| DO Not send me any more attachments. I was preparing a leadership program for a professional society that I have worked with several times, and I got an email recently from the Executive Director. The email message was pretty simple - "Attached is the agenda for our meeting. Please review it and let me know if it is o.k. to send to the attendees." Bad decision, Ms Executive Director. Any one who knows me is aware of the fact that I am the most technologically-challenged association executive in America. When she said the agenda was "attached," my immediate reaction was "Where?" There was nothing to attach anything to. I looked behind my computer, I looked under my computer, I searched beneath my mouse pad. Nothing. To me, if something is "attached" there's going to be a paper clip or a staple involved. At the very least there should be a sticky note. Then I realized I had to "download" the attachment. I figured I should learn to do this sometime, so now seemed like the time. I clicked download on my screen and instantly a message flashed on to the screen. ''WARNING! WARNING! ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THIS?" I had flashbacks to "Lost in Space" ("Danger, Will Robinson"). I don't know if I'm sure I want to do this. What happens if it doesn't work? Anyway, I pushed my chair away from the computer, clicked the "yes" button, and cringed as I waited for the computer to explode. Instead, this really neat little graph counted down the seconds until it was over ("this download will self destruct in 5 seconds, Mr. Phelps"). Finally this voice said, "Download done." Where did it go? I clicked the message again and got the original message back. Now I had to go find the download. I went to a "Download Manager" and after thirteen clicks I found what looked like my agenda. So I clicked it. Nothing. Gone. Truly, lost in cyber space. Vanished into thin air. You know what? I've got hundreds of these babies floating around my office somewhere. That's right. People keep sending me attachments, I keep downloading them and losing them into thin air. And the worst part is, every one of us has a member - probably a LOT of members - just like me. We need to understand that electronic communications in NOT universal - yet. It will be, and it will be soon. But for the time being, if a member CALLS you for information, why do you email an answer back? If they wanted to communicate via email, wouldn't they tell you, or give you a sign (such as contacting YOU via email)? Don't make assumptions about your members and their ability to communicate in a manner that's convenient to you, because it's not about you. It's about the member. Find out their preferred method of communication and use that. If that's inconvenient for you, too bad. Don't brush off a member via email just to get it "out of the way." Communicating with members in an effective manner isn't something to get out of the way - it's what we (the staff) are paid to do. It's our job. It's our ONLY job. Do it to the satisfaction of the member - the customer - not to the path of least resistance for you. By the way, when I finally got my agenda from the E.D., it was exactly six lines long. Wouldn't it have been easier to just put it in the body of the email, or even just read it to me over the phone? Anyway. things are looking up. I got a call from one of my other clients who asked how I liked the "singing invitation" to her leadership conference. What singing invitation, I asked. Why, the one that was in my email attachment, she replied. Great. Now I've got songs, as well as agendas, floating around in cyber space. At least I won't have to pay for that Muzak in my office anymore. |
