Wow .. never for once have I thought CEOs read emails!

[Jlu]

It is very difficult to get past what sales people call 'gate-keepers'. We call them that because these are the people hired to filter the information that gets to the top of the food chain. Generally they are secretaries, office managers, or department managers. At big corporations there is a long chain of command and the only way to bypass this is to have either a direct relationship with the CEO or if there is nobody else that is able to solve your issue. Of course there are a lucky few who get past the gate-keepers however it is a rare occurence.

Anyways I'm glad you got your CLI. I was just pointing out that fact that CEO's are human and they do have feelings and compassion contrary to popular belief.

[Revelate]

It's almost always delegated, many years ago I worked in the executive service queue at Dell for folks that somehow got bounced around so much they wound up at Michael Dell's office; it's not so much that the CEO will be handling your issue, but the people representing them have some additional leeway to make the issue right vs. what the typical CS agent is empowered to do.  

VP's in financial institutions are a dime a dozen, typically ministers without portfolio (title but no executive or even management responsibilities).  I don't know why that system came about but it's true both here in the US and in the UK at least, probably elsewhere too.

[CreditPacMan]

The only thing I was referring to is that you could get your problems (real problems) resolved by writing an email to the CEO. I again say that I did not want a CLI from the CEO but I was trying to deliver a message. And yes, the email was received by both CEOs and in both times I got a call from an executive. I really doubt secretaries have access to the CEOs emails. This is not an email where fans send thank you emails for the great service they're getting .. this is an actual and official business email!

[ccb2115]

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@altayar wrote:

The only thing I was referring to is that you could get your problems (real problems) resolved by writing an email to the CEO. I again say that I did not want a CLI from the CEO but I was trying to deliver a message. And yes, the email was received by both CEOs and in both times I got a call from an executive. I really doubt secretaries have access to the CEOs emails. This is not an email where fans send thank you emails for the great service they're getting .. this is an actual and official business email!

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I don't think a secretary of the office may have access to the email, but an Executive Assistant will definitely have some sort of access. Part of their job requires them to do things like sort through emails, create and respond to meeting requests, etc - all tasks that usually require them to have access to their boss's email.  Most executive assistants of these huge CEO's get paid  80k+.They are paid to keep their mouth shut  

[OwNt]

I've seen SVP's with 2 or 3 Executive Assistants before. I'm sure the CEO of a large company would have several. Part of their job is to filter out non-important email, such as yours or mine.

It is a rare occurrence that a consumer email is actually read by a CEO.

[ficojoe]

I used to work for a large company in their call center. One of my jobs during my years there was to be on a fairly small team that read the email sent to the CEO. We would call some of them back and others we would email back. If we emailed, we would sign the CEOs name. If we called, we would say that we were calling by the request of the CEO. We had the same operating parameters as every other person in the call center, so we didn't do much that couldn't be achieved by calling, then speaking to a supervisor, but often we were more willing to do more. I.e.., things like free services and billing credits were tolled up by representative and reports were regularly sent to supervisors to make sure reps were not too soft are generous in giving out credits. The CEO team was expected to give more goodwill than average... So, in my specific experience, contacting the CEO would often result in a higher chance of getting goodwill, but never anything that a sympathetic representative on the usual 800 number couldn't do for you with their supervisors approval.

[ficojoe]

By the way, at that time in my carrer, I had never met the CEO nor seen him in person. 

[ComputerWizMaster]

Like anything else there is no blanket truths in this world...

Some CEOs, just like some US Presidents, actually read the mail that comes to them and some just let their secretaries handle it. It is as varied as the individual person who has the job.

Not that I work at a bank (just a VERY large Student Housing Company) and I know for sure that if a resident emailed our CEO he would be responding himself or handing it off himself to be addressed (and it gets worked on all that much faster when the order comes direct).

I am sure some bank CEOs do read their email. Even if they don't do all of it (as I would imagine they do get a lot) they probably jump in from time to time as it is a great way for them to keep tabs on how well their initiatives are working (if you want better CS and are constantly getting angry customer emails you can see that problems still exist in the CS department, for instance)...

[ficojoe]

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@ComputerWizMaster wrote:

Some CEOs, just like some US Presidents, actually read the mail that comes to them and some just let their secretaries handle it. It is as varied as the individual person who has the job.

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I have my doubts that any modern US President reads their own mail. The volume would prevent them from doing anything else. And even then, it may be impossible for one person. Likewise, the CEO of any large company cannot read their own email. Granted, they have personal accounts and secret business accounts that only certian people know the address to. But any email address that is published, leaked, or in standard format f.joe@mycompany or fico.joe@mycompany, or anything else you could guess ends up with some sort of team whose job it is to read the CEOs email.

[trumpet-205]

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@altayar wrote:

The only thing I was referring to is that you could get your problems (real problems) resolved by writing an email to the CEO. I again say that I did not want a CLI from the CEO but I was trying to deliver a message. And yes, the email was received by both CEOs and in both times I got a call from an executive. I really doubt secretaries have access to the CEOs emails. This is not an email where fans send thank you emails for the great service they're getting .. this is an actual and official business email!

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Actually secretaries DO have access to CEO email accounts. That is part of their job descripton, to filter out not related email such as a customer email from you. CEO simply do NOT have the time to sit down and read every single email. Secretaries only left important and urgent email intact while forward the rest of the email to corresponding department.