Responding to Users

By Sangeeta Gupta, Ron Kim, Abdallah Hassan and Marijke Hallo de Wolf
May 2001

The next step after setting up a mechanism to organize user feedback and other incoming information is to set rules for their adequate response, including issues on time frame, mechanisms and the staff member responsible for the response.

The nature of the response will depend on the kind of information requested. For example, information acquired from a feedback form may not require a response at all, while a specific question from a "request for information" e-mail may require a personalized response.

Response mechanisms

Generic electronic response messages. As previously mentioned, feedback or survey forms may simply require an automated response message that acknowledges receipt of the information. An inquiry about a specific subject may be responded with a more generic message if it's a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ), to which you can simply send a short pre-scripted message directing the user to the FAQs section of your Web site.

Personalized e-mail response

Incoming information that is of a more qualitative or substantive nature may require a more personalized response.

Time frame of response

Depending on the nature of the incoming user information and the response mechanism you will use to respond, you can identify the adequate time frame of the response. Generic electronic response messages are automatically generated, and thus are of an immediate nature. Personalized responses may take from two to five days to respond, depending on the nature of the inquiry (i.e., if it is an inquiry that requires some internal research, the Web manager or person in charge of responding to the inquiry may need more time than when answering an inquiry already found in the FAQs section).

Channeling the information

Part of the response process is identifying the staff member in your organization that has the information or authority necessary to either respond to the request of information, or make use of the incoming user information. For example, when receiving unsolicited CVs or institutional information via the generic or Webmaster address, you may want to forward it to the staff member in charge of administrative or project coordination activities who would know the staff needs of each. Another example would be forwarding inquiries about particular subjects to the person in charge of handling that subject in the organization.

Keeping track of responses

As part of organizing the information related to users communication, it may be useful to keep a database of responses for future reference. This may only mean adding a field in the database of incoming information that specifies the date of the response, the person in charge of the response, and the actual response. This kind of information may serve as a reference to facilitate the response of other similar inquiries or other user feedback.