…and form letters, and customer service notes that sound like customer service notes and most anything that was obviously written by lawyers trying to sound like lawyers whenever it’s not 100% necessary.
Like this note I got the other day from eBay’s customer service department, which includes gems like:
“Thank you for taking the time to write back to eBay regarding your concern…”
“I would request you to check your Account Status Page where you can easily get the detailed report of the fees charged on your account…”
“If you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reply to this email and let us know…”
(Yeah, I can tell they’re dying to hear from me.)
Compare that to this note from Moo cards:
“I’m Little MOO – the bit of software that will be managing your order with us. It will shortly be sent to Big MOO, our print machine who will print it for you in the next few days. I’ll let you know when it’s done and on its way to you…”
“Remember, I’m just a bit of software. So, if you have any questions regarding your order please first read our Frequently Asked Questions at: http://www.moo.com/help/ and if you’re still not sure, contact customer service (who are real people) at https://secure.moo.com/service/”
One of these companies is communicating that they care about every interaction and that personal connections matter to them. In one of these companies, the naysayers lost, the people saying “Yes, but…” failed to choke the life out of things, and doing something memorable was more important than avoiding looking silly.
No one ever loses their job because they took something great and made it unremarkable. And that’s a real shame.
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I’m partially in agreement. On the other hand, though, the purpose of these bland communications is to efficiently provide information.
Something too flowery for a company like eBay might seem out of place.
The reality is, neither Moo nor eBay really cares about you when they send you an automatic email. Moo’s branding is supposed to be quirky and creative, so that’s how their letter is. Ebay is supposed to be sturdy and solid and reliable. That’s how the correspondence reads.
Ah, but Chuck, we do care. MOO is a small company – and only about three-and-a-bit years old. We’re lucky enough to love what we do, and still get a kick out of the fact that other people like it too. (That’s why we read so many blogs online 🙂
You’re right though, just like Ebay our emails are there to share important information, but as Sasha correctly assumes, our emails haven’t gone through ten different departments, squeezing the life out of them (yet!). At the moment, we don’t really have ten departments to do the squeezing.