Page 1 of 1
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:21 pm
by Leisher
An employee here recently quit and I disabled his account. A manager asked if we could turn on his Out of Office Attendant with a message about the email being invalid.
I found this to be a very interesting question. Why don't companies do this already? Why don't I try to contact vendors who go through sales people like water and get an Out of Office message like "Joe Smith is not available. Please contact Jane Doe at 1-800-555-5555 x5555 for inquiries and to places orders. We apologize for the inconvenience."
Notice I simply put a name and a phone number and not an email address to avoid spammers.
There is no way this hasn't been thought up before. So why isn't it a common practice? What is the negative side effect that overrides possibly losing a customer due to a breakdown in communications?
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:25 pm
by TPRJones
It would probably be slightly better customer service to forward all that email to his replacement or another representative or whatever. Instead of making them email again.
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:35 pm
by GORDON
Isn't there a setting in most email servers that one can forward all invalid/disabled emails that hit a domain to an account that does get monitored, and can then be forwarded to the appropriate person?
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:46 pm
by Leisher
Isn't there a setting in most email servers that one can forward all invalid/disabled emails that hit a domain to an account that does get monitored, and can then be forwarded to the appropriate person?
Yes, and I've done that.
I'm beginning to assume that it simply boils down to the company wanting the news to come from a person, and not an automated message.
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 5:09 pm
by TheCatt
Yeah, the few places I've encountered this they've just setup Joe's emails to forward directly to Jane.
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 7:42 pm
by TPRJones
If you wanted to cover all your bases you could set up an Out of Office response saying "Joe is no longer with Company, Inc, however your email has been forwarded to an appropriate representative who will contact you shortly." Then set it up with a forward rule as well, of course. Then they'll know to be looking for a response from someone else.
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:21 pm
by Leisher
I've been forwarding the guy's emails and on a totally different note, it might have turned up something interesting. Stay tuned.
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 8:28 am
by TheCatt
Affair?
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 8:46 am
by Leisher
I'm waiting to see, but right now I'm thinking industrial espionage. The guy who had this account came from a competitor, and ironically, one of our biggest clients. Anyway, he was here for two weeks before quitting claiming he couldn't be a road warrior and went back to his old company.
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:19 am
by GORDON
Smells like a lawsuit.
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:04 am
by TheCatt
Leisher wrote:I'm waiting to see, but right now I'm thinking industrial espionage. The guy who had this account came from a competitor, and ironically, one of our biggest clients. Anyway, he was here for two weeks before quitting claiming he couldn't be a road warrior and went back to his old company.
WOW that sounds fishy.
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:29 am
by Leisher
I went through his emails a bit this morning, and it seems a lot less fishy. He had conversations with old co-workers that seemed legit about them trying to find a replacement for him, and how his new job is going, etc.
However, you want to talk fishy? He got an email from his old/new boss yesterday (he's been gone since this last weekend) containing a PowerPoint presentation with pricing information. Not our pricing, their pricing.
Makes me wonder if that was an accident or intentional because it talks about price hikes.
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:25 am
by TheCatt
Probably the old issue of Outlook remembering one email address versus the other, and dude just typed in a name without really paying attention.
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:34 am
by Leisher
It's either a big oops or a trap.
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:02 pm
by TheCatt
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:54 pm
by Leisher
Fair enough.
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:00 pm
by Malcolm
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action." Isolated weird things are usually explainable by mundane circumstances going slightly wonky. Consistent, repeated weird things often serve as tips of icebergs.