Attention executives: We have the right to your email address

We don’t mean to get pushy, not in our third post. But this is something that needs to be said up front: If you’re an executive for a company, you don’t have the right to keep your email address private. Or your phone number. Or your postal address.

Your customers need to reach you when something goes wrong, and when your customer service department fails.

Here at On Your Side, we recommend going through channels. First, with a brief, polite email. Then a follow-up to a manager; then a note to the manager’s manager, and finally to the chief executive.

We never, ever recommend going straight to the top. We know your time is valuable. (Ours is, too.)

But in the past, we’ve seen managers change their email addresses and phone numbers to avoid customer contact. This is a bad idea.

Think about it. What does that say about you and your company if you change your email address? Not much, unfortunately.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying you have nothing to lose and everything to gain be being accessible to your customers. Trust us. We don’t just write this site — we’re customers, too!

Tagged as: Address, Email, Executive