words can communicate the importance of any statement without resorting to formatting. As a matter of fact, I rarely use formatting myself and have yet to have had anyone underestimate or misinterpret the intent or gravity of my e-mails.

That said, caps and bolding can be used if done thoughtfully and sparingly. You just have to be sure to be very careful to not do so in a manner that will be perceived as patronizing, yelling, overbearing or demanding.

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