Exploring Communications

I received two emails from eBay today (technically, one came last night and one this morning), the first had the subject line of “10% off voucher inside to say thank you”. It made me think ‘thank you eBay, you too are appreciating your customers and giving back in a small way in hard times.’

To be honest I was a tad surprised, but figured there’d be some catch to it as this particular brand just doesn’t seem to represent honesty or community-focus to me at the moment. Which is strange given the nature of its whole structure, without its community, it basically wouldn’t exist! When I try to pin point why I feel like this about the brand, the outcome is that it’s a combination of some ‘dodgy retailers’ as well as confusing and inconvenient changes to payment and feedback processes.

So… back to the emails – the second one, would you believe, says this:

Subject: IMPORTANT: CORRECTION TO EMAIL REGARDING 10% OFF VOUCHER

Dear xxxx,

A short while ago, you received an email from eBay which incorrectly contained
the following words in the subject line: “10% off voucher inside to say thank
you”.

The subject line of that email was wrong, and occurred as the result of a
technical error. Please note that there is no voucher or discount from
eBay.com.au associated with that email or otherwise applicable to you at this
time.

eBay sincerely regrets any inconvenience and thanks you for your understanding.

Regards,
The eBay Team

Technically, the email is right because the first didn’t actually have a voucher or anything in the email – it was just in the subject line. So obviously overnight there was MAJOR panic in the particular halls/desks responsible for this email as the first was sent without proofing… then the second sent in a panic without any thought for the recipients. Even the wording makes me feel insignificant and like perhaps someone else might be ‘applicable’ but certainly not me. Plus the fact that they blame it on a technical error… come one now, I think this one might have been human error yeah??

As a writer, I understand that proofing is such a critical element to any piece of writing. In spite of this, I too am guilty of not doing it enough and appreciate there is always a chance of human error. However, this incident goes far greater than just a proofing issue and could have been rectified in a far more effective way. I think the brand custodians need to have a long hard think about how they are portraying themselves as slowly but surely they are eroding their trust and community and one day they’ll wonder where their listings went.

The more I adopt social software and transact online the more I am discovering I have to trust people i don’t know and may never meet… which doesn’t come naturally to me in any way shape or form. It’s certainly not a bad thing as imagine what an impact this will have for global communications over a period of time.

If you look at my previous world of social interaction… as a cancerian, I have a hard shell in which i can hide. Perfected over years it had become quite effective when required… But that was for ‘hard copy’ social interactions… now i am having more and more ‘soft copy’ social interactions it’s a whole new ball game; with new rules, a new language and far less geographic boundaries.

Just over the last week i have had a number of interactions with eBay purchasers, emailing, calling and coming to pick up items won. Some of these interactions have been positive and some not so positive. In order to make the transaction possible i needed to have a certain degree of trust in these people. Add to this interactions I have with Twitter, Facebook, Brightkite, Blogs I realised that I am actually communicating far more with people I don’t have any physical contact with than with the people I know in person.

Then this leads me to think about the value of a hard copy as opposed to a soft copy, interaction. Do humans need to have hard copy interactions to exist as ‘normal’ human beings… if all you had were soft copy social networks how would humans evolve differently? What will happen to our language and what will my two and four year old be doing when they’re in their thirties???

When I was young I was taught not to trust strangers… but what do i teach my children, now that I am having to cross my traditional boundaries. If people followed these traditional boundaries then all these fabulous online communities wouldn’t be germinating. I am not really sure there is an answer to this pondering… but it’s been good exploring it.