With e-mail we're limited to words. Another challenge is that we can never be certain that the person with whom we think we're corresponding is actually the person they say they are. Mike Manes shares a lesson he learned about poor customer service.

In the 19th century, businesses had three communication options: The Pony Express, Western Union, and (rarely) the telephone. With the Pony Express, at best you had to wait days or weeks for a response — a lot like a producer trying to cold-call senior executives today.

With Western Union, telegrams had to convey their message in a limited number of words. Today a marketing letter might get through, but the executive has little time to read it and it doesn’t display your verbal communication skills.