Tag: text

Please Wait For The Automated Attendant….

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

When you call a company to look for help, do you really want to have to dial a person’s name like you are on your old Nokia phone using the T9 keyboard, or do you want to hear a real person’s voice? (It’s okay if you are googling T9, I did it for you, and the best results are shown in the image below.)

Google results for T9 texting. My favorite part is the Reddit link on the right. r/dumbphones.

My answer is to speak to a real person. This is something I have always appreciated whenever I contact a company, whether it be to try and get information from them or to give information to them about EXAIR products. I understand that in some companies it helps with efficiencies and keeps cold-calling salespeople at bay (at least the ones that take no as the first answer). Yeah, automated systems may help reduce distractions for those who answer the phone, but at the same time, they may hinder someone who is trying to get a quick answer and wants to place an order.

Well, here at EXAIR, you don’t need to know how to spell names on your Nokia phone that you just racked up a high-scoring game of Snake on. Instead, you get a person who is a member of our Order Entry Team. They can actually help you submit orders, give chip estimates, product pricing, and even some lead times on stock products. Then, if you have technical questions or need something outside of that, they can bounce you over to us, the Application Engineering team. There’s a good chance you will hear less of our hold music than a full song or advertisement.

We will help you from there on out, even if it means placing an order. We not only try to be your one-stop shop for industrial compressed air products, but we also strive to be easy to do business with and get you the answers you need when you need them, not suspend you in a loop with our automated phone attendant until you discover the secret code to get to a real human.

If you have questions about EXAIR products or industrial compressed air processes, please contact an Application Engineer today.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Face Time

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

One of my sisters is in town this week, and we sat on my porch the other night (like siblings) arguing.  This wasn’t a heated exchange, but a back-and-forth debate about the industrial revolution.  I may have touched on this in a previous blog, but my sister is of firm belief that the industrial revolution is the worst thing to ever happen.  I, pushed more toward the contrary by her stubbornness, believe it has improved our way of life.  But, as the days pass and I think of cooler or less anecdotal things I could have said, I also give heavy thought to ubiquity of technology that has sprung forth over the last century.  In particular, I think about emails and text messages.

Over the past decade, text and email use have exploded.  An estimated 247 billion emails are sent every day (as of 2010, according to the Radicati Group Inc.).  These communication mediums have increased the breadth of communication reach, but also to have removed some of the depth of a one-on-one discussion.  In an era when a Facebook user can have 1,000 connections and no real relationships, it can be difficult to build true rapport with people.   Especially in business.

To quote Harry Mintzberg and Peter Todd of McGill University, “Using only words, through a text or email, takes away from the nuance that comes from seeing and hearing people, from exchanging points of view and working toward agreements.”

This is one of the reasons I enjoy where I work.  We talk to people.  We meet with them.  We develop camaraderie that extends past our business dealings to build personal ties.  And, we do it day in, day out.

Many of our blogs end with the offer to call an Application Engineer.  We mean it.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
1-800-903-9247
leeevans@exair.com
@EXAIR_LE