A disappointment in perspective
I receive a ridiculous amount of email. I know lots of people say that but, trust me, I live the dream. Right now my main work email has 20 folders with approximately 160,000+ UNREAD and mostly non-spam emails. Sure, this is an accumulated number from several months (I do an occasional purge) but the rate I receive them is also quite impressive. On average I estimate that I receive about 1000 emails a day.
You may be wondering why I am so popular.
The reason I get so much email is due to a peculiar confluence of events that has left me responsible for virtually every single piece of communication between customers and my employer. Forum posts, chat room flames, CS emails, surveys, Comment boxes, reviews, bizdev pitches and even snail mail letters pass before these eyes.
This puts me in a peculiar position. I read so much customer correspondence as part of my job that I have achieved a type of psychic connection with these people. I am the Master of Messaging, The Lord of Customer Outreach, The Prince of Surveys. My vision is without bounds and my icy tentacles embrace and consume every morsel of delicious demographic data in my domain.
I have gained so much insight that I am now approached as a "Marketing Oracle" by others in my branch of the org chart. I get invited to creative meetings and am asked to review logo designs and give input on advertising material. This, as it turns out, is pretty damn cool. These are the kind of things that I really enjoy doing.
But....
There is one tiny problem I'm having. Deep in my heart of hearts, at the foundation of my soul, I hate our customers. There is a perpetual conflict between what I would like to see and what I know people would respond to. I love my job but I hate the people we serve. I believe that there is a lesson hidden in that irony. Perhaps that conflict is what gives me the perspective necessary to do my job. How disappointing.
You may be wondering why I am so popular.
The reason I get so much email is due to a peculiar confluence of events that has left me responsible for virtually every single piece of communication between customers and my employer. Forum posts, chat room flames, CS emails, surveys, Comment boxes, reviews, bizdev pitches and even snail mail letters pass before these eyes.
This puts me in a peculiar position. I read so much customer correspondence as part of my job that I have achieved a type of psychic connection with these people. I am the Master of Messaging, The Lord of Customer Outreach, The Prince of Surveys. My vision is without bounds and my icy tentacles embrace and consume every morsel of delicious demographic data in my domain.
I have gained so much insight that I am now approached as a "Marketing Oracle" by others in my branch of the org chart. I get invited to creative meetings and am asked to review logo designs and give input on advertising material. This, as it turns out, is pretty damn cool. These are the kind of things that I really enjoy doing.
But....
There is one tiny problem I'm having. Deep in my heart of hearts, at the foundation of my soul, I hate our customers. There is a perpetual conflict between what I would like to see and what I know people would respond to. I love my job but I hate the people we serve. I believe that there is a lesson hidden in that irony. Perhaps that conflict is what gives me the perspective necessary to do my job. How disappointing.