Is Email Dead?

Here, I am expressing a combination of business and personal attitudes into this article. I feel strongly about certain points, and want to use my position to let others know what is going on. Though this approach might be questionable, I view the greater perspective.

Each day millions of people send email to others. The message's code is routed through so many locations, until finally it is delivered to the recipient's mail server. Anyone can create a mail server today, as software and internet connections are plentiful. While I certainly enjoy the fact that there is freedom with email, should we uphold rules for the usage? It's a fact that the world is not a perfect place, corrupt by the evil and others that want to create wrong ethics. We see such characters when we read our email. Here, we call them spammers, or a few other words. If I give my email address to a Mac software company and they (secretly) give it to an email list that actually pertains to solely Mac software, I can probably live with it. Perhaps I will read of something of interest. But let's face the facts, company's sell their collected email addresses to any list. These spammers can market any product or service, which can easily vary out of our potential interests. Thus, they need to contact millions of users, which only makes us more angry. Company's don't have to sell their lists though, and some clearly say that they won't. Others say that they will, but it's in fine print in some area that is nearly impossible to access. Spammers can obtain their email addresses from resources that are free. Much of this method is illegal, but they laugh at it. Perhaps now it is more obvious why there should be rules governing email.

There is another issue that needs some attention. Much of the email that is sent requires a response to the message. In what amount of time should the response be given? Personal and casual email has an undefined timeline; it's just basically whenever a person finds the time. This is fine and works well. For business email, things differ. For example, if a customer sends email to a company's tech support department, that email should be addressed within a set amount of time. The customer may have issues that need to be resolved, and the company's warranty provides a tech support service. The pathetic fact remains though. It is that much of this email remains unanswered, forever. Some more of it is answered with irrelevant words thrown together to almost create a thought. This of course is delivered a week after the questions were asked. Only a small percentage is actually answered with suitable replies and within a quick turn around time. Are these companies taking email seriously? It is not only limited to tech support questions either, but includes pre sales questions, price concerns, and many other topics. It is understandable that some people simply can't sit at their workstation all day and wait for email. But how hard is it to click a button four times a day? When you see something that needs a response, just write it out then. Simply click send and you're done. Of course, other email requires actual work from the recipient, and can require more time for a response. This should not be days though. These email recipients are the same people that welcome email as a form of communication. These people freely give their email address next to their name or company. Should they even bother if they won't reply within a quick time or even at all? Their phone number is below their name as well, but does one take precedence over the other? Honestly, if you try to phone a company or an individual, you may easily be pawned off to a holding area or the famous voice mail. Clearly, email allows for negotiation of time.

Email is sent and delivered within minutes, making it a powerful tool that can be utilized. If corporate email is not replied to, email might as well take hours to be delivered. If it's hours for the delivery, why not send a FedEx Same Day letter? We live in a world where we can implement same day delivery, which is faster than email from many corporations. Are we really making the best out of email? (You can probably see where my personal insights are applying to this article. Yes, I have experienced these email issues. But, I am not alone as I have seen so many others with the same problems. I have spoken with them, I have heard them complain about their corporate email experiences.) It is not a coincidence that email is "lost" or never replied to. Some corporate employee simply decided to throw it out, to brush it off into the trash. Corporations throwing out important email today, but what will this lead to tomorrow?

So what do we do about these problems? Let's take a look at one option. Corporations ought to have special email software, installed on the mail server and client machines. We need a company to develop such software that can be used with the general public as well. When email is sent from a customer or other person, it is delivered to the mail server. Here is where the special software has an influence. A confirmation of receipt is sent to the sender, noting the time and date. (Understand that return receipts are currently not supported by very many mail servers.) When the email is read, another confirmation is sent to the sender. This will give some reassurance to the customer. Within 24 business hours, the sender should receive a reply. If this does not occur, a negative message will be sent to the email software company's database, which is freely available to anyone. Statistics are created and good as well as bad notes are given to all major corporations. This would be similar to a BBB report, stating the company's vital info. Customers can voice their comments to a database that will report info to the people as a whole. This will apply some added pressure to the companies that fail to reply to email. Perhaps it will allow users to have email answered successfully. Perhaps it will flop and go down the drain. Perhaps it will get to a point where nobody really cares. Perhaps we are already at that point?

And now, the simple revelation that I am trying to make is a bit more clear. I really don't want a developer to create special email software so that we can materialize even our email usage. What I want is for people to assess their morals when it relates to email. We don't need special gadgets, we don't need special statistical reports (though I do support the BBB, as they are so much more). We need people to rely on their good morals and apply that to email usage. When someone asks for a reply, it needs to be given. When an email address is obtained by a company, good morals state that the address should not be sold to spammers. Spammers are composed of bad morals, so they are simply wiped out. "Good bye and good day," I say to them. They should be removed at once if possible, but one by one if necessary. They are abusers of our society. We live in a society of so much; it's on a quite large scale. We really shouldn't devote everything to email. But with all of the email integration of today, is it too much to ask to click a button and reply to some email?

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