Surface Ripples

Handling Replies

In this age of 24/7 email, it’s all too easy for us to be “deluged” with emails from any number of people. 

When I first started using email back in the 1990s, all I had were my corporate email (and that was an “in-house only” system, which did not allow us to send emails to people outside the employer’s network until later) and my personal “public domain” email.

Since those days, I’ve added two more personal email addresses (for different purposes), my own consultancy business email and my other business email, bringing me to a total of two corporate email addresses and three personal ones!

I receive email in each.  Some require responses, some are for information only and others are “junk”. The trick is in handling responses.

One of my former employers had a standard for responding to email requests: two working days if no deadline was specified.  Even if we could only send a “holding reply”, at least the sender knew we had received their message and were acting on it.  This was considered “professional”.  Not only is it “professional”, it’s also courteous and shows the sender that we take them seriously.  Personally, if I feel someone doesn't take my requests seriously, I move on to someone who will. 

Fast forward to the current age and things seem to be very different.  Part of the problem seems to be caused by email systems sending emails from “unknown senders” to one’s “junk” or “spam” folders. This can be for any number of reasons which I won’t go into here.

From a customer service and professional point of view, we should have both corporate and personal standards for replying.  My personal standard is that, if I need a response by a certain deadline, then I ask for it by that deadline.  If I email someone without giving them a deadline in which to respond, I will generally chase after one or two weeks, depending on the urgency. Luckily I have a highly evolved follow-up system to ensure that I do chase.

For all of us in service industries, we should have response standards.  Some organisations send out an automated response to every email stating that it will be handled within a certain number of working days.  This is fine, provided that said follow up does occur. My experience is that most of the time, it does.

Does your organisation have “standards” for responding to emails with or without deadlines? If not, how might you change things?

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website  provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  

Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Selling

posted by William Martin @ 07:49