Email is a real form of communication in 2003, but the way some companies carry on, you might not know it.
Last week, I had two incidents involving a certain fast food chain whose main sandwich rhymes with “Glopper.” The first was that they got my order wrong; the second was that on another instance, they got my order wrong six times and I didn’t get an apology either time. I called and complained about the first incident, and was told to come back for some free large fries. Whoop-ti-do.
When the second incident occurred, I thought that I’d go ahead and contact a corporate office. So I went to this King of Burger’s website to find that, yes, there was absolutely no email address. Worse was a warning saying that any email sent to anyone at their domain would be ignored! What?
Here is a new rule of thumb that I feel is pretty reasonable: if you’re a business with a website, you should have either an email link for consumer feedback, or offer a form right on your site.
My second choice was to call this company. But they don’t have a toll-free number listed on their site, so that was a wash. The final option, which may be the strongest, is for me to write a real letter to them.
Now, I don’t mind writing real letters at all; I’d just rather have that be one of many options in talking with a company. I feel that if a company wants to have a website, they need to understand that it’s not a one-way thing.
Posted in Consumer Commentary