John Lawrence
Well-known
Which is exactly what the repairers I know have either done, or are in the process of doing. Two have stopped advertising their email address and another now puts a disclaimer next to the email address that he can not guarantee a response to emails and strongly advises that you telephone him.
As I stated earlier, this is an observation based on conversations I've had with a number of top repairers who are also my friends. I posted it in this thread because I felt that it may be helpful and save a good deal of time and frustration to anyone contemplating a repair, or who has one currently in progress.
John
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jmooney
Guy with a camera
That's really a shame, I can't see it doing anything but decreasing business for them. I honestly don't know a business can function without using the web, email, Paypal, etc these days. A Leica repairer will probably fair better than most because people will generally seek them out but if I have to play phone tag to get something done, I'll go elsewhere. In my mind and my business email is so much more efficient, time can be set aside for answering them, and you'll spend a lot less time on an email than you would on the phone so you can deal with more customers in a given period. Not to mention I or my customers can send an email any time of the day or night. I don't want a customer to call at 3am nor do I think it's a good idea to call them then myself.
Just my $.02.
John Lawrence
Well-known
I don't disagree, but just for the record, here's how one of them explained it to me.
Every day he receives in excess of 100 emails. Taking an average of 100 messages a day he reckoned that only about 10 per cent may yield some business to him. He worked out that it took him at the very minimum 2 minutes to read each message and 4 minutes to respond to each of the 10 messages that may be fruitful. Thus he calculated it took him 200 minutes to read the messages and a further 40 minutes to respond to those 10. Thus his total time spent on reading and replying was 240 minutes or 4 hours per day.
Working an 8 hour day, half his day was gone doing this and he fell behind with the (paying) repairs he had sent to him. To remedy this he could either work a 12 hour day, plus 4 hours on Saturday and Sunday (to cover the weekend messages), which he did not want to do, preferring to spend time with his family, or he could hire an assistant.
Hiring an assistant would mean that he would have to raise his repair prices to pay for him / her and would subsequently lose more than 10 per cent of his existing customer base, and possibly price himself completley out of the market. He also pointed out that the knowledge he's gleaned over 30 years can't just be passed on to an assistant and so he would still have to constantly advise the assistant on repair matters, how to respond and which messages to respond to, which would eat into his repair time.
As he has a constant flow of work (through word of mouth and his reputation) he decided that the best thing to do was not to advertise an email address or have any web presence.
John
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John Lawrence
Well-known
One interesting thing I noticed when I saw the inbox of the man in question, was the number of messages asking for information and / or advice which is readily available on the internet.
I often wonder whether these messages are down to ignorance or laziness on the part of the sender, as I see a similar pattern on the 'crossword solver' sites I also frequent. A subscriber will post a question asking for the answer to a specific clue, which will be given, and then almost two messages later, another subscriber will ask for the answer to the same clue in the same crossword! This pattern continues throughout the day, with the same question and answer being given often in excess of ten or twelve times.
I think it must be due more to laziness, as the repairer showed me some messages he'd answered asking for the value of a camera, only to get a reply from the same person stating that one had just sold on Ebay for more than he'd quoted or that such and such a site valued it higher!!
John
I often wonder whether these messages are down to ignorance or laziness on the part of the sender, as I see a similar pattern on the 'crossword solver' sites I also frequent. A subscriber will post a question asking for the answer to a specific clue, which will be given, and then almost two messages later, another subscriber will ask for the answer to the same clue in the same crossword! This pattern continues throughout the day, with the same question and answer being given often in excess of ten or twelve times.
I think it must be due more to laziness, as the repairer showed me some messages he'd answered asking for the value of a camera, only to get a reply from the same person stating that one had just sold on Ebay for more than he'd quoted or that such and such a site valued it higher!!
John
wgerrard
Veteran
A business is in no obligation to answer email or even answer the phone. If someone can generate enough traffic to meet his needs, then dealing with unsolicited and unprofitable communications is a net loss.
However, as I said earlier, if you accept someone's property for repair or service, then advise your customer of the anticipated turnaround time, you have an obligation to communicate with that customer when you keep their property beyond the expected turnaround time. E.g., if the customer is told "two weeks", and three weeks go by, then the customer is owed an explanation. If the customer is told up front that the turnaround may take several months, then the situation changes.
So, the irritant is not the turnaround time, or someone's unwillingness to tread through hundreds of unwanted emails. The irritant is not providing the timely information paying customers have a right to expect.
Now, life happens, and unexpected personal events can intrude into the professional or business lives of all of us. Customers need to understand that.
By the way, Sherry's website includes her full street address, her phone number, her email address, and an urging to contact her via that email address.
One suggestion about email: Get a second, and unpublished, email address that is used exclusively to contact paying customers. Tell those customers they need to contact you at that address.
However, as I said earlier, if you accept someone's property for repair or service, then advise your customer of the anticipated turnaround time, you have an obligation to communicate with that customer when you keep their property beyond the expected turnaround time. E.g., if the customer is told "two weeks", and three weeks go by, then the customer is owed an explanation. If the customer is told up front that the turnaround may take several months, then the situation changes.
So, the irritant is not the turnaround time, or someone's unwillingness to tread through hundreds of unwanted emails. The irritant is not providing the timely information paying customers have a right to expect.
Now, life happens, and unexpected personal events can intrude into the professional or business lives of all of us. Customers need to understand that.
By the way, Sherry's website includes her full street address, her phone number, her email address, and an urging to contact her via that email address.
One suggestion about email: Get a second, and unpublished, email address that is used exclusively to contact paying customers. Tell those customers they need to contact you at that address.