Work Snippets

[firstfrost]

• I've felt compelled to switch from answering the phone as "Hello, Athena User Accounts" to "Hello, Athena User Accounts, this is Laura" because of an increasing number of people who simply wait in silence after I answer the phone, assuming that I am an answering machine or a phone tree. When I eventually say "Hello? Hello?" they assure me that I sound just like an automated answering thing. (Now, after answering the phone the same way for years, I can see how I'd get fairly practiced at this, but last week had an unacceptably high number of these calls).
• I sent out the traditional seven hundred emails to sponsors regarding their guests yesterday (which caused the barracudas to decide I was a Spammer, but that's another story). There are far too many people who answer the question of "Would you like to continue sponsoring this account, or would you like it to be deactivated in the next round of deactivations in January of 2007?" with "Yes, I would like to continue sponsoring this account until January of 2007".

Comments

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Though, looking at my wording again, it looks like I'm already following your advice. Most people just take it as an A or B choice (and in my head, that's what it is).

"Please let us know if you would like to continue sponsoring one or
more of these accounts; otherwise, they will be slated for deletion
during the next round of account deactivations, which will take place
during January of 2007."

[greyautumnrain.livejournal.com]

Perhaps if you left off the last phrase it would be more clear. Sure if you leave it off it can sound as if the accounts are doomed and may disappear at any moment, but that may not be a bad thing. After all, if they don't respond then the accounts are doomed, just not for a while. Sometimes less information is better. Of course you may not have any control over the wording.

If you really want them to know how long the accounts hang around, you could put it in a footnote at the bottom. Then they have the info, but it looks less like an A or B choice.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I didn't used to say when deactivation happened, but that actually exacerbates the tendency of people to send mail saying things like "Yes! I do want to keep the account! We need it for at least another month!"

(Not to mention, the people who think I mean "tomorrow" and fly into a temper that this is all being dropped on them at short notice. Those are the people that I really want to avoid provoking; the ones who give me somewhat confusing but cheerful answers are much less of a problem).

[jcgbigler.livejournal.com]

I hate to say this, but I think the semicolon may be part of the problem. A lot of people need short sentences. The other thing I'd do is to put the deactivation part first. That way, if they're fine with it, they'll stop reading right there. If they're not, they have incentive to keep reading. Maybe something like:

"These accounts are scheduled to be deactivated in January of 2007. If you would like any of these accounts to remain active after January 2007, please let us know which ones you want to continue to sponsor."

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

You're probably right about the semicolon; I'll try and chop that up a bit more. (And heaven knows there are enough people who totally fail to read more than the first line of anything, no matter what it is, so the important content really needs to go there..,.)

But I don't want the people who can't read long sentences to decide that the take-home message is "these accounts are going away!" because in many cases, that is the Very Wrong Thing to happen, and looking like I'm threatening to do the Wrong Thing will upset them. :)