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Posted by on April 5, 2009, 1:37 am
In our recent discussion of the decline of US Mail as a communication
medium, I forget one factor:
Many organizations (public and private) now discourage unsolicited
mail. At one time an organization always prominently displayed its
mailing address and encouraged letters from the public for use as
feedback. I notice now many do not show their address prominently any
more, if they even show it at all. They strongly encourage the use of
email or forms on-line for feedback.
I once wrote to a TV show and the postcard was refused and returned.
The refusal stamp referred to the web page. So much for "keep those
cards and letters coming in".
I presume there are two reasons for discouraging conventional mail:
1) cost, 2) safety.
A letter requires someone of reasonable skill to read it, analyze it,
take action, and write a letter back. That's expensive. Web page
forms have check off boxes and subject selections to speed handling.
A response can be quickly banged in on a terminal, and the email
forwarded electronically to the proper dept, or tallied automatically
for statistics.
I also suspect companies simply aren't as interested in what the
general public thinks, especially unsolicited comments. They depend
on specially chosen focus groups and marketing studies which
admittedly are probably more accurate than a random receipt of written
comments.
Secondly, I recall the anthrax scare of 9/11. Organizations were very
nervous of mailed dangers. Other countries suffered with mail bombs.
>From the consumer point of view it certainly is easier to bang out an
email from an on-line form on the Web. But is it as effective? Well,
I wrote two traditional letters and we'll see what kind of response I
get.
| ![followup on US Mail decline [telecom]](/images/header.jpg)
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