Dear Mr. Chief Executive of Insurance Company,
This afternoon I spent 45 minutes on the telephone, at my cost, speaking to a lady called Raquel in General Enquiries. Now, Raquel did promise to call me back but, as luck would have it, something more important must have come up to grab the collective attention of your Administrative Department. I say this because my hand has been poised expectantly over the telephone but the instrument has not rung.
On no account must you admonish Raquel, who really was very helpful. It’s not her fault that she has been so badly let down by the ashes of the remains of the debacle which purports to call itself your Email Service.
These are the points I was anxious to resolve with her:
- I sent an email to you on 18/09/02 (Email 01: copy attached). Following receipt of your Autoresponse (Email02), I waited. I did not receive a response within 5 days so I sent another email (Email03) which provoked another Autoresponse (Email04). I followed this up with a phone call which produced a letter (Letter01) answering my queries in full.
A minor oversight then. No harm done.
My policy renewal date looms large on the horizon so I then made further enquiries of a different nature which I put to you also by email (Email05) which attracted the now familiar Autoresponse (Email06).
I note that Autoresponse (Email06) excludes the statement We will provide you with a full response within 5 working days which featured prominently in Email02 and Email04. Personally I think this is a wise move on your part because you can’t even give a full response within 10 working days, witness the lack of same to Email05. I found myself reading out a transcript of Email05 to a patient Raquel on the telephone in order to communicate my queries to you.
This is not how the email system is designed to work. If you can provide an Autoresponse then, obviously, that’s a good start. A step in the right direction, so to speak. However, what you really need now you’ve got Autoresponse ‘up and running’ is somebody to actually read the emails you are Autoresponding to. If that person can then pass the email to somebody who can answer the queries raised by the email you will be pretty close to having a workable system. All that’s needed then is for somebody to send a reply to the originator of the email, a reply which preferably contains a few answers, and I’d say you were on a winner.
Please find out how to integrate email responses into your current administrative procedures and then let me know when it is safe to use them.
- I am still anxious to resolve the matters I raise in Email05. These are now 2 weeks more urgent than they were when I originally raised them.
Many thanks,
Nostradamus
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Sent using the dubiously efficient service offered by the Royal Mail.