Technology can only do so much, and sometimes, human nature has to play a role. There are times when a technology isn’t being implemented properly because of cultural or social issues, and there are many situations where we have to change our cultural habits to accommodate new technologies.

In the early days of computer telephony integration, there were examples of call center agents who received screen pops on their desktops providing them with information on the caller’s name and what they’re calling about, and the agents would answer the phone based on this information. “Hello, Mr. Jones, I see you have a problem with your credit card statement, and since you’re a platinum card holder, I’d be happy to assist you.” Instead of rejoicing at this recognition, customers got flustered, wondering how the agent knew who they were, and the time it took for the agent to explain about screen pops eliminated the expected time savings that screen pops are supposed to provide. Some companies stopped using screen pops altogether, but generally most call center agents went back to using a neutral greeting so they wouldn’t alarm the callers.

In the world of unified communications, presence and IM, new etiquette rules are being developed, both formally and informally. I’ve heard of many companies where it’s considered rude to call someone without sending an IM first to see whether it’s a good time to call. Most companies haven’t formalized these rules, but I expect to see more and more companies promoting “best practices” or “etiquette guides.”

Microsoft has a wonderful “Instant Messaging Etiquette Guide” that provides general guidelines. For example, some tips for politeness when using IM include:
•    If you are initiating the IM, it’s generally considered polite to ask the other person if they have time to “talk” with you. This may not be necessary with someone you work with frequently and when the question is quick, as opposed to something requiring discussion.
•    Don’t invite someone to join a conference in progress without first asking the others in the conference if it’s OK to do so.
•    Don’t use all capital letters to type your message. It’s the IM equivalent of shouting (note: this goes for twitter, Facebook, etc.).

Social and personal issues are often the reasons why technologies fail to be adopted, despite the quality and reliability of the technology itself. I often hear from enterprise workers that they don’t want to use UC (particularly presence capabilities) because they don’t want people knowing their status or because they don’t want to be interrupted if they’re working. Instead, they generally set their status to “unavailable” all the time, thus greatly reducing the value of the technology for not only that individual, but for people in their workgroups and organization. This could be avoided if everyone followed guidelines and best practices. For example, respect IM status settings. If someone’s IM status is “busy” or “away,” don’t try contacting them and disturbing them. Alternatively, recognize that just because someone’s status is “available” doesn’t mean that they can drop what they’re doing and interact with you. If someone doesn’t respond to your messaging request, it probably means they’re busy, even if they’re status shows that they are available.

Microsoft also suggests: “If you’re carrying on too many IM conversations at once, those you’re corresponding with may feel that you’re not giving them the proper amount of attention. No more than three conversations at a time is a general rule.” I suggest that contact centers also follow this rule – I’ve stopped using the web chat option for customer service because too often the agent I’m chatting with for service is also helping several other customers at the same time, causing delays in the chat and making it a very lengthy and unpleasant experience.

One of my personal guidelines is that after going back and forth on IM for a long time, it’s generally easier to have a live conversation, and UC users can easily click-to-communicate to have a phone or conference call.

What all of this points to is the need to consider human factors in any design. Success in a UC project will come not just from buying the best hardware and software, but from designing the best solution. As we are dealing with new tools that will allow people to do their jobs in new ways, we need to address the issue of how we help people to use these tools in the most effective way. People know their telephone etiquette, but part of our UC deployment plan has to look at how we teach UC etiquette.

Tags: Unified Communications //