Here are some email communication strategies that could preserve sales opportunities, friendships, and peace of mind:
1) Quick Acknowledgment
Regardless of your communication style, if you can't fully respond to the brunt of emails you receive amidst a hectic day, at least acknowledge reception of the email. Send a quick note to the other party such as, "I received your message, traveling 'til Tuesday evening, will respond at length then." Offering such a message might help reduce potential anxiety on the part of the sender.
Often, when people send an email and don't get a response for days, a number of thoughts run through their heads. Has my email been lost someplace in cyberspace? Is my issue or concern deemed low priority or inappropriate? By acknowledging your reception of an email that you can't respond to right away, you not only tell the other party that you are true professional, you also stave off them sending a second and possibly third follow-up to determine why they hadn't heard from you.
2) Rerouting and Acknowledgment
If you're not the right party to have received such a message or you know how the sender can get the issue resolved quickly, and you can answer within a couple sentences, again, go ahead and fire off a quick response. The recipient will be thankful.
Indicating that you are not the correct person to have received this request gives the other party news they can use. If you can point them to the right party and offer them an email address, URL link, or phone number, then you have most aptly served them.
3) Completing What You Start
When you are the right party and can address the issue immediately, do your best to handle the task in one fell swoop. Whether it takes five, 10, 15 minutes or more, once you delve into the issue at hand, and are providing some type of solution, or at least appropriate response to the sender, seek to complete the task then and there.
Any other method of proceeding means that you lose some productivity. Think in terms of completing entire units of work, via email or any other task, and your whole day will always go better.
4) Establishing Email Signatures
Develop a comprehensive set of email signatures that answer frequently asked questions. Nearly every email software program today enables you to save a variety of signatures, also known as closing statements, that automatically appear once you finish the body of the email and click on the appropriate signature link.
You can have email signatures for your biography, for explanations of what you or your company does, for prices, for service lists, for hours of operation, and so on.
5) Reviewing Before Sending
When leisurely corresponding with a friend, or frequent associate, look over your email one more time before sending it off. We've all made the mistake of sending messages to soon. It could be that we left out an important word, committed an error in logic, or, heaven forbid, sent something off that made no sense whatsoever.
Jeff Davidson, MBA, CMC, aka "The Work-life Balance Expert" offers keynote presentations and workshops on a creating work-life balance, managing the pace with grace, and thriving in a hyper-accelerated world. He has spoken to Fortune 50 companies such as Lockheed and IBM, and to American Express, Westinghouse, America Online, and Wells Fargo.
You may also be interested in: "Is work taking over your personal life?"
"Boost your business potential on Twitter"
"Sales lessons from 'The Wolf of Wall Street'"
