HAL hasn't happened. But one piece of Jupiter's report raises still deeper questions about the management of feedback email. While it was digging into the costs of running automated email systems, Jupiter found that some email automation solutions left customer service staff working more slowly with email than with old-fashioned telephone calls. I've never seen research comparing the cost of email and telephone responses to an identical customer problem. But such research might make interesting reading.
Most managers assume they'll cut costs by moving interactions out of the call centre and onto email.
Jupiter's work hints that this might be a myth. My own experience with email systems suggests a substantial slice of site visitor feedback is best dealt with by phone. Now is a good time to start figuring out just when email is really the right tool for the job. At night he likes nothing more than to tinker with his web site using the latest software. His columns contain a wealth of information for wanna-be webmeisters.