New Zealand email broken or just bad customer service

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sir1963

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Topic # 226074 19-Dec-2017 11:27

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Over the last month or so I have made enquiries via email to 6 or so NZ companies about products I want to buy.

ZERO replies from any of them, and this is not an isolated case, it happens a LOT.

When I have rung them its always "We never got your email..... so sorry", yet when I email overseas companies I get a reply back within a few hours to a day.

So I am wondering if the New Zealand email system is broken because I hear that from multiple people from multiple companies in NZ.

Yes I am being snarky and sarcastic, but the facts are true.

More and more we are buying from overseas, we get responses when we email, we get quote back within a few days (we have had one NZ company give us a quote 6 months after we had bought elsewhere and completed the job). Are NZ businesses so busy they don't actually want our money ?????

Putting GST on imports (which we simply claim back anyway) is not going to cure bad customer service which is pushing your (potential) customers away

xpd

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Reply # 1921822 19-Dec-2017 12:02

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NZ customer service in general is pretty bad IMHO. And a lot of smaller companies have used a cowboy IT person to set them up for email/domain and usually stuff something up ;)

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trig42

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Reply # 1921824 19-Dec-2017 12:04

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Yep, it is a shocker.

I prefer to email, because then I can look it up and refer to it.

NZ Companies do not seem to have grasped that they are losing business by not replying. I will go elsewhere rather than call a company that can't be arsed replying to an email.

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Rikkitic

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Reply # 1921839 19-Dec-2017 12:37

Same here. But is it just bad customer service, or maybe some kind of cultural thing? I spent part of my youth in America and what I learned there (long time ago, could have changed since then, of course) was that the customer was always king. The way to succeed was to always please the customer, even if that meant doing something that didn't make sense or was actually counter-productive. It was never about being right, always about doing what the customer wanted.

Holland was the polar opposite. Businesses there, especially smaller ones, seemed to have the attitude that they were doing you a favour by serving you. There seemed to be an air of condescension about it, an edge of attitude. This was in the cities, not so much smaller communities where everyone knows each other, also not tourist businesses.

I sometimes wonder if Kiwis are still locked into face to face mode, and just don't get email. I refuse to have a Facebook account and I have a hard time persuading people to communicate via email, though it is no harder than Facebook. It just doesn't seem to occur to people as an option here.

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lxsw20

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Reply # 1921853 19-Dec-2017 12:45

Americans are hard to beat for customer service, not sure if that's due to the fire at will culture or the tipping culture. The UK is the polar opposite, you ask for help in a shop and it's like you've completely ruined that persons day. NZ is somewhere in the middle, but usually I find it more good than bad service.

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Reply # 1921858 19-Dec-2017 12:50

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One thing I find when I shop in person in the US, is that the more wordy and nice you are the less they help! I think they

"Would you mind checking if this is available in a size L" gets you a blank/confused look.

"Got this in a Large?" gets a happy staff member running off to find one.

I feel rude using the second, but they don't seem to mind.

Rikkitic

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Reply # 1921869 19-Dec-2017 13:02

Many Americans get confused by big words or lots of them. The direct approach is usually better.

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mattwnz

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Reply # 1921885 19-Dec-2017 13:29

I have had the same problem getting companies to reply, although it only tends to be a few. But I am wondering if you do have a problem with your email, and they are getting classified as spam, to have that many people not reply?

networkn

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Reply # 1921888 19-Dec-2017 13:30

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I find the number of forms on websites that don't have a backend or that go to a staff member within a company that leaves is incredible.

We always configure emails like that to a role rather than a person, so if said person leaves and is replaced, the next person in that role, gets the alias and still get the emails.

MurrayM

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Reply # 1921910 19-Dec-2017 13:43

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Also it might be a case of if a business isn't used to receiving sale enquiry emails then they may think it's just a scam and ignore it.

When I had my own small web design business I used to receive lots of emails asking "How much does a website cost?", with no other details. At first I'd reply to each one but after a while I figured out that most of them were either from overseas (and therefore not someone that I wanted to work for as I pretty much specialised in working for local businesses where I could meet with the client and build a relationship) or weren't serious (did they honestly expect me to give them a quote without them providing any info at all about what they wanted?)

mattwnz

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Reply # 1921917 19-Dec-2017 13:49

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MurrayM:

Also it might be a case of if a business isn't used to receiving sale enquiry emails then they may think it's just a scam and ignore it.

When I had my own small web design business I used to receive lots of emails asking "How much does a website cost?", with no other details. At first I'd reply to each one but after a while I figured out that most of them were either from overseas (and therefore not someone that I wanted to work for as I pretty much specialised in working for local businesses where I could meet with the client and build a relationship) or weren't serious (did they honestly expect me to give them a quote without them providing any info at all about what they wanted?)

Yeah, many people these days seem to expect a whole lot of work putting together a price, without putting in any effort in themselves. These days I don't bother to estimate how much something is going to cost, unless they show some commitment from their end, otherwise I am just wasting my time. One company I know told me that they don't reply to inquiries, unless they either send a follow up email, or phone them. But they had lots of business so that approach worked for them.

Rikkitic

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Reply # 1921931 19-Dec-2017 14:16

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networkn:

I find the number of forms on websites that don't have a backend or that go to a staff member within a company that leaves is incredible.

We always configure emails like that to a role rather than a person, so if said person leaves and is replaced, the next person in that role, gets the alias and still get the emails.

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hio77

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Reply # 1921934 19-Dec-2017 14:18

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Rikkitic:

Many Americans get confused by big words or lots of them. The direct approach is usually better.

pretty sure this reaches beyond just americans....

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Pumpedd

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Reply # 1922028 19-Dec-2017 15:46

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hio77:

Rikkitic:

Many Americans get confused by big words or lots of them. The direct approach is usually better.

pretty sure this reaches beyond just americans....

Quite sure it applies to all. Not sure why Americans alone are picked on here.

Rikkitic

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Reply # 1922064 19-Dec-2017 16:39

Pumpedd:

Quite sure it applies to all. Not sure why Americans alone are picked on here.

Give it a rest. He was talking about the US, I responded to that.

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