DO COMPANIES REPLY TO CUSTOMER SERVICE INQUIRY VIA E-MAIL?*
By:
Nor Aini Binti Abdul Rahman, Islamic University College Of Malaysia
ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to find out whether companies reply to customer inquiries via e-mail. To find out, an e-mail inquiry adapted from van Mulken and van der Meer (2005) was sent out to thirty-five textile distributors in China and India respectively. They sell and distribute textile all over the world. For this research, an inquiry on cushion covers was made. Four questions were asked in the e-mail message and it was found that all but one distributor replied to the questions indicating that email is a reliable tool in business communication.
INTRODUCTION
E-mail is an indispensable tool in today’s business. It substitutes physical letter because it is written via a computer and delivered through the internet. Documents and pictures and can be sent through email proving further how useful it is for business.
Although spamming is widespread and a nuisance, email is still widely used in online business communication.
*Paper presented at 1st International Congress on the Power of Language, Queen Sirikit Convention Centre, Bangkok, Thailand 22-25 May 2006
E-MAIL IN THE WORKPLACE
The Internet and e-mail communication are not bound by geographical limitations like other media. The cost and effort to produce an e-mail bound for someone in one’s own country is the same as that for an e-mail to someone on the other side of the globe.
This confronts companies with intercultural dilemmas which, until now, have traditionally concerned only those involved with intercultural negotiations and international job applications.
Email is written information exchange and storage. The current email systems enable user to send graphical and multimedia information as an attachment to the body.
Email also is known for its capability to enable asynchronous communication. The reason for using email is usually for cost reduction purposes as replacing facsimile communication. Facsimile communication, especially international facsimile transmission, is quite expensive. Other weakness of facsimile is graphical document being transmitted are not of adequate quality for design purposes. Hence, e-mail can substitute facsimile easily.
James and Rykert (1998) state that from the desktop, email provides a quick, reliable, and cost-effective link to the world at large. With proper use, it will expand our traditional workplace into a busy, boundless, and more productive "workspace." In the developing regions of the world, email currently extends much further than does any other Internet-based technology. Consequently, email lists have evolved as a powerful tool for collaboration in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
According to Kinsley (1996) managers have generally been quick to see the possibilities offered by e-mail. The closing years of the twentieth century saw the introduction and widespread adoption of e-mail as a means of workplace communication.
A sample of 900 people aged 13 and above, conducted recently by NFO CM Research (NZ) Ltd (personal communication) revealed that approximately 40% of people employed full time have their own internet connection at work. These rates are increasing at 2-3 percent per year. In some workplaces in the corporate world email has become the pervasive communication medium to the extent that at Microsoft for example, where probably 99% of communication takes place via email, it is said that the phone never rings. Email is now a fact of life in many workplaces where it has largely replaced written memos and much telephone and face-to-face interaction. The role it has assumed very recently and very quickly of being an important means of workplace communication is likely to be anything but ephemeral.
van Mulken and van der Meer (2005) contend that the customer service department of a producer is likely to receive intercultural confrontations via e-mail, especially if that producer hosts a global company website. A growing trend toward globalization induces companies to consider a transcultural e-service policy (Doney, Cannon and Mullen, 1998). The need for such a policy is also stressed by De Mooij (2004), who shows that lack of knowledge of separate cultures makes people see more similarities than there actually are. For example, in international marketing, Americans tend to view all Europeans as similar.
According to Doney and Cannon (1997), trust in the company and trust in the representative of the company influence the buyer’s anticipated future interaction with the producer and one way to improve the relationship between customer and Web-based company is through one-on-one communication via e-mail.
From views quoted by the authors, this study has the following objectives and aims to find out:
1. whether or not textile distributors reply to e-mail inquiries 2. how quick the response was
3. if the distributors reply to all four questions asked
4. if there was any added information given along with the four questions asked Hence the research questions asked were:
1. do textile distributors reply to e-mail inquiries?
2. if they do reply, how quick was the response?
3. do the distributors reply to all four questions asked?
4. was there any added information given along with the four questions asked?
METHODOLOGY
An e-mail message adapted from Mulken and van der Meer (2005) was sent to all the Indian and Chinese textile distributors. The list of distributors was obtained from a business directory. The message contained four questions:
Q1. I am curious to know if you have a distributor for (model/product code for cushion covers stated) in my country, Malaysia.
Q2. If so, could you direct me to his address or provide any other contact information?
Q3. I also wonder if you can indicate the average cost of shipping from India/China to Malaysia if I choose to order from the internet?
Q4. What guarantee do you offer on your products for a potential international customer like myself?
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Upon obtaining the reply to the inquiry, it was encouraging to note that all Indian and Chinese distributors did reply to the e-mail sent as indicated in Tables 1 and 2. It was found that hence answering the first research question: yes those distributors did reply to e-mail inquiry.
As for the second research question, how quick the response was, results indicated that fifteen Indian and nine Chinese distributors replied immediately. Eleven Indian and twelve Chinese distributors took one day to reply. Five Indian and thirteen Chinese distributors took 2 days to reply and four Indian and one Chinese company took 3 days to reply.
It should be mentioned that those distributors who did not reply immediately apologized by stating that they were away either for business meetings or annual leave.
As for the third research question, it was found that all but one Indian company answered the four questions asked. The one company that did not reply to the four
questions requested to send a catalogue instead while all the Chinese distributors answered all the questions asked.
The final research question on whether or not those distributors gave added information on the product saw four Indian and seven Chinese companies give added information. The information came in the form of pictures of the product and types of material used to make the product.
CONCLUSION
This study highlighted certain implications. First, Indian and Chinese textile distributors did reply to e-mail and almost 50% replied immediately; proving that e-mail is important in business as cited by the literature.
Secondly, it indicates a positive business atmosphere in both countries as they not only answered sales queries positively but also provided extra information with their reply.
Finally, the distributors gave reasons why they took some time to reply the e-mail.
This could mean that they want to serve their potential customers better hence retaining them as the last thing a business needs is to lose its customers. Alternately, what they could do is provide auto reply or out-of-office reply if they are unable to attend to email inquiry.
Supplier Reply (Yes/No)
Speed of reply No. of questions answered
Add. Info.
Provided (Y/N) 1 Y Immediate 0 - request to
send catalogue instead
N
2 Y Immediate 4 Y
3 Y Immediate 4 Y
4 Y Immediate 4 Y
5 Y Immediate 4 Y
6 Y Immediate 4 N
7 Y Immediate 4 N
8 Y Immediate 4 N
9 Y Immediate 4 N
10 Y Immediate 4 N
11 Y Immediate 4 N
12 Y Immediate 4 N
13 Y Immediate 4 N
14 Y Immediate 4 N
15 Y Immediate 4 N
16 Y 3 days 4 N
17 Y 3 days 4 N
18 Y 3 days 4 N
19 Y 2 days 4 N
20 Y 2 days 4 N
21 Y 3 days 4 N
22 Y 1 day 4 N
23 Y 1 day 4 N
24 Y 1 day 4 N
25 Y 1 day 4 N
26 Y 1 day 4 N
27 Y 1 day 4 N
28 Y 1 day 4 N
29 Y 1 day 4 N
30 Y 1 day 4 N
31 Y 1 day 4 N
32 Y 1 day 4 N
33 Y 2 days 4 N
34 Y 2 days 4 N
35 Y 2 days 4 N
Table 1: Response by Suppliers in India
Supplier Reply (Yes/No)
Speed of reply No. of questions answered
Add. Info.
Provided (Y/N)
1 Y Immediate 4 N
2 Y Immediate 4 N
3 Y Immediate 4 N
4 Y 1 day 4 N
5 Y Immediate 4 Y
6 Y Immediate 4 Y
7 Y 2 days 4 Y
8 Y 3 days 4 Y
9 Y 2 days 4 Y
10 Y 2 days 4 Y
11 Y 2 days 4 Y
12 Y 2 days 4 N
13 Y 2 days 4 N
14 Y 2 days 4 N
15 Y 2 days 4 N
16 Y 2 days 4 N
17 Y 1 day 4 N
18 Y 1 day 4 N
19 Y Immediate 4 N
20 Y Immediate 4 N
21 Y 1 day 4 N
22 Y 1 day 4 N
23 Y 1 day 4 N
24 Y 1 day 4 N
25 Y 1 day 4 N
26 Y 1 day 4 N
27 Y 1 day 4 N
28 Y 2 days 4 N
29 Y 2 days 4 N
30 Y 2 days 4 N
31 Y 2 days 4 N
32 Y 1 day 4 N
33 Y Immediate 4 N
34 Y Immediate 4 N
35 Y 1 day 4 N
REFERENCES
De Mooij, M. (2004) Consumer Behavior and Culture Consequences for Global Marketing and Advertising. Sage: London.
Doney, P and Cannon, J, (1997) An Examination of the Nature of Trust in Buyer–seller Relationships, Journal of Marketing 61: 35–51.
Doney.P, Cannon, J. and Mullen, M. (1998), “Understanding the Influence of National Culture on the Development of Trust, Management Review 23 (3): 601–620.
Kinsley, M (1996) The Morality and Metaphysics of Email. Forbes Dec 2. (Suppl S):113 ff.
van Mulken, M. and van der Meer, W. (2005) “Are You Being Served? A Genre
Analysis of American and Dutch Companies’ Replies to Customer Inquiries” English for Specific Purposes. 24(1): 93-109.
James, M. and Rykert, L. (1998) From Workplace To Workspace: Using Email Lists to Work Together: Routledge: London.