Telephones, Smartphones, and Emails ...

Michael Ludwig

Michael Ludwig

Well-Known Member
Jul 6, 2009
1,933
2,811
113
64
Simcoe, ON
20
It's a slow afternoon here in beautiful downtown Simcoe ... so I'll throw this out for thoughts and conversation;

We experienced a rather disconcerting event with one of our trucks and loads last night which threw a huge monkey wrench into a load we had pre-booked to come home. Immediately, I emailed the tenderer of the load home with a full and complete explanation of the situation (I have nothing to hide) and did so again twice this morning.

Essentially what transpired was that the tenderer of the load blamed me for his not reading the email I sent and going so far as to call me twice and give me crap about it. When I asked him what he wanted me to tell him, he just got mad, accused me of poor service, and hung up the phone.

Admittedly I erred in not actually calling the tenderer of the load when I did not receive an actual reply to my email even though I did receive notification that it had indeed been delivered to the recipient, so there's nothing to be gained by beating me up on this point ;)

So my questions are, 1) who here equips their frontline people with 24/7 access to email, as well as telephone service, with such items as Blackberrys, iPads, and other types of smart and super phones, and 2) is email considered an acceptable form of communication in this day and age?
 
Added...

I just wanted to add that I have nothing against monkeys, regardless of their size, nor do I have anything against wrenches regardless of their species, nor do I have anything against crap regardless of its form ... I'm just sayin' I don't want anyone to think I am prejudiced against monkeys, wrenchs, or crap. :rolleyes:
 
we are on call 24/7, and have Iphones for our emails.

we have been on call for years, it's the only way to go to get into some accounts.
 
We always have people on call but an email at 3 in the morning might not be heard, we always suggest email first and if no response then call in case the person on call did not hear the email coming through (late at night early morning). Also we have a special email address that goes to basically everyone in the office that we give out for orders or propblems that way if one person misses it another should catch it, again with the understanding that people do sleep and we do not have a person staring at their I Phone all night long.
 
I know that our "today" we have no choice but to be able to have 24 / 7 contact access to someone. Obviously a trucking company that hauls long haul must have someone available at all times so that dispatch and drivers can keep in touch. Now, if the dispatcher has access to a device that emails can also be sent out even better. So there is an issue - dispatcher gets a call from driver. Dispatcher now emails the tenderer (broker, other carrier or direct client) of the situation/delay etc. Broker, carrier or direct client doesnt acknowledge the email, even though it showed as delivered. The same thing could have happened even if a phone call was made.....in our experience, most tenderers (broker, carrier or direct customer do not answer their phones after 5pm. And the ones that do are the ones that know their shipments are critical and will also be there when need be in the event of....we normally ask for an after hours emergency contact person for any work related moves outside normal operating business hours. Fact is: its not un-common for something to happen in our industry.
 
Key personnel here all have Blackberries and remote access to our system.

I personally, find Email a little cold and impersonal (yeah, I'm an older guy). I like to get to know my customers and carriers by talking to them. You can learn an awful lot about a person (what they like and what they don't, when they're stressed and when they're not, when they're having a good day and when they're having a bad one) by talking to them.

That said. More and more it's becoming a cover your butt type of world. In order to avoid a "yes, I told you that" - "Oh no you didn't" type of situation, I often preface or follow up with an Email just to protect myself. I will often bring other appropriate personnel into an Email of that nature as well (just to ensure that it doesn't get left without any action).

This whole technology thing ain't all it's cracked up to be.

PS... A friend and I were talking about technology this past weekend. He mentioned that he has a customer that he's done work with for over a year electronically (EDI & Email) and was shocked to finally speak with him last week and discover that he was a "He". The client's first name is "Kelly" and my buddy just assumed that it was a "she".
 
I have a framed full page article of a young woman standing outside a dock door looking out into the terminal area of the building and it reads: HOW DID DAD DO IT?...Know everyone's name. Cater to everyone's taste, Be in ten places at once, deliver day and night. How? How'd he do that....without the internet?
This may not mean anything to members on this site, but for me....it does.
 
This is just my humble point of view. I like to email and I like it when people email me. It allows me just a few more seconds to respond as opposed to a phone call which must be attended to right that instant. I do also like to have personal interaction with people and do not choose to email to the exclusion of real conversation. There are times, though, when I am not sitting at my desk or even have my smartphone right in front of me. There are also times when an important email never makes it to me (who knows why?) or gets sent to the spam folder. So as a rule, I like to follow up with a phone call when I don't get a response from an email because it can be a fantastic means of quick communication, but it is not fool proof. Particularly when the situation is urgent. I might have sent the email in the middle of the night for sure, but maybe followed up with a phone call right at 8am to make sure they received the message?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom