Why people don't respond to email
Jeff ToisterWe all know how annoying it is to send an email to a co-worker, vendor, or even a client and not receive a response. If this happens to you, it may be helpful to know why you aren’t getting a response. Here are my top three reasons why this happens. Please leave a comment and let me know yours.
Reason #1: Your Email is Hard to Read
The sender is often to blame for a lack of responsiveness. Unsolicited emails aside, some emails just aren’t written with our busy lifestyles in mind. They contain run-on paragraphs or it’s hard to quickly decipher what the person is asking you to do. One person I know averages over 500 words per email, which is longer than this blog post!
I’ve compiled a short list of tips for writing more effective emails, but the biggest one of all is to make your email easy to read and respond to.
Reason #2: Your Email is Not Important
We all lead busy lives and are constantly reprioritizing our tasks, but most people agree that a timely response to business email is a professional courtesy. According to a survey I conducted earlier this year, 68 percent of us expect co-workers to respond to an email within four hours or less and 63 percent of us expect businesses to respond within one business day. When people don’t respond because they’re too busy, they’ve opted to do other tasks instead of replying to the sender.
I recently came across a post on a blog about business writing where the writer described a follow-up message she had received from her graphic designer. The graphic designer had emailed nearly two weeks prior, hadn't gotten a response, and so she sent another message. The blog writer felt it was a professional and thoughtful way to handle the situation. Interestingly, the writer wrote the blog post before responding to the email.
Reason #3: They Can't Handle Their Business
Many people fail to respond quickly to email because they simply don't know how to properly manage the avalanche of email they receive each day. It becomes overwhelming and email messages simply get lost in the shuffle.
The skills required to effectively manage email are well-documented, but that doesn’t mean they’re well-practiced! Here are some of my favorites that are simple and effective:
- Use an out of office message when you will be unable to respond to email within one business day. (Don’t forget to turn it off!)
- Clean out your inbox daily. Messages often get lost in cluttered inboxes. (See Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity for more fabulous tips on inbox management.)
- Dedicate several blocks of time per day to focus on email rather than constantly scanning and skimming messages. (A terrific tip from The Four Hour Workweek.)
Why else do you think people fail to respond to emails?
Reader Comments (4)
Its true that sometimes its frustrating if we dont receive a timely response when we send emails. What i usually do if i need an urgent reply is put "FLAG" as very important or i include in my message that i need an reply ASAP, because i agree with the second reason that the email is be very important to you but it might not be a big deal for them. So you have to let them know in a professional manner.
Either Flag it or make it stand out so the reader wants to read it . And dont spam!!!! Thats all I can think of, which is why I think a lot of people dont even subscribe to emails
People who haven't been close to businesses may be surprised to learn that a common reason for companies not replying to emails is that nobody is set up to receive them. Typically someone from IT sets up the mailbox, and possibly someone else puts the addresses or "Contact Us" buttons on the website. If these people aren't completely joined up, the emails received all go into a mail box that nobody is looking at.
I've challenged companies on why they didn't respond to my emails and been told that they didn't even know the address I used was published anywhere, and they didn't know who to speak to about changing it.
You should also be aware that compared to a web-based form, where they can direct you to enter the exact information they need, or the phone, where the operator can interact with you to find out exactly what's needed, email is a company's least preferred form of contact, because the sender can ramble on and on without being clear what they want, omitting details etc. Engaging with senders of emails like that is very time-consuming, and one way of discouraging emails, from the company's point of view, is to ignore them.
My view is that companies who publish email addresses for contact are morally obliged to at least acknowledge them, even if it's only to say "we'll do our best, but you might consider phoning instead".
Bob -- you are so right that general email accounts are often a black hole in many businesses.
Raw 10 Productions & Athletic Field Covers -- it's a good idea to flag something if you need an urgent reply. I doi think you have to be careful about abusing that feature. I know a couple of people who regularly mark their emails as urgent for routine correspondence. Eventually, it becomes like crying wolf.