Dan Janal
Publicity Speaker
There are pundits going around telling people to not read email in the morning.
They insist that email is:
1. Useless
2. Time consuming
3. Distracting
4. Low priority
5. Takes away valuable time from your “big ideas”
Some pundits even say you should have an auto response email that says, in essence, “My time is more valuable than yours and I’m working on something that is more important than whatever you are writing about. I’ll get back to you whenever I feel like it in the next day or two – maybe.”
Of course, they phrase it in pseudo-speak, right out of George Orwell to sound like, “Your email is very important to me. But due to the number of emails I receive, I check emails only once a day and will respond within 2-3 business days.”
Yes, you can tell your email is really important to them.
Of course, I could spend half my life debunking pundits and their insanely contradictory theories, but I will tackle this one.
I always check email first thing in the morning – and sometimes before I go to bed at night. I also check hundreds of times a day – the messages come in to me automatically, not on a time delay.
Why?
My business runs on my customers.
If they have a problem, then I have a problem. I want to solve it quickly.
If they place an order, they deserve to have it acknowledged quickly and acted on rapidly.
If a new prospect has a question, you better answer it before the next competitor does!
If a reporter emails, I better respond quickly or else!
Maybe my business is different than yours. But I think respecting and responding to customers and prospects has to be a top priority for anyone in business.
Email this to your favorite pundits. Maybe they’ll read it after they finish all their “important” work.
Save time
I completely agree. We respond to emails as quickly as possible. It is a critical method of fast communication.