I recently read a question on an industry message board asking members "What should be the expected/average response time for email and phone calls?" The responses were very interesting and ran the gamut from within 24 hours to 1-3 hours. This got me thinking about the standard for TD's who are on the road all the time and potentially have limited access to email and voice mail while they are working.
I hope most meeting and hospitality professionals who hire TD's realize that responding within 24 hours much less 1-3 hours is not always realistic. I have reviewed many corporate freelance staff policies and interviewed many INTD members who all say that most of their employers prefer they not make or take personal calls while on duty. In most cases checking email is extremely limited if not almost impossible on-site. When was the last time you had the opportunity to sit at a computer while on the road?
The downside to this is many meeting professionals responsible for hiring TD's need an answer quickly or if you are the last to respond to a job posting does that limit your chances? I find very few TD's activate an auto responder to their email account to let people know they are out of the “office”. So…by not responding quickly could potentially cause someone to lose out on a really great job opportunity.
This is the reason it was extremely important to offer text email messaging to our members. The hope is if a TD is not able to check email and does not have a blackberry, employers can send INTD members a quick text email message via their cell phone. I am really hoping this feature will take off and be a great benefit to our members.
Just like anything new, using this technology will take time. If you think this is something that would be helpful while you are traveling, be sure to enable this feature by logging into your account and posting your personal text email address in the "home base information" section.
What are your thoughts regarding this topic?
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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Alison
ReplyDeleteYou bring up great points. As a travel director of 10 years, i have found that the more I can stay in communication with Meeting planners, the more likely i am to get the best jobs.
I say that it is imperative that you at least acknowledge the email within 24 hours, especially if you don't have an auto responder on saying you are on the road. My thought and the thoughts of many event planners is that if you are not responding within 24 hours, you may not be the staff that they want on site.
I don't feel it is too hard to get back in touch, via email, texting and good old phone call. We are more connected today than ever before, yet emails seem to go unanswered.
Regarding your innovation to put texting in place via your website to members is simply put, brilliant.
Most people have unlimited text and MMS services on their phones, if they don't it is a great 20 per month investment. You can send whole emails to a cell phone nowadays.
This should give the TD ample opportunity to respond to a job posting even if they are away from their computer. A simple, "I am available", or "I will check my calendar and let you know in 3 days" is very sufficient.
INTD is going to be very innovative and influential for TD development as well as getting the TD connected with Meeting Planners.