spam n.: Electronic junk mail or undesired electronic messages.

CS acronym:  Customer Service (or Support) team.

CSPAM n.: “Junk” email sent to the Customer Service team.

 

Circa 2006, the Customer Service team at Cooking.com created CSPAM: an email subject line prefix to help organize the team members email inbox.  CSPAM was added to an existing assortment of email subject line prefixes when we identified a need to help the team filter and create rules for select uh *cough* email, which could include;

• Humor (Keep it clean folks – check with your Technology Terms of Use and/or Employee Reference Guide).
• Lunch inquiries, orders, and pick UPS.
• Potluck sign ups (any excuse is a good excuse to have a CS potluck!).
• Open email chains;
  • Sometimes used among the team for congratulation, celebrations, or condolence.
  • Post-training discussions or sharing product testing experiences.
  • Early “Social Media”, message board, “Pole the Audience” life-line where the team could ask questions they are having trouble finding answers too.

This allowed those who didn’t want to participate (or who would rather focus on work!) to do so and keep their inbox uncluttered.  This also gave the supervisor staff some visibility (as long as email was sent to the entire team).

Posts categorized with CSPAM will include little topics and anecdotes of my experience that may assist with yours.  Open dialog and pot luck invitations are encouraged!