An Old-timey Under-used Tool for Communicating with Complex Bureaucracies

The Sneaky Power of the Letter

Communicating with complex bureaucracies, whether business or government, always presents a challenge. Large organizations employ gatekeepers. The job of the gatekeepers is to limit your ability to interfere with the efficient operation of the organization. These gatekeepers often inadvertently make accomplishing even simple goals frustratingly complex. An under-used (and thus often effective) tool for communicating with complex bureaucracies is the old-fashioned letter.

As technology has advanced, the number of communication channels used in business has increased, some going out of fashion and others coming in. For years, I have avoided calling government agencies or large corporations on the phone because of the incomprehensible phone menus and lengthy wait times. Email is sometimes effective, but more and more bureaucracies shield their employees from outside email. The organization may spam you with email, but you cannot email them.

I am fond of web chat systems because they are often under-used and I don’t get the lengthy delays associated with a phone call. Some companies are now fielding service issues by text messaging, but they tend to employ annoying robot questions similar to the phone menus and texts can vanish into the void.

Dissatisfied with current alternatives, I have recently been turning more and more to the old-fashioned letter. I am talking about a letter printed on paper and sent through the mail. In this day of modern technology, the paper letter can do wonders.

Recently I have had minor issues with the Social Security Administration and with a major cable TV company. They weren’t life and death issues. I needed minor changes in records or billing that weren’t of great import, but could not remain uncorrected forever without more serious consequences.

In each case, I wrote a letter. I explained my problem, and if necessary, included any documents that I might have made an attachment to an email. I dropped the letter in the mailbox, keeping an electronic copy of the correspondence on my computer. I then waited.

At this point it wass up to the recipient to contact me, and they do. In the case of…