Elaine,

Even when the web site provides an e-mail contact, it often is anonymous. Info@abccompany.com drives me insane, and represents one giant brand negative in my mind.

As for reporters, don't worry about them. Corporate PR departments make sure their contact information is readily available to journalists. Privately, of course.

Lewis

Elaine,

I think that companies with a contact page on their website, should be judged more on the resources that they have dedicated to responding to inquiries, rather than the sophistication of the fields on the page.

In a study that was conducted several years ago on this topic, it was shown that the vast majority of companies don't bother dedicating that portion of customer communications to a department that could follow up with the inquiry in a reasonable amount of time (within a week).

It's sad that enterprises spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to generating customer acquisition activities, and then let existing customers fall through the cracks in this way.

Good topic...you do Andy Rooney well :-).

What I love (love in the sarcastic sense) is when I do get to a contact page and have to fill out a lenghty form just to ask a small question. Oy!

I'm appreciating sites that have click-to-call options where you can type in your number and have the customer service rep. call you back in a few minutes (and you don't have to wait through all that hold muzak).

Contact issues like these indeed give the "look but don't touch" message. I've been discussing the customer service epidemic at a few blogs. When it comes down to it, it's now a differentiator when co's actually give good customer service. Even Citibank leverages it in its "just dial 0 for a person" ads and do a great job making fun of poor customer service. Good for them :-).

Elaine -- On the flip side, I'm always impressed when a company does it RIGHT... maybe because my expectations are Rooney-esquely low?

For example, I ordered some chocolate online for a friend Friday night (after 5 PM, actually) from one of my favorite companies, and was disappointed that a 25 percent off coupon code the company sent me had expired. To be fair, the code was 3 years old (!)....but there was no expiration date...so....well....it was a bit of an experiment to see how they'd handle it. I used an online form to email them -- and the owner (the owner!) emailed me back almost instantly, at like 8 PM, "Hi Ann -- We'll definitely honor it by November 11th..blah..blah..blah." Wow.

THAT was impressive.

Lewis, I agree with you about the PR specialists making their contact info known, but what of the smaller organizations and companies? Journalists don't often have them on their radar screen.

Jonathan, I totally agree. It astonishes me how the big boys spend gazillions on customer acquisitions and can't answer simple inquiries in a timely fashion.

Thanks, CK. I appreciate your comments. You'd think other companies would jump on the Citibank bandwagon and become more accessible. Double oy!

And Ann, I love to hear good news stories. My guess is that your chocolate company is a small or mid-sized business with a personal touch.

I don't know what's happening but lately, I've had a run of bad or indifferent customer service. Eg. I made a claim with my home warranty company over a month ago because the microwave door had a piece break off. The first repair tech came and said he'd order the part. The second repair tech came the next week and said the company ordered the wrong part. The third tech came and spent quite a while trying to figure out how the part worked before he accidentally smashed the inner glass panel in the door. Then he said they sent the wrong part with a broken part. The fourth guy is coming tomorrow. When I called the home warranty company and said how disappointed I was in this fiasco and that they ought to pay more attention to customer service issues, yada yada, I can just imagine the blank stare the guy had on the other end of the phone.

I'm doing a workshop this Thursday on customer service and I have so many horror stories, I can't decide which one to tell! :)

Elaine -- It's a small company based in Philly, and I should have mentioned it:

John & Kira's Artisan Chocolates
http://www.johnandkiras.com

Good luck with that workshop!

Hi Elaine,

Thanks for spearheading this topic. With you at the helm, you can be sure that the positive message of really communicating through this medium will finally be read.

There are times on the internet where one needs to be a stand up comic or great with monologues; the art of having two way communication from sites like you mention leave one hanging at effect. Or even hungry for answers so its easy to just dub-in in order to fill the vaccuum with something.

Today the battle lines are drawn in the dirt more deeply than ever before. Most of us are too busy working to look down and notice the dirt, let alone the lines marked thereon. Nevertheless, look down and they are there. You either think it's right to push the "info@contact", or you don't. You agree or you disagree, and the ripples from that pebble spread far and wide. The internet sites that have the knowhow and are user friendly and want to use the internet as their "storefront" have the saavy not to cut your communication. (You means people in general.)

Those that take the time to have their company or personal webblogs for others to comfortably use are lightyears ahead of the pack, and deserve to make a big mark in the world and in business. SK Telecom wireless may help by having the internet on our cell phones. I needed to think small to think big. Anyway, I am interested on more ways the "contact" buttons should be high on our list of what we need to improve and still have a filter for those that put dirt there, which may be why the good guys that want to use a company are put in the invalidated state. i may be over doing this but your article moved me to stand up and say something.

My best to you,
Kathy Smith
Marketingprofs is one website that knows the tech of communication and sets a stellar example to the world.

Wow, Kathy. Thanks for your positive comments. I can't say my little rant will change things, but if we're talking about it, it's a good start!

Elaine, I totally feel ya! Seeing as how the first objective for a company is to get people to contact them (in person, on the phone, via email, fax, what-have-you), that would be one of the most important things on the web site.

I'm the webmaster for a regional gardening magazine, Carolina Gardener (www.carolinagardener.com), and revamped the web site last winter; I know it's nothing stellar, but a significant (emphasis on that word) improvement over the previous one. Anyhow, you'll notice that I made it a point to put all the necessary contact information at the bottom of each page in a legible font, but also made a Contact Us page with every employee's email address, including the publishers. The "Contact Us" link is on the left side navigation of every page, as well. Not to mention an actual feedback form link on every page...

Not to toot my own horn or anything :) But just saying that I practice what you're preaching!

Are you ever concerned about identity theft? One of our divisions has about a dozen employee contact listings on their contact page. It's not hard to take that employee name, put it in a white pages search listing along with the company city (population of 40,000) and presto, in addition to name, place of employment, work phone, work fax, email address, and picture, now the identity thief has your home address and phone number. A few phone calls to some local banks and a thief can probably find out where you bank and then possibly get your pin # or website password reset. Sorry if generic emails don't do it for you but I don't want my name on our companies web site. I don't care about the spam but I want to keep my identity.