E-mail’s promise is full of
problems
By John Graham
E-mail may be the most significant
communications advance since the telephone and it has totally
changed the way we exchange information.
How dependent are we on e-mail? Perhaps
it’s not an exaggeration to suggest that if e-mail were
taken away, business would come to an instant halt and catapult
us into a worldwide depression.
While e-mail technology deserves endless
praise, the abuses are just as notable. The quantity of junk
e-mail explodes faster than a pair of rabbits. And
there’s no end in sight.
Who would have thought that anything could
possibly exceed the volume of junk mail we find in our
mailboxes? Yet, looking back just a couple of years, it was
nothing compared to the amount of junk e-mails that fill our
computer mailboxes. Even the delete button is small comfort.
Certainly, the promises of junk e-mail are
dazzling! How can anyone resist the endless possibilities?
“Eliminate your debt.” The
dream comes true.
“Stop hair loss this week!”
Another dream comes true.
“You can own an adult web site and
make huge $$$.” So exciting, daring, and naughty.
“Win a Mercedes!” Just what
I’ve been waiting for.
“FREE Viagra.” Maybe e-mail is
not so bad after all.
“Reach 1 million prospects.”
Just think of all the money that will come rolling in.
“Get two FREE airline
tickets!” That vacation is in reach, finally.
It’s all too good to be true.
At the same time, there’s another
side to the e-mail frenzy, one that’s darker and less
friendly, and it’s having a negative impact on the
business environment.
1. E-mail tends to encourage interpersonal
dueling. Because e-mail messages are often “dashed
off” and less well thought out than a letter, for
example, they can be curt or even misleading.
One manager received an e-mail from a
client who had received the wrong e-mail attachment. “I
asked for this last week.” Reading between the words, the
implication was clear. The sender was somewhat irritated and
outraged. While the attachment was incorrect, he had
“forgotten” that certain work was necessary before
the document could be sent to him.
Senders tend to use as few words as
possible, so e-mailing tends to encourage abruptness, something
most people avoid in face-to-face or telephone conversations.
And since the recipient is unseen, it is easier to be blunt.
2. E-mail often confuses action with act.
A by-product of more efficient communication, particularly
e-mail, is the erroneous belief that sending a message is all
that’s required. In other words, an act (sending an
e-mail message) is confused with action (resolving a problem,
for example). When asked about a particular situation, we often
hear someone say, “I sent her an e-mail” as if
sending the message absolves the sender from further
responsibility.
3. E-mail seems to encourage third-rate
thinking. Half the messages don’t make sense. How many
times a day do you hit the “reply” button and ask
the sender what he or she meant?
Because it is designed to be quick, e-mail
seems to foster off-the-cuff, shoot-from-the-hip thinking. Or,
more to the point, a lack of thought. Whatever comes into
someone’s mind at the moment is sent It’s as if
getting the message sent is more important than the message
itself.
4. E-mail often encourages
“dumping” on the people we need to help us. Friday
afternoon is the worst, but the end of any day of the week is
bad. And then there’s the day before a three-day holiday.
There’s nothing like it. This is the time for
“e-mail dumping.” Get it off the desk. Don’t
get caught on Monday with someone saying, “Hey Toni, did
you take care of the Anderson job?” And you say,
“Don’t worry about it. I sent it on to Joe.”
.
What makes “dumping” insidious
is that the messages are often incomplete. The administrative
assistant sends the printer an order by e-mail but half the
specs are missing. Who cares? It’s gone until next week!
Unfortunately, “dumping”
encourages miscommunication, mistakes, and a loss of time.
5. E-mail can depersonalize communication.
Face-to-face communication is not necessary much of the time.
Besides, it often takes up valuable time. E-mail, however,
seems to change the nature of the communication process. For
example, we say things in an e-mail message that we probably
would not say either on the phone or face-to-face. It’s
not uncommon to open an e-mail and discover something like this:
“I need the job done tomorrow before 9:00 a.m.”
Now, that may not be a problem most of the time, but generally
this type of message involves a complicated task. And the
request would never be expressed so blatantly by phone, for
example, where a sense of negotiation would take place.
Being warm and fuzzy all the time is far
from necessary. In fact, being a little less
“chatty” is often in order. At the same time,
e-mail makes it easier to depersonalize communication and to
disregard the recipient.
6. E-mail seems to encourage stupid
behavior. It’s far easier to be stupid with e-mail than
it is with junk snail mail, broadcast faxes, or telemarketing.
It takes extra effort, of course, but it seems as if a lot of
people are determined to prove the point. The culprit, of
course, is price. Anyone with a computer, an e-mail address
list and a telephone line salivates at the thought of reaching
a quarter of a million “prospects” on the cheap.
To reach so many people so fast and for so
little is almost too good to be true. Although those sending
you the 159 e-mails that greet you on Monday morning
don’t seem to realize it, it is too good to be true. They
can save you from bankruptcy or help you get there. They will
increase your bust size or your virility. Someone you
don’t even know is waiting to pay your bills. And a free
vacation is just a click away. Talk about heaven on earth.
With e-mailing so cheap, everyone comes
out of the woodwork at midnight. How could anyone be so stupid
as to expect it to work? It’s not surprising that all
this is happening. “Blast faxing” has slowed down
with the explosion of broadcast e-mailing.
The genius of e-mail is primarily as an
incredibly effective and efficient form of communication that
deserves the same high standards as writing any thoughtful
letter or memo. To abuse it is to abuse those who receive our
e-mails.
John R. Graham, president of Graham
Communications, a marketing
services and sales consulting firm, is the author of The New
Magnet Marketing. He writes for a variety of publications and
speaks on business, marketing and sales topics for company and
association meetings. He can be contacted at (617)
328-0069; fax (617) 471-1504, or e-mail:
j_graham@grahamcomm.com).
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