Co-workers have high expectations for email response times

Nearly 75% of us expect co-workers to respond to emails within four hours or less, according to a recent survey conducted by Toister Performance Solutions, Inc. Almost 25% of respondents are particularly impatient, saying the expected co-workers to respond to emails within one hour. 

We give businesses a little more time to respond than our co-workers. The majority of survey respondents (63%) indicated they expected business to respond to their emails within one day.

The survey also tried to see if different generations of workers had different expectations for email response times. Expectations across all generations were similar for businesses, but Gen Ys (born 1978 or later) tended to expect faster response times from their co-workers. Nearly 35% of Gen Y respondents said they expected co-workers to respond to their emails within one hour:

The survey also asked how quickly people expected their friends to respond to emails. Here, there was a bit more leeway with more than 90% of the respondents saying 1 day or later.

What are your impressions?
Our expectations for response times clearly have some implications on customer service, both external (emailing businesses) or internal (emailing co-workers). Your thoughts and comments are most welcome.

Comments

[John Curran, MBA]

This survey was a wonderful example of a great customer experience. Unlike a survey I recently took for CBSNews regarding their website, which seemingly went ON and ON forever (seeing a progress bar on top of each page was not encouraging) this study consisted of two questions. AND the analysis was available by the time many folks returned from their Memorial Day Weekend, which helped to keep it top-of-mind!

One thing I've noted, some companies have had success using an auto-responder to acknowledge receipt of an email inquiry. An additional escalation option may also be provided, with an alternate point-of-contact if the proposed time horizon won't meet the customer's perceived need.

What say you?

[Jeff Toister]

Thanks for the comment, John. My apologies for a delayed response to your comment - it seems I've found an email "black hole" of my own where I wasn't tracking blog comments while I was on vacation. It definitely shows we can all learn.

You are right on track with the use of an auto-responder. It has the effect of setting the customer's expectations on when a response should be expected. And, giving options is always a nice idea since it makes the customer feel more in control.

I'm glad you enjoyed the survey!