My sister works for an outfit (Rassah knows which one) that ships products to convenience stores like 7-11. She recently got promoted from being on the floor to an office-type position scheduling the fleet of drivers. I asked her how many emails she handles a day in that capacity. She said 2-3 hundred, of which she said she could handle more, for she's bored shitless and prefers to be back on the floor where it's more challenging, albeit pays less.
I asked her how she does it, and she said it's easy. I answer all that I know the answer to, and the ones I don't, I know which person should know the answer and pass the email to them. She also said a couple times she's sent to an incorrect person, but they relayed the email to correct department to make sure the concern is addressed properly.
And my sister's an idiot! Not in the derogatory sense, but knowing her command of the English language, making the classical mistakes we've all seen here (allot, their/there/they're, etc.). Yet, she handles the position well enough, allowing the system to function properly. Out of the pool of people wanting the position, she was the most qualified.
Now, if I'm not mistaken, there's no less than 6 people doing customer service at BFL. 500 emails a day divided by 6 people is... Divide that by 8 hours, and you have...
Again, not a diss, and did not take the time to proofread this post.
~Bruno K~
You can also write a generic email for certain types of common queries and mail merge it - so you can literally reply to 100s of emails with the same type of query at the same time (the program fills in user-specific data). This allows you plenty of time to write individual responses to the few emails which actually need them.
I just asked my sister if she uses generic responses, and she asked me...wait for it...what are generic responses? I told you! (see main post above) After I briefly explained to her what they were, she seemed to agree that that could work, but most the time the questions and concerns consist of unique situations, therefore she's forced to respond to them personally. BTW, she does this task while using the phone when talking to drivers and vendors. And she's still bored shitless. She's planning on taking some craft project to work with her so she can work on it during the free time.
Apologies for the aside above, and now the following. She asked a co-worker if there's anything else she could do in the office. The co-worker who does half the amount of work and gets paid more than my sister (assumed, due to position) told her no and to keep her mouth shut.
