Earlier this week, our mail service provider (the one with the primate as its mascot) suspended my account. Apparently, we’ve violated the Acceptable Use Policy, though we’ve no idea why and, at the time of writing, we’d still not been given an indication of where we’ve fallen foul of the rules. 

My team and I have scoured the small print and we can’t find anything we’ve done wrong. We suspect it’s an automated decision – essentially, a chimp-shaped bot has malfunctioned. 

There are evergreen lessons to be learned from this – ones that can benefit us all. 

1. IF THERE’S A PROBLEM, COMMUNICATE PROPERLY AND RESOLVE SWIFTLY! 
I pay $72 a month to this service provider. That might be small fry to them, but there are plenty of lower cost – and free – alternatives I could switch to. The least they could do is communicate with me in a reasonable timeframe. 

This is the problem with automated services… it’s too easy to rely on them too much and get lazy. Since being locked out yesterday, just past noon, we’ve had nothing but automated responses. They’ve ticked their ‘response box’, but we’re left with no answers, feeling frustrated and trying to explain to people why their emails haven’t arrived. 

2. REPUTATION. REPUTATION. REPUTATION. 
I’ve been recommending this service provider for years and now, in one fell swoop, I feel massively let down, disillusioned and I’m struggling to find good reason to stay with them, let alone steer more clients their way. It can take years to build a solid reputation, and only seconds to trash it. 

3. BACK UP YOUR DATA REGULARLY. 
We’ve been lucky. We could still get into the system and export our mailing lists so, if we do need to switch to another provider, we’re good to go. That’s not always the case, so please do be vigilant and securely keep copies of anything you might need (whilst sticking to GDPR guidelines, of course). 

4. DO NOT RELY ON AUTOMATION IN PLACE OF GOOD CUSTOMER CARE. 
I think we’ve pretty much covered that one. Don’t be taken in by all the automation hype. Just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should. 

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve ever learned from someone else’s blunder or poor customer care? And, if you were in our shoes, would you keep feeding this service provider their bananas, or move to a different jungle? 

Until next time, 

#UnleashYourAwesome 

Taz X
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