Someone’s communication skills need work.
This morning, while going through my email, I found two messages sent three minutes apart by the same person using the contact form on the Flying M Air website.
4:50 PM:
I have 3000 hours helicopters and airplanes. Loving opportunity to meet with someone
4:53 PM:
I have 3000 hours and helicopters and fixed wing I would love an opportunity to speak with someone.
The form offers a place for the person trying to contact me to include his name and phone number, which he did.
My questions:
- If he wanted to talk to someone and it was within normal business hours, why didn’t he just pick up the damn phone and call? “Speaking” means either using the phone or arranging a face-to-face meeting. It doesn’t mean sending an email message. The contact form page includes both of Flying M Air’s phone numbers, right at the top under the heading “By Phone.” It seems to me that although he said he would “love an opportunity to speak to someone,” he had that opportunity then and still has it right now. In fact, anyone with a phone has that opportunity when the phone number is right there in front of their face. Maybe his phone doesn’t dial out?
- What did he want to talk about? He’s a pilot — probably not a potential client. What would motivate me to call him? He never said what he wanted to talk about. And no, I’m not interested in calling pilots I don’t know to chat about flying and careers with them. Read this blog. Don’t you think I’m a little busy with other things? Don’t you think I’m entitled to spend my time on things that are important to me and my business?
This paragraph appears right above the contact form this person used to email me.Did he want to talk to someone about a job? If so, he also managed to miss the Help Wanted link right above the email form. If he had clicked that, he would see that Flying M Air is not hiring pilots unless those pilots can come to Washington with a helicopter for a month starting in June to dry cherries. And if he had a helicopter, why wouldn’t he mention that?
So what am I supposed to do? He says he’d like the opportunity to speak to someone. He has it. He didn’t ask me to call. He didn’t tell me what it was about. He didn’t give me any reason to get in touch with him. I’m not even motivated to answer his email message.
And yes, I’m ranting. How could I not rant when I’m faced with such bullshit?
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I think that he is looking for “Match dot com”. Just reply with “Our rates are the same for talking as for flying. How long did you want to talk?”
I tell you, I get so many phone calls from people who just want to pick my brain. The other day, I talked on the phone for at least 15 minutes with a man who was determined to develop a bladder fuel tank retrofit for Robinson Helicopters that was cheaper than Robinson’s offering. When I pointed out that no Robinson would be without the new tanks within about 10 years and that it would likely take years for him to get his product developed, tested, and approved by the FAA, his brain just shut off. He didn’t seem to care that the market was shrinking on a daily basis. He kept asking me about insurance costs, looking for an angle to market his non-existent (yet) product. What the hell? Maybe I should start taking credit cards at the beginning of these advice calls. Sheesh.
It’s one of the drawbacks of being a blogger. Suddenly, everyone seems to think that you’re a source of free information. Sure I am. Read my blog.
Don’t bother yourself wondering if you should reply. The message is structured in a way that suggests it is spam. I would trash the comment and forget about it.
Already trashed. But I’m not sure if it was spam. After all, he mentioned his flight time credentials. Typical spam, doesn’t go into that kind of detail. But then again, maybe it was a lure to get me to call. But why? If he wanted to talk to me — even to sell me something — why didn’t he just call? Or maybe the goal was to get my email address for future spam? In any case, I did not reply. And haven’t gotten any phone calls.
Whatever.