Sometimes, an email isn't enough!

Despite constant encouragement from my wife — and the fact that I have good benefits at work — it's rare that I treat myself to anything that can be loosely defined as self-care.

Massages, acupuncture, and chiropractic are all services I should receive regularly as a very active early-30s dad, but I don’t.

It's an insufferably male trait that I hopelessly tried to correct before the end of the year.

And to get right to the point, just before Christmas, I decided to book myself in for a massage.

Good for me, right? Treat yourself!

Well, on the morning of my massage, I got an automated email from the website I used to book my appointment letting me know that my massage had been cancelled.

There was no reason given.

There was no follow-up.

And being so close to Christmas, there certainly weren't any remaining appointment slots for me to rebook.

"You gotta be kidding me," I said aloud as I read the email on my phone.

I was genuinely bummed out.

Once the initial disappointment wore off, the marketer brain in me kicked in.

"A phone call would've been nice," began my conversation with myself. "I'm not expecting a miracle here, but a simple apology and maybe even an attempt to rebook my appointment just seems like Customer Service 101, right?"

At this point, I was enthusiastically agreeing with myself.

"And I'm a first-time patient! Why wouldn't they call, apologise, and try to rebook me? Now my only impression of the clinic is a cancelled appointment and an automated, lifeless appointment cancellation email!"

I was making a lot of good points, right?

Listen, email is great for a lot of business communications, but it's not a replacement for some business communications... Especially if those communications are important.

A phone call and a chance to re-book would've made me go from "I'm never booking a massage here ever again" to "Eh, these things happen. Let's give them another shot."

Thankfully for me, there are dozens of massage clinics within a 10-minute drive of my home and work, so choices are plentiful.

But this does seem like an opportune time to suggest that your business outline scenarios — both good and bad — in which an email to a customer isn't quite enough.

A phone call at the right time has the power to turn around a bad scenario and put the cherry on top of a good scenario.

Cheers,
Andrew