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This story was printed from silicon.com, located at http://www.silicon.com/

Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/digitalblunders2/0,39024989,10005826,00.htm

Email blunderers face the sack
Unless it's really funny...

By Will Sturgeon

Published: Tuesday 02 September 2003

While Digital Blunders involving wrongly addressed emails or misplaced text messages may be a source of great hilarity, there is a serious side to the phenomenon.

A third of respondents to a recent silicon.com survey said they would have little option but to sack an employee if they offended a client or customer with a Digital Blunder.

One such example of an employee overstepping the bounds of good customer service was sent in by a silicon.com reader.

He was using a well-known music download service, but wasn't happy with the customer service he was receiving or the overall experience of using the website.

Upon making his feelings known to the company via email he received an email back from somebody in customer services which read simply:

"Another satisfied ar*ehole"

The individual in question had meant to forward the email around the rest of the team, in order to share a laugh at the customer's expense, but had instead hit reply.

Our reader takes up the tale: "Needless to say, when I got this in my inbox, I was incredulous. I finally contacted a manager and got the issue resolved for the most part. I would have preferred she be fired, but I ended up getting six months worth of free downloads."

However, this contact centre employee was lucky, a third of bosses wouldn't be so understanding, with 32 per cent of respondents saying they would have to sack the offending staff member.

But, even then a more surprising statistic was revealed by the next question. Those who said they would sack an employee for committing such a faux pas, were asked whether they would change their mind if they themselves found the blunder funny.

While 80 per cent of respondents stood by their initial decision, an impressive 20 per cent said they would be persuaded to spare the employee if their blunder was funny enough - regardless of the offence caused.

Proof that laughter really is the best medicine.