Kind eReader,

Usually my columns here about the wonderful world of e are very upbeat. Technology has brought great improvements to our lives, especially by making communication of all kinds easier and faster.

But the downside of that is that life has now evolved to a pace that is portrayed fairly accurately in those Visa commercials: it’s a ballet of speed and efficiency until one person tries to pay with cash. We gather information fast, make decisions quickly, and act as soon as possible. Therefore, when we encounter someone who doesn’t operate in this fashion, it’s really an aggravation.

My past two months have been illustrative of this kind of frustration. I’ll share with you a few examples, and I’ll bet you’ve run into the same thing from time to time.

In my day job, one of my duties is to order holiday cards for our company each year. We pick them out in August to get the discount rate. I send all the details by fax and usually the response is swift and accurate. Well, this year I ran headlong up against a completely incompetent customer service person. After 72 hours, four faxes, and eight emails, she still hadn’t taken my order. I wish I could explain how such a thing was possible, but it baffles me to this day. Worse yet, I couldn’t make her understand that I didn’t want to waste that much time on a simple communication. She finally took the matter seriously when I pulled the order and went to another company.

I recently won an electric toothbrush in an eBay auction. I paid immediately and asked the seller to be sure to include a receipt, because I had a rebate. (Most sellers of new items like that include one; this was just a precaution on my part.) When ten days had passed and I still hadn’t received the item, I emailed the seller asking for shipping information. He ignored that message and two more. The package took two weeks, and there was no receipt. He finally wrote me back after I had the item in hand, saying it had shipped (no specifics) and that he didn’t get my first two emails. I have a feeling this guy was surprised that I left him negative feedback. But to me, emails are so easy and quick to do, not communicating in a financial transaction has just no excuse.

My husband and I have been trying to get bids on an insulation project for our attic. This project will undoubtedly cost us over $1,000; it’s not a little job. I sent out four emails over time to arrange estimates. We were lucky with the first two, the third took a fax and a phone call to get a response, and the fourth one was a disaster. Three emails, a fax and a voice mail message, and this company couldn’t take 30 seconds to tell us they couldn’t quote. I guess the construction business is booming right now and they don’t need new business!

I launched a big promotional campaign in August for my new book, including a brand new website. I had been having problems with my web hosting company (actually run by a friend) off and on for many years, and particularly when I tried to get this site live. We finally had it working, and I told my friend it was imperative the site stay up during my promotions. Two days later, it was offline! After 36 hours trying to get ahold of anyone who could help me, I decided to switch webhosts for good and all. It took me less time to find a new provider, set up my account, and copy all the files to the new server than it did for my old provider to answer my desperate emails and voice mails for help.

Lastly, I received an email from a reviewer for a big romance site that she had posted a review of my new book. I clicked eagerly on the link, only to find the review included, without any warning, spoilers for every surprise twist in the story, including how the book ends! Panicking, I emailed the reviewer and the site owner asking for the spoilers to come down. The site owner assured me the reviewer would take care of it quickly, but she was not available. Night and morning passed, some miscommunication occurred, but I’m happy to say the spoilers were taken down. But to us authors, spoilers are your worst nightmare, and those were 18 very unhappy hours for me!

I have no doubt I come across as someone with a Type A personality, and pretty dang anal. Sometimes I do get myself in a lather unnecessarily, I admit; but I also get a lot done and accomplish great things because I use the tools of technology to the best of my ability. I know that not everybody has the same priorities I have, but I do feel that if you join the Game of Online Technology, you are putting yourself out there as caring about such things. If you have a published email address, people will expect that you read your email and reply to it unless you simply can’t. If you have an online business, people will expect you to communicate with them by email. If something urgent happens, we all know enough to know what it takes to correct the problem, so if you take too long, people get the message you don’t care.

So even if you aren’t as anal as I am, it will help you to keep in mind that with the pace of today’s world, being sluggish can sometimes be interpreted as poor business practice or rudeness. You can be the sweetest person in the world, but that individual who knows you only as a website, a blog, or an email address will get a very different impression.

We’re all so fortunate to have easy, fast, free communication at our fingertips. I just like it best when we use it to bring each other closer.

eRead on,

Diana

Diana Laurence is the author of the Soulful Sex anthologies of erotic romance fiction, and released her latest book “Bloodchained” in September (www.bloodchained.com). Diana’s works are published by Living Beyond Reality Press (www.livingbeyondreality.com). Visit her at www.dianalaurence.com or enjoy her blog at www.eroticawithsoul.blogspot.com.

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