I believe I’m a resourceful person. I try to find answers on my own through support pages, FAQ, research, search engines, and other resources.

But we can’t find everything we need. We may need to contact people who have the information or the knowledge stored in their brain cells or on the computer’s hard drive.

A Story… a Story…

I visited several large sites in need of reaching someone. They had no contact information whatsoever. At best, they’d have “info@”, “sales@”, or “support@.” I found an email address like this that worked for one of my contact needs.

It bounced.

… And it bounced the next day (just in case the server was hiccupping).

… … And it bounced again more times than Tigger.

So I went to the mother ship site and looked for a contact there. Hey, I was determined to serve my client well! Found a generic email address (info@) and within 30 minutes, I received a reply from the head executive along with two others!

The executive cc’d others and provided the contact’s name and email address. That person had the info I need. Another person asked where I had found the original email (the Tigger one) address as it wasn’t supposed to be a valid one. It was in a few press releases from this year as well as on a web page somewhere.

Why Didn’t You Figure out the Email Address?

It only took about a week to land the right contact. Oh sure, I know how to figure out email addresses and have done it many times. In this case, the only name I had was a big shot and I didn’t want to bug him.

I remember once emailing someone and received the response of “How did you get my email address? It wasn’t public knowledge and only insiders know it. You must work here.” Yikes.

Make It Easy to Reach You

Amazon is massive. Yet, I never had trouble contacting the company when needed. The company does a good job with its customer service emails. Other companies like T-Mobile have an awful script that sounds condescending, over-sugary, and provides more wasteful content than helpful.

No one should have to work hard to find out how to contact you. What if it’s a PR opportunity? Potential customer? You just never know.

Ensure people can find you with these in mind:

• Include Contact in your main or global navigation.
• List contact information on every page. What kind of information depends on your business and your customers. Local businesses probably should list the street address along with a link to an interactive map so people can figure out how to get there with minimal work. Bonus points for listing hours of operation. Smart retailers include a toll free number on the top of every web page and any place where it’s logical to have contact information.
• Consider your visitors’ contact preference. Some call. Some email. Some even fax. You may not use the method much, but unless you want to cut yourself off from potential business — be open to what the person contacting you wants.
• List an email address. You might have a form (like I do) to avoid spammers. Some forms, however, have too many fields and turn off the visitor.

No company is “too big” or “too much of a hot shot” for people to contact them. We’re not asking for the email addresses for the likes of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

One more bit of advice: Even if it takes time for you to find the answer to someone’s question or you can’t respond in full within a day or two, respond to the person and let them know you’re on the case. We should all apply this habit in every aspect of our lives.

A friend wanted to know the status of her order as many of us had received ours. She received no response in over four days. Yet, I received a reply within a day (my order was missing one thing).

Yes, technology compels us to expect responses within two days. We just have to make do and it only takes a moment to say, “Got your message. I’ll get back to you within a week or so.”

I appreciate companies and organizations that take advantage of the Internet to make it easy for customers. This list includes Amazon, Carter Blood Care, and a non-profit organization that lets customers go to its web site to schedule a donation pickup.

The other option is to navigate the nightmare of an IVR system. I discovered an IVR system for the first time in the early ’90s and this wasn’t a trend I looked forward to. Read how difficult it is to work with an IVR system through the relay service. The entry also refers to two positive stories.

Good Experience explains that customer service isn’t the same as the customer experience.

Businesses need to offer multiple ways to reach them for help or support. Online AND telephone support. Though we prefer to reach a human without navigating the IVR system, realistically — some companies can’t handle the amount of calls they get and need help. IVRs aren’t going away. The key thing is for businesses to provide multiple contact routes and make it easy to find their contact information online.

Church of the Customer Blog shares many stories related to customer service. An important factor is for companies to listen to the blogosphere and the web about what people say about their products or brand. Looks like my old post on Earthlink picked up recently — but I’ve yet to see Earthlink respond.