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Business Connections
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WINTER 2017
7
RULES OF
THUMB FOR
TIMELY
RESPONSES
In the business world, how
quickly you should reply to an
email or return a phone call
depends on the nature of the
communication. But it’s never
acceptable to not respond at all
to people:
• You are doing business with
• You want to do business with
• That can refer business to you
• Who were referred
Conventional wisdom says to
respond in a timely manner,
often defined as 24 to 48 hours,
to emails and calls. If you don’t
have an immediate answer to a
question, reply to acknowledge
receipt of the email or phone
message and give a time frame
of when you’ll be able to
respond completely.
What’s in it for you if you get
back to people promptly? It
fosters a reputation of reliability,
and paints you as a professional
who’s considerate of others. In
fact, since ignoring emails and
calls is now so commonplace,
simply responding in a timely
way can put you way ahead of
your competition.
When you’re getting buried in emails each day,
it may seem like an impossible dream to keep
up with all the filing, deleting, forwarding, and
responding. You know you should reply to that
customer’s request or that supplier’s question,
but you can’t seem to find the time.
A good place to start is by studying what’s typi-
cally found in your inbox. If there are hundreds
(or thousands) of emails in your inbox right
now, you could have an issue that needs to be
addressed. Consider the following strategies:
• Take a close look at your spam filter. Does it
need to be upgraded or the settings changed?
• Are there newsletters you receive regularly
that are no longer of value to you? Unsub-
scribe to them.
• Are you being copied in on communications
unnecessarily? Be clear with colleagues about
which projects require emails to be sent to you
and which do not.
• Do you fail to designate adequate time for
email management? Set aside time each day
or week to organize emails, and create a re-
minder on your computer or mobile device.
Your approach to dealing with each email is also
vitally important. Efficiency experts generally
recommend you check emails periodically, but
not constantly, during the workday. Scan them
quickly to determine which are most urgent/
important, then read them in order of priority.
The goal is to read each email once and act on
it—either by replying, filing, or deleting. If you
can’t immediately act on a particular email, use
the time you’ve set aside for email management
to complete this task.
The bottom line is this:
Don’t let email reduce
your productivity.
Instead, manage
it more carefully
so that you have
the time to
effectively com-
municate with
those people
most critical to
your business
success.
Sound
Strategies
for
Management