What kind of a response time do you expect to your e-mails? Same day? Next day? Within the week?

And how do you handle it when you don’t get the anticipated reply? Do you send another e-mail? Switch to a different medium—maybe voice mail? March down to the person’s office? Give up?

Well, it all depends on how critical that response is to you, doesn’t it? If your e-mail is to your tech support and you’ve got a real problem with your computer, it’s hot. If it’s a lengthy catch-up message to your daughter and you’re hoping to get her latest news, you’ll probably wait days.

Petting the Cyber Dog

And what do you do if you don’t hear back at all? This is where I bring in the cyber dog. You know the old story about the kid who claimed the dog ate his homework.

I invented the cyber dog as a playful way of following up on e-mails that seem to have evaporated into cyberspace. By the way, they can evaporate into cyberspace, and you may not get a delivery failure notice telling you that something went awry. To follow-up, I might forward the original e-mail and add a comment in the body of the second e-mail about the cyber dog eating my first e-mail. It often works.

It also works to establish levels of e-mail urgency with people who are prone to overlooking your electronic communications. Talk to the person—face to face or by phone. Explain that you understand they are overwhelmed, but some of your messages are really important. Agree on a labeling scheme: Urgent (need to know NOW); Important (it matters, but it’s not urgent); Action (something needs to be done, but it’s not burning). If your e-mail is not any of the above, then use just a normal subject line. Otherwise, one of these words should precede the e-mail topic in the subject line.

Staying Human

The more electronic communication tools we add, the more we distance ourselves from direct human interaction. A recent newspaper article noted that an Atlanta firm has declared Fridays “no e-mail” days. Personally, I think this is a ridiculous way to address the problem. It ignores the fact that e-mail is the best way to communicate some things and the worst way to communicate others. Instead, invite employees to think about what they are trying to accomplish and choose their communication modality based on their intention.

In 1998, I contributed a chapter to a book entitled Web-Weaving: Intranets, Extranets and Strategic Alliances. “Staying Human in A Machine-Dominated World” addresses issues that have only become worse in the years since it was written. While human history is the story of change, there are still many things that are unaltered. Consider how much information you would have in your lifetime if you lived 800 years ago. Not much. Still, there are some things that are the same today as they were then.

The next time you want to communicate with someone, actually think about which medium is best for what you want to accomplish. Maybe you’ll pick up the phone instead of banging out an IM message. Perhaps that will be a good thing.

Picture a TV interviewer asking a simple question: “Do you IM?” Then fast-forward to individual Baby Boomers in rapid succession saying, “No,” “Not me,” “I don’t use it,” “No way.” That was the result of some informal research at a Consulting Alliance meeting in Albany recently.

But pop down a generation to the 30 and 40 somethings and the message is mixed. IM (instant messaging) can be helpful for a busy family where Dad or Mom or both are at the office much of the time. Using electronic devices for messaging while in a business meeting may be frowned on, but who can tell what you’re really doing on a long-winded conference call?

Mixed Message

Still, even this generation seems to echo comments from our graphic designer Giannina Silverman of Rocket Ranch Design in the Seattle area who says, “My usage of IM falls into the way ‘older’ folks use it. I am not glued to it the way kids are. It’s a huge distraction for me and takes away from my ability to focus.”

Tish Grier uses IM during the day to exchange information with people she’s collaborating with. “The use of IM nowadays is drifting away from being simply generational,” she observes. “It all depends on the industry you are in. Friends of mine who have been in the computer industry for a very long time who started with e-mail and newsgroups have gone to IM because it's faster.”

Ah “faster.” In our instant-gratification universe, faster is king. But it’s not only speed and immediacy that invites teens into the IM world, though I’m sure that plays a part. Young people have always invented their own language and use of technology to communicate with their friends as part of the coming-of-age drama. The new language of IMing follows a tradition no doubt first begun in the stone age, for those who lived long enough to come of age.

Free Service

This whole conversation about IM is actually an outgrowth of our November article about business cards. In “First Among Equals” we mentioned AOL as an inappropriate business e-mail address for people with their own company URL. Amy Moore of Internet Support Service pointed out that AOL offers added benefits such as spam filters and IM service. And that led to further thoughts about instant messaging.

As a matter of fact, you can get IM without an AOL account. I have it, but it’s rarely turned on. Occasionally on weekends, I leave it on in the hopes of connecting with a family member in Atlanta. It rarely does anything but annoy me with the opening and closing of electronic doors as people come and go.

If you are interested in giving it a try, there’s the old standards problem. Each service that offers IM has their own, which isn’t compatible with the others. But stand by, Microsoft is working on changing that. In addition to AOL, Google and Yahoo! offer free service and there are a host of free downloadable programs as well.

Have something to add on the topic? E-mail us.

When a friend arrived at JFK and left her digital camera in the ladies room, she couldn’t reach a real person by phone. In the end, she had to drive back to the air port in search of the missing item.

There are lots of times when e-mail or voice mail just doesn’t cut it. You want to talk to a real person. Checkout http://gethuman.com /us for the secret code to bypassing call directors and getting to speak with a member of your own species. The site is dynamic, so you can help others if you have phone numbers to add.

By the way, an honest real person found my friend’s camera, and she got it back in tact.

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Susanna Opper
Shawenon Communications
susanna@shawenon.com

413-528-6494

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