Why An Account Exec At Zoom Sent Me A Photo Of A Hippopotamus

Seth Godin talked about having your brand be remarkable. But these days it's so difficult to attract attention that sometimes you need to do something extraordinary even to get a response to an email.

Here's how an Account Executive at Zoom Communications grabbed my attention and made me think.

I signed The Story Mill up for a Zoom account and had a small challenge with the set-up so pinged a message to the Zoom team. Yaniv, an Account Executive, got in touch pretty quickly, however, by then I'd sorted everything out.

So guess what? I didn't respond. 

I thought - "I must drop him a line," but with 1000 things to do - you know how it is - I didn't reply. 

Yaniv dropped me another email which pricked my conscience to respond. But again - I didn't. How rude.

Anyway, Yaniv sent me a third email that I couldn't ignore.

After the initial greeting he said;

"I have tried to reach out a few times over the past couple months to review your current Zoom account set up. I have not heard back from you and this tells me a few things:

1) You are all set with your purchase, and if that is the case please let me know so I can stop bothering you.

2) You are interested in talking but have not had the time to respond.

3) You are being chased by an angry hippo and need me to call Animal Control. (together with photo of hippo chasing a person)

Please let me know which one as I'm starting to worry."

A broad smile appeared on my face as I read this email and I couldn't resist responding to confirm that no hippos were responsible for my tardy reply.

But Yaniv really made me think.

I have succumbed to this terrible email etiquette that pervades the business world. It's as if there's an unwritten contract that says - only bother to respond if you want something. And it applies even if you instigated the conversation in the first place or even if someone has done a load of work preparing a proposal for you.

I know I'm not the only person who has a tendency to respond only when it suits because I'm on the receiving end of the same behaviour from others.

Yikes!

We'd never ignore people in a conversation especially when we instigated it! In a face-to-face situation we'd always say "oh thanks for taking the time to reply to my request, prepare a proposal for me or make me a cup of tea."

But email is making us rude.

Most of us get far too many unsolicited emails trying to flog products and services. That's like being accosted in the street.

But we've thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

Ignoring unsolicited email is completely different to ignoring emails from people who are responding to a request we have made in the first place.

When I see Yaniv's hippo in my mind's eye it makes me smile and think - I can send a quick response to say thanks and let a person know I'm still safe and well and on the planet but that my needs have changed or that I'm waiting for more information or whatever is true for me.

We spend so much time on our smart phones that to send a quick response is no hassle at all. The notion that we're too busy is an excuse. It's simply a choice to be respectful and human.

I could go down the route of talking about how to be super creative in your emails so that people respond. But seriously, we shouldn't have to send people photos of hippos or jump up and down to expect a polite reply from someone who has made a request from us in the first place.

Instead, we can keep it simple and remember there's a person at the other end of that email so why not treat them like we would in a face-to face-situation.

Love to hear your thoughts on responsiveness especially to emails in business.

If you held on for the ride and got to here - thank you. Please COMMENT and SHARE on LINKEDIN, FACEBOOK & TWITTER. 

About the Author:

Claire Taylor is a co-founder of The Story Mill and author of The Tao of Storytelling.

About The Story Mill:

At The Story Mill, we believe that every business problem can be resolved by connecting people. We help organisations to build better chemistry, be that in leadership, within teams or selling to your customers. We work with live, written, visual and video storytelling.

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