Results 1 to 25 of 38
-
01-02-2014, 03:15 PM #1WHT Addict
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Posts
- 100
How important is proper grammar in customer responses?
Howdy,
Forgive me if this has been discussed before.
Obviously sales materials, your website, etc. should be professional looking, but I notice that a lot of companies (not just hosting companies) send me email or forum responses that are not grammatically correct: They use commas when there should be periods. They don't capitalize the beginning of sentences.
While it's not enough for me to take my business elsewhere, it does irk me. I also like getting a salutation at the beginning of the message (unless we're on the third or fourth email of the thread). I don't like just getting a link (no matter how useful the link may be). I don't expect every customer service representative to be Saul Bellow, but, just like I wouldn't want a customer service representative to call me "bro" over the phone, I'd like email to look, well, you know, intelligent.
I wonder, though, if this is something that most people care about (especially in the hosting industry where there aren't many English majors, I think).
Cheers,
mDisclaimer: I work for LiteSpeed Technologies. Cut load. Add speed. Save money. LiteSpeed Web Server
We're hiring (New Jersey based) C/C++ developers!
-
01-02-2014, 03:25 PM #2Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Jan 2003
- Location
- South Africa
- Posts
- 2,158
It's enough to make me host elsewhere, unless it's with a rep that I have spoken to quite a bit.
█ █ █
-
01-02-2014, 04:11 PM #3Disabled
- Join Date
- Oct 2012
- Location
- Miami, FL
- Posts
- 538
It's not professional, nor ethical, much less serious. Probably reflects the way they handle the entire business operations.
-
01-02-2014, 04:13 PM #4Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
- Location
- Cybertron
- Posts
- 10,484
"How important is proper grammar in customer responses?"
This shouldn't even be a question. Grammar is always important. I only give exceptions when I know English is not their first language. It's those little homework skills (or as they are called now "transferable skills") that you learn in life through different jobs and assignments...and through common sense. But as I've said before, sense is not common and humans are becoming dumber year by year.
I enjoy throwing people off when I answer a business call. My "business" voice is very corporate.
Anyone writing emails without capitals is probably a twitter fiend...LOL...CU L8R....IDK....IMHO....and abbreviating words that only had 5-10 letters to begin with.
-
01-02-2014, 04:47 PM #5WHT Addict
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Posts
- 100
Ahhhhh... Thank you all. I'm not alone...
I agree, of course, when English is not someone's first language. I love when people apologize for their English at the end of a ticket (they've submitted to us). It's endearing. There's no need to apologize. My Turkish/Hindi/Russian/Indonesian/Spanish/Portuguese is much worse than your English, I assure you.
mDisclaimer: I work for LiteSpeed Technologies. Cut load. Add speed. Save money. LiteSpeed Web Server
We're hiring (New Jersey based) C/C++ developers!
-
01-02-2014, 10:12 PM #6Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Oct 2001
- Location
- Ohio
- Posts
- 8,535
Any time a company is communicating with a customer or in public, they should take every step possible to use proper spelling and punctuation. In a forum environment, I would not expect customers to use the same care with their communication.
-
01-02-2014, 11:00 PM #7Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Feb 2002
- Location
- Australia
- Posts
- 24,027
Very important, for me at least. 12 or so mths back, I was in the hunt for some carbon racing wheels. I contacted an Aussie wheel maker that had a great reputation, and the emails I received from them had terrible punctuation and spelling. It was pretty much the worst I have ever seen. Put me right off buying their product.
• WLVPN.com • NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider •
• Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up •
-
01-02-2014, 11:06 PM #8Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Mar 2012
- Posts
- 1,421
-
01-02-2014, 11:44 PM #9Newbie
- Join Date
- Dec 2013
- Posts
- 15
It is important ..it shows your sincerity
Plus bad grammar probably indicates that you are not English/any language speaking person
And hence implies that your company might not be able to provide suppprt in that language..in future
-
01-03-2014, 06:27 AM #10Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- May 2005
- Posts
- 1,141
Well, it's obviously important, but didn't realize people here fussed about it as much. We're not talking about people going: "OMGWTFBBQ 1337 HAX0RZ" in responses.
OP raises the question with stuff like capitalization and periods.
well, period is located right beside a comma, a very plausible typo and who cares if i don't capitalize things or make run on sentences as long as it's obvious and clear whats being communicated?
I think it one thing to write so not professional that it annoying.
but it's another to complan about capitalzation and typos. it happens,
p.s. Typos, grammatical errors and missing words in this post are intentional.I have no sig to spam.
-
01-03-2014, 12:37 PM #11WHT Addict
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Posts
- 100
See? That's what I'm wondering about. Where is your threshold?
The above message doesn't bother me that much in this setting, but if I'm emailing you for clarification about your hosting services and you reply like that, you may have just lost my business.
A period next to a comma is nothing and a forgotten "a" or "you" for "your" is understandable, but disregard for capitalization and obviously not looking over the email before you send it just puts me off.
It seems like other people's thresholds are similar...
mLast edited by lsmichael; 01-03-2014 at 12:38 PM. Reason: Better punctuation... :)
Disclaimer: I work for LiteSpeed Technologies. Cut load. Add speed. Save money. LiteSpeed Web Server
We're hiring (New Jersey based) C/C++ developers!
-
01-03-2014, 12:47 PM #12Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Apr 2002
- Location
- Seaside, CA
- Posts
- 213
I feel that proper grammar is very important in all aspects of business. You don't have to be snooty, you can be fun and witty, but at least spell things right and don't leave out words.
Now, I know the technical community has people who don't have english as a first language, so I can let a few slide. But there is a limit.
That being said..
I once had a tech reply to a customer's email with "OK". Seriously? FIRED.Affordable hosting with courteous service.
https://www.e-starr.com/
-
01-03-2014, 12:55 PM #13Disabled
- Join Date
- Jun 2013
- Posts
- 246
Ewll sa uyo anc ese ew'er masrt rectuares nad uor riabn si bale ot dasujt nsihtg.
Although I'm not a native English speaker/writer and thus most of the mistakes man can made are well known to me, I still got amused from time to time.
I'm feeling sorry for you people who are "forced" to listen and read broken English as far as it is your native language.
As far as it concerns support staff... Well knowledge how to communicate properly with your customers shows at least respect.
-
01-03-2014, 01:12 PM #14Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Aug 2003
- Location
- East Coast
- Posts
- 2,082
I believe that proper grammar is very important but only to the point of being easily readable in support tickets and billing communication. I guess my point is that although we should expect public facing content to be grammatically correct we should not expect that Support and Customer Service departments be staffed by employees holding a language degree.
-
01-03-2014, 01:57 PM #15WHT Addict
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Posts
- 100
Disclaimer: I work for LiteSpeed Technologies. Cut load. Add speed. Save money. LiteSpeed Web Server
We're hiring (New Jersey based) C/C++ developers!
-
01-03-2014, 02:00 PM #16Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Feb 2003
- Location
- NY
- Posts
- 11,863
I agree that to me without proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation I would be turned off from a company. It would make me question their maturity and how they will be able to accommodate my business needs going forward.
Doug
Finance, Operations, and Business Executive
-
01-03-2014, 02:06 PM #17Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Jul 2011
- Location
- SriLanka
- Posts
- 2,010
Sometimes we got ticket replies with spelling mistakes from USA Data centers , may be there grammar mistakes too.It seems they not thinking much about that but there first language is English.
LankaPartnerHost.Com
█ Canada Anti DDOS Webhosting, Reseller Hosting, WHMsonic, WHMsonic Resellers
-
01-03-2014, 05:49 PM #18Newbie
- Join Date
- Jan 2014
- Posts
- 5
I think it's an incredible turn-off if you're not using correct spelling & grammar for customer / professional interaction. If you're just talking amongst your team, who cares, but any other environment isn't really acceptable.
From a consumer standpoint, if a business is replying to my emails with spelling / grammar errors or broken English, I immediately lose confidence in dealing with them and will probably question whether they are even US-based.
-
01-03-2014, 10:17 PM #19Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Jan 2003
- Location
- South Africa
- Posts
- 2,158
English being a second language is not an excuse. Work in a field using your own primary language before you work for a company that uses it as a primary means of communication.
█ █ █
-
01-04-2014, 04:46 AM #20Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Sep 2013
- Posts
- 985
Truth of the matter is that Customer Service is still lacking in most companies I've checked via mail or Live Chat. And the sad thing is its not just outsourced support but supposedly "native" speakers too. Now I'd also like to point out that while I understand the idea of some clients that "US Based" immediately means more quality of support, being a non-US gives me even more enjoyment to show that proper behavior and knowledgeability far surpass a simple geolocation. What concerns me more is not a missed letter or misspelled word, but receiving slow, one-word responses to pretty simple questions. And that's just still too common.
Passing multiple training sessions in the companies I've worked with is what taught me of proper business etiquette and this is what holds many companies back. It is the company responsibility to train and monitor their staff and ensure that they represent their image properly - the customer service representatives are the first people a potential client is bumping into and if they fail to act adequately its a partnership lost in the making.
And finally, language is not an excuse. Even if its not your native language, English is probably the easiest language to learn, with the least grammar specifics. During my education I've tried my fair share of German, Italian, Spanish, a little French and Russian, and all those are FAR harder than English██ www.WebHostFace.com where Service always comes with a smiling face!
██ Contact us for Shared, VPS, Reseller and Dedicated Hosting Solutions.
-
01-04-2014, 05:06 AM #21Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
- Location
- Cybertron
- Posts
- 10,484
I'm sorry, but these must be the MOST racist comments I've seen. These comments already top 2014...and were only 5 days in. Now I'm throwing abbv...OMG OMG OMG!!!!
Let's stay in this mindset, shall we ( since we hurdled back to 1920 );
- Indians can only speak about Bollywood...in hini
- Italians can only speak about pizza and mafia...in one dialect on Italian
- Chinese can only speak about rice...in mandarin
- all black people can only speak coconuts...or in my case Hip Hop, which has been replaced with Urban. Come on down yo and get a fly server for your blazing website that's all gee'd out with spinning platinum icons. WOW. Keyboard Gangsters.
I was going to support the comment in regards of communication training, and the fact that some "hosts", tech's, or CSR's never worked a job to understand how to communicate efficiently...written or verbally....and the fact that writing, especially cursive writing, is a lost art...and replaced with keyboard and keypads.
But these comments just overshadowed any positive direction this thread was going. Again I say WOW
-
01-04-2014, 12:18 PM #22Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Mar 2013
- Posts
- 1,328
-
01-04-2014, 12:58 PM #23Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Sep 2013
- Posts
- 985
Hold on here, now, I think you have misconstrued what I was trying to say as it was as far from racially intolerant as possible. I don't divide anyone by ethnicity, race, color or any other form. In fact I remember seeing an older thread, a couple of months ago, about racism and there were huge arguments inside, mostly fueled by misinterpreting the term "racism". So let me rephrase myself...
I am all about proper and adequate assistance. One of the factor that influences that is your target audience. If my business is in India and I am going for a local approach I would expect my staff to speak proper Hindi so they can better understand and help the potential customer. Same applies for a global approach - if I want to target clients in Germany and decide to offer customer support in German, I would want to make sure all my employees can speak/write on a level that is enough for that person to help with any issues and inquiries.
The English language was just an example, as one of the most commonly spoken, I don't aim at anyone who doesn't speak it, we are solely discussing proper service here.██ www.WebHostFace.com where Service always comes with a smiling face!
██ Contact us for Shared, VPS, Reseller and Dedicated Hosting Solutions.
-
01-04-2014, 01:10 PM #24Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Mar 2013
- Posts
- 918
I personally just care if they actually answer my question or correct my issue. It amazes me how many times I have had to send 3, 4 tickets before my issue is resolved. I really don't care how the message is typed. I just want the issue corrected .
-
01-04-2014, 01:13 PM #25Web Hosting Guru
- Join Date
- Sep 2008
- Location
- U.K
- Posts
- 278
Doesn't matter what business you are in, good manners, correct grammar and an ability to keep a lid on your opinions even if you are about to bite through your tongue is imperative. However, sometimes with clients whom say don't have English as their first language, you need to be really simple and to the point using as many easy to understand words as possible.
███ ★ ZonedHost.com & ZonedHost.co.uk - Since 2009.
███ ★ Specialists in cPanel 11 |Softaculous Shared & Reseller Web Hosting.
███ ★ Linux OpenVZ VPS Hosting | Shoutcast Hosting | Game Hosting.
███ ★ EU/UK Servers | High Grade Hardware | 99+% Uptime | + Much More...
Similar Threads
-
Customer Service - How Important?
By Host Advice in forum Web HostingReplies: 34Last Post: 07-25-2007, 05:26 PM -
How to write proper notification/reminder email to customer?
By dan_ish in forum Running a Web Hosting BusinessReplies: 13Last Post: 11-23-2006, 02:21 AM -
Vote-Is it important for our customer
By croco in forum Domain NamesReplies: 6Last Post: 05-24-2005, 12:17 AM -
Customer complaining in a restaurant: Proper way to handle this?
By Mark226 in forum Web Hosting LoungeReplies: 23Last Post: 01-06-2004, 09:20 PM