I’m far from perfect in my business methods, but one thing I’ve tried to do is maintain timely communication. Nothing is more frustrating to me than sending an e-mail or leaving a voice mail and not hearing anything for several days, and I don’t want to cause that frustration for someone else.
There’s a few reasons I can think of that someone would intentionally delay replying to a message:
Don’t have all the information at hand
Maybe you’re waiting on a little piece of information before replying even though you have most of what the other person needs, or maybe you’re not exactly sure what the solution to a problem that’s being experienced is. Either way, sending a quick message of acknowledgement will calm nerves and let the other person know you’re on it.
Avoidance
You knew this message would come and you know they won’t like your reply. They’re order is delayed, or something has been lost and can’t be replaced in a timely manner. Regardless, delaying a reply to avoid the situation can only make things worse.
Exerting Control
Not replying right away, or at all, could be a way of showing that you have more power than the other person. Replying could show that even though you have limited time you still reliably engage with employees and clients - improving your image and making sure you’re in the loop.
Procrastination
You read or hear a message and know you need to reply to it. You probably even think of what the reply will be. But you don’t send the message. By procrastinating, you waste a ton of time re-thinking about the situation or worse never getting it off your mind when you’re trying to focus on other more important tasks. If it takes less than two minutes, why not just reply to it now?
I think clients really do appreciate fast replies, even if the communication isn’t 100% perfect. You’ll be known as someone they can go to when they have a question that needs answering, have a problem that needs to be solved, or need an opinion about a potential new and exciting project (that you can then be chosen to work on!).
Or maybe there’s an even better way to show clients you care?
I completely agree. Nothing is more frustrating than waiting days for a response to an email, and knowing that the person has been checking their email during that time. I’ll admit that I’m guilty of this sometimes too, but I try to avoid it whenever I can.
As a side note, this should also apply to etiquette for things like craigslist. I recently had a situation where I had to wait days between email responses when just trying to set up a time and location to meet a seller.
Thanks for the comment. Definitely not perfect, but following some lines of thought like “touch an e-mail only once” and then delegate, defer, or deal with it can help people avoid wasting time and procrastination - and get people a response quick. But have also seen the blank stare of someone staring at an Inbox with 1000+ e-mails waiting for response, they just seem to give up…
Sorry to hear about the bad experience, though I guess the seller didn’t want to sell the item too badly!
Hey Brian, I just surfed onto your blog and found this post. I completely, 100% agree with you. Great post!